My GPS Camera Phone

My time with the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic is winding down and I anticipate an e-mail from the folks at WOM World any day now regarding the return of the phone. Since I’ve had the phone, I’ve put it through a rigorous test to see if it can come anywhere near my photo quality standards. Since pictures speak louder than words, I’ve pulled together a few representative photos from the Nokia 5310 and my Casio G’zOne Type-V as a control so you can see the difference in image quality for yourself.

The four images below are untouched (except for re-sizing) and directly out of the camera using default settings. I’ve attempted to shoot objects that cover four areas: bright, medium and low light, and contrasting colors. All images are shot in 1200×1600 resolution. Let’s start with the first image.

Bright light/color tones:

As previously experienced, the Casio tends to overexpose, possibly mistaking the actual light conditions with a dark object in the image. In this case, the trees at the bottom might be confusing the light meter. The Nokia 5310, however, seems to read the light level accurately and manages to capture the subtle details in the clouds without exposure problems.

The winner: Nokia 5310.

Medium light/color tones:

The office building I work in is painted this horrific color all over. Any time I’ve tried to include it in a camera phone photo, I’ve had problems where the center is a different color than the rest of the wall. This can easily be seen on the left in the sample image from the Casio. The right side depicts the photo from the Nokia 5310, which is incredibly crisp and evenly colored. The red, white and black pop against the earth-tone background and there’s no deterioration or bleeding of color, unlike the Casio image which is washed out and just blah.

The winner: Nokia 5310.

Low light/color tones:

In this case, the two exposures come out pretty close, with no major differences. The driveway lettering in the contrasting off-white appears similarly in both images, however, with a bit of that color issue coming through in the Casio image. In spite of that, I’m going to leave it up to personal preference. For a true “dark” image, see the post on shooting fireworks at night with a camera phone.

The winner: Tie

Contrasting colors:

Although this isn’t the best image, it reinforces the point about the Casio and earth tones. The Casio captured the image somewhat nicely, but still overexposed the concrete, resulting in missing details and washed-out green grass. The Nokia was able to precisely measure the contrast and compensate accordingly, resulting in a nice deep green alongside the grayish concrete, complete with the little details clearly visible in the grass and the concrete.

The winner: Nokia 5310.

Surprisingly, the Nokia 5310 comes out on top. I fully expected a phone that was so dedicated to music to be inferior in the photo department, but I was wrong. You can rock out and still take decent pictures, which raises the appeal of this phone significantly.

One interesting thing about the Nokia 5310 camera settings is that it saves a 1200×1600 image as a 4″ x 5.33″ file at 300dpi, which is the recommended resolution for printing. Most others usually default to a 16.67″ x 22.22″ file at 72dpi. (Thanks, Dan!)

Overall, the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic is a solid choice for a camera phone, providing quality images in variable light conditions. The added benefit of the removable microSD card (up to 4GB) and a simple USB connection makes high resolution photography a breeze, with no worries about available storage or file transfers.

So, get your groove on and shoot some great photos with the Nokia 5310. You won’t be disappointed.

Disclaimer: No compensation was received for this review nor is there any affiliation between T-Mobile/Nokia or Verizon/Casio and this web site. All reviews and statements herein are based on a trial/regular usage and personal experience.

Photo credit: My awesome wife, Nancy

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This was a fun exercise in Photoshop filter application. Many times, filters are overdone and abused, causing the image to look worse than it did originally. However, when applied in moderation, they can produce interesting results.

The image here was shot with my camera phone, as usual, and then edited in Photoshop CS. After a bit of cropping, I added a level adjustment layer to even out the colors. Then a single, overhead light was rendered to brighten up the center and darken the edges, adding a little more depth and drama. After that, I added a 40% pinch distortion, followed by a gentle ocean ripple. All of this was then covered up with a layer of clouds set to 15% opacity.

The image itself was a snapshot of the setting sun’s rays between the clouds as seen from my office window. (I get some great sunsets.) While the original shot was nice, I didn’t want to post another sunset photo. So I inverted it and applied the steps above, producing something that looks more like water than air.

With that said, I task you to start thinking of strange and unorthodox ways to capture photos with your camera phone. After that, try something even stranger in your favorite photo editing software. With a little imagination (and sometimes a lot of moderation!), you can produce something far beyond the ordinary.

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In the atrium of Weimer Hall on the University of Florida campus sits a dusty relic whose purpose has been overtaken by today’s modern printing methods.

No, it’s not Walter Cronkite. It’s a machine called a Linotype.

The Linotype was not a printing press, but the machine used to create type bars that created the monolithic plates for (thanks Craig!) that went into the printing press. Each line was crafted in the Linotype via molds and molten lead. The finished product was a lead line of characters which was then positioned on the plate which would do the printing.

The UF College of Journalism website has an informative story on the Linotype and the acquisition of this particular piece. Here’s a quote from the article, Historical Type, by Dean Emeritus Ralph Lowenstein:

“For about 100 years prior to the 1970s, reporters and editors from the high school newspaper to the largest metropolitan daily had memories that included the clatter of Linotypes as printers translated newsroom copy into lines of solid lead. We all had the thrill of carrying home our first byline in the reverse lettering of a line of type, or of becoming the butt of the Linotype operators’ perennial joke – handing a new reporter a line of hot type and watching the greenhorn gasp in pained surprise.”

Today, Linotype (the company) is one of the leading font foundries in existence today, boasting over 10,000 fonts, two of which are used on this website – Palatino and Helvetica.

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Image credit: Nancy

Nancy and I received a late Christmas gift to ourselves on Tuesday – cell phone data transfer software! I know, how exciting!

This is a big deal because our phones do not have removable memory or Bluetooth. (For what it’s worth, they will survive submersion for up to 20 minutes and are indestructible.) What this means is that trying to get pictures over ~300K off the phone was impossible (more on that later). Needless to say, there’s a handful of photos that I’ve been waiting to post, but couldn’t for this reason. Today’s is the first of that batch.

This was taken in October 2007 in my front yard. The photo is a long shadow of my youngest daughter, who is holding out her skirt for maximum dramatic effect. I tweaked the levels and cropped out her legs, just to the point of her feet. For extra-super-mega dramatic effect, I flipped the canvas 180 degrees. Yes, this photo is upside-down. Neato, huh? You’ve got to click the image and view the larger size to get the best view.

The Datapilot Universal Pro Kit is what I’m using now to retrieve my pictures off the phone without having to use cumbersome pix messaging. It took a few false starts to get this software running, but I’m pretty satisfied with the product. The user interface could use some work and their online knowledge base could be better, but I did have a good experience with their e-mail support. In addition to data transfer, I can also make my own ringtones! WOOO!

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Try thinking about the camera phone as a “real” camera and you’ll soon find that there’s much more to it than convenience. With a little experimenting, you can learn to work around the limitations of a camera phone and start producing high-quality photos. Here’s six tips to get you started:

1) Know the size of the capture area

The screen on a camera phone may not display all of what will end up in the final photo. There may be menu bars, clocks or other phone utilities blocking the full view. Take a few photos and see what you come up with, then experiment by shooting things that are presumably in the hidden area. You will soon realize the true edge of the viewfinder, which will lead to better photos.

2) Use the brightness adjustment for a better exposure

Play with the brightness adjustment on your camera phone to achieve different lighting levels, even if the image looks good as it is. This is an easy way to capture silhouettes or artistic overexposures.

3) Move the camera!

Although we are taught to hold still when shooting photos. moving the camera can produce some exciting images. Try moving your camera phone while shooting some bright lights or hold the camera still and shoot images of moving vehicles at night. The results will surprise you.

4) Shoot with the highest resolution and lowest compression available

Higher resolution allows you to save the image in a larger format with more data. More data means better photo quality. Lower compression may use more space, but it will retain much more data in the image. Using these settings will produce higher-quality photos.

5) Know how close you can get

Experiment with how close you can get to an object without losing focus. An arm length is a good rule of thumb, but the distance varies. Once you learn this, the process of composing a shot will be quicker and easier.

6) Treat your camera phone as if it were a top-quality dSLR

Just because it’s a camera phone doesn’t mean you can’t take quality photos. Think of your camera phone as if it were a professional dSLR. Get this in you head and you’ll see that a little attitude adjustment does wonders for image quality. Remember, it’s not the camera that takes pictures – it’s the person behind the camera that takes them.

Apply these six tips the next time you break out the camera phone and you’re bound to see instant results. Happy shooting!

Photo credit: Alexander Fediachov via Dreamstime.com