My GPS Camera Phone

The Nokia 5610 is here and I am a happy camper. I don’t want to talk smack about my phone, but it pales in comparison when put against the Nokia 5610. I’ve had a busy week, but things slowed down enough to allow me some quality time with the new phone. So far, so good.

What I like the most about this camera phone is the capability of the camera. Weighing in at 3.2 mega-pixels, the 5610 packs a decent punch, capturing shots with reasonable quality and good exposure. It’s loaded with features (for a camera phone), including auto-focus, night mode, image sequence and a self-timer. My favorite feature, though, is its ability to shoot macro photos. See the results for yourself.

I was skeptical when I read about it and even still while previewing the photos on the phone. I was floored when they hit the computer. Seeing such detail come out of a camera phone leaves me speechless and wanting to shoot more. Personally, I like getting close to subjects and I feel disappointed when the hardware doesn’t let me do it. The Nokia 5610 doesn’t disappoint in this respect and I can’t wait to try some more photographic experimenting.

The big down side I see so far is the lack of attention to the image quality. While you could shoot images fit to size for a desktop background, you wouldn’t want to. The images at 100% reveal a chink in the armor: granulation and compression artifacts all over the place like rust eats away at a piece of steel (see below). The plus side is that the lack of quality at full-size can be compensated for by reducing the image size (as seen above), but that negates the point of having a 3.2 mega-pixel camera in the first place. With that said, I concede the fact that this is a camera phone we’re talking about, not a Nikon D300.

I’m looking forward to a lot of shooting before this thing makes it’s long journey back to England. Thanks to everyone at WOM World once again for this opportunity.

It’s time for camera phone reviews again and this time it’s the yet-to-be-released Nokia 5610 XpressMusic. Thanks to the crew over at WOM World, I’ll be receiving a shiny new 5610 this week. As I did with the 5310 XpressMusic, I’ll put myself out there as the guinea pig and suffer through hours of painstaking photography and endure hours of listening to mp3s. As an added bonus, I’ll actually do an un-boxing for you this time around, because it’s always fun to open presents with your friends.

Sporting a 3.2 mega-pixel camera, this phone is poised to take My GPS Camera Phone to a new level. Features include:

• 8 x smooth zoom
• LED flash
• Macroshot, landscape mode, sequential shots
• Dedicated 2-step capture key (not sure what this is)

I’m really looking forward to seeing what this camera phone can do with macros. The sequential shot feature also sounds fun, but I’m not getting my hopes up just yet.

In addition to a sweet camera, this GSM slider also sports an mp3 player, FM radio, high-resolution display, 8GB MicroSD expansion slot (packaged with a 2GB card) and many other features you would expect from a mid-level phone.

I’ll post more when the phone arrives sometime this week. Could the un-boxing be in video format? Maybe, just maybe.

The other day I received an e-mail from Colin at WOM World/Nokia. It said this:

I’m writing to invite you to take part in a mobile film challenge in LA on August 20th as part of a new Nokia project. We’re only inviting 4 people, and it should be a pretty exciting day, so I hope you can join us.

Basically, it’s a shot to film some death scenes for entry into the Nokia Productions movie that will be edited by Spike Lee. Yeah, how cool is that? (BTW, anyone can participate.)

To say I was excited at the opportunity is an understatement. As I was reading this e-mail, Drew from The BenSpark hit me up on GTalk, wondering if I got an e-mail from Colin. After asking him if it was legit, he said something like, “Yes and I’m going.” To my dismay, the e-mail was delivered 14 hours from the time I read it. That time gap had me a bit worried, but I replied anyway, thinking that just maybe there’s a 4th spot open.

After a restless night of sleep, I woke and checked my e-mail. Nothing. Colin was in the air on his way from England to Los Angeles and I wasn’t sure if I was going or not. I figured that I’d hear something sooner or later. That sooner or later came at about 11 am.

Another Nokia rep, Siobhan (whose name I misspelled in my e-mail reply – sorry!), contacted me and broke the news that I missed the 4th spot on the team by a few minutes, however, they would fly me out and put me up in a hotel anyway so I could take part in the event! Now that’s customer service right there. Unfortunately, there’s this lame tropical storm named “Fay” floating around my home state, threatening to close airports and make air travel miserable. Said storm caused a rush on tickets, which caused a price increase, thus prohibiting me from flying to LA.

After Siobhan broke the news to me, I was still happy that I was even considered to take part in the events they had planned. It probably worked out for the best, because I could have gotten out of Florida easily, but getting back in would be a problem, given the storm. Spending a few days in an airport isn’t all that appealing.

Instead of being there in-person, I’m going to live vicariously through Drew (though it would have been great to actually meet a fellow blogger). He assured me that many photos would be taken, so I’ll witness the excitement from a distance. Many thanks to the Nokia team for an excellent effort to get me to LA and back, but it wasn’t meant to be this time. Until then, run over to Jumpcut and join the Nokia Productions group. See if your entry makes the cut.

Photo credit: monkeytime (via Flickr), aka Michael Zara.

I was recently given the opportunity to try out the Nokia 3555 by the fine folks over at WOM World. Since playing around with free electronics is fun, I took them up on the offer. I’m also incredibly concerned for the consumer, willing to put myself in great danger to provide you with unbiased cell phone reviews.

Yes, danger. You never know when a telemarketer could call.

The good news: The 3555 is compact and has excellent sound quality comparable to a land line (from my experience). It’s slim design makes it nearly unnoticeable in your back pocket. It sports a large directory that I would never fill, a music player, expandable memory and a bunch of other standard features. The 3555 is a great phone for the light user who makes occasional calls.

The bad news: Being a camera phone photo enthusiast, I’m obviously more concerned with the camera aspect of the phone. It is apparent why the camera gets less than a page of information in the user guide – it is an embarrassment to camera phones everywhere. No flash and low resolution makes this camera phone a paper weight. If you want to shoot memorable photos with your phone, look somewhere else.

Usability: The keypad is comfortable and easy to use, with my big hands making few keying errors. The selector buttons present a bit of confusion at first, but I got used to it after a short time. What really gets me, though, is the navigation.

The phone features are displayed on the screen as icons that are somewhat vague in appearance and more vague once you select one. Without going into much detail, let’s just say that getting around this phone is not intuitive at all. Even after a few weeks of use, I still found myself searching for menu items.

When I did shoot some photos, trying to figure out how to send them elicited moments of temporary insanity. The gallery is equally mysterious and aggravating, at least when I remembered how to get there.

One thing that had me excited, albeit briefly, was the glimmer of hope that this thing shot in 1200×1600. Yes, the user guide states on the bottom of page 44, “your device supports an image capture resolution up to 1200×1600 pixels.” I’ll concede that it might be some weak interpretation of digital zoom and image capture resolution, but I’m guessing that a tech writer didn’t get the memo.

The word: The 3555 is a great phone for making calls. If you’re a superior conceptual thinker, you might be able to find your way around the phone menus. The incredible sound quality makes this phone stand out for me, and the slim form factor is a refreshing departure from the usual brick-like design of most entry-level phones. The 3555 is a decent purchase for a casual user. If you’re looking to capture those precious moments, however, be sure to bring a camera.

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