Tonight I answered a question for tomorrow’s Digital Darkroom Questions (DDQ) email newsletter (www.timgrey.com/ddq/). That’s not exactly significant, as I answer a question just about every day, and have been answering questions through this email newsletter for almost six years now (!!!).
What is significant, though, is that the question I answered is the very first question I’ve asked (as far as I recall anyway) that specifically related to the capture of photographic images with a mobile phone camera (aka cameraphone). We all know cameraphones have been developing at a very rapid pace, and you probably realize (or aren’t surprised) that there are more cameraphones out there then “normal” digital cameras.
As they get better, I wonder how long it might be before we have a cameraphone that we’ll carry in the place of a point-and-shoot digital camera. It wasn’t long ago that many of us considered that notion absurd. But as technology has developed and cameraphones get better, I think we’re getting very close to the point that even serious photographers will consider a cameraphone worthy of using for serious photography (though not at the level of digital SLRs, of course).
I think what I find most interesting about the improvement in the quality you can get from the latest and greatest cameraphones is that it challenges our thinking about what tools are needed for a particular task, and forces us to re-evaluate judgments we’ve made about whole categories of devices in the past.
As a working photographer, I find a camera phone works fine for reference photos (subjects and places I want to return to during good light with more complete photo gear). And, of course, I always have a camera with me this way. One important note, just like larger digital cameras, is that there settings in the phone’s camera that need to be set. The most notable is resolution. For everyday pic messaging, I select the lowest setting. This way the picture sends and receives quickly. The downside is that the low setting is effectively a cropping tool so I have to often back up from my subject. For a somewhat serious photo. I pick the highest resolution option, email it to my home computer and work it up in PS or whatever else I may need to do. Pretty handy!