Sophomore Chris Marler poses with his self portrait, which he took with his Samsung A680 cell phone.
There are moments in life when the photographer within a person suddenly springs to life, and the desire to capture a defining event burns bright. Camera phones may be just the gadget for those kinds of moments.
Lower prices, convenience and more interest in cell phone features have created a market for camera phones, especially for college-aged students, said Vickee Liang, sales representative at A Plus Wireless, at 841 E. 13th Ave. Liang said students are very interested in the technology, but high prices on particular camera phone models keep many from buying.
“Students are usually looking somewhere around the $100 area for camera phones,” Liang said.
While camera phones may be considered a novelty feature by some, the integration of a camera into a phone has spawned a plethora of new features people use often, said Liang.
University sophomore Chris Marler, who picked up a Samsung A680 for the camera feature, said the phone was “fairly expensive,” but the price after the rebate made it affordable. Marler said he uses the camera feature to snap pictures of notable things throughout the day.
“This past weekend I saw a cool car so I took a picture and showed it to friends, but I usually keep the photos to myself and use them for a screen saver or background on the phone,” Marler said.
Sophomore Rachel Edwards recently bought a Samsung SGH-E600, but said she is not technologically advanced and is only now learning how to use its features. The phone is one of many new models that can record short movies, a feature she found after the phone recorded a movie inside her pocket.
“I’ve taken a few pictures so far, but my friends say they take up a lot of space on the phone, so I don’t know how much I’ll use it,” Edwards said. “It came with software and a cord to e-mail photos to friends, so I want to share photos down the road.”
Laura Lawson, a friend of Edwards, said the feature that lets a photo pop up when someone calls is what appeals to her most, in addition to the simplicity of not having to carry around two different gadgets to take pictures and make calls.
Despite its conveniences, camera phones have traditionally been a second option, even for novice photographers, because of the absence of zoom, flash and quality that even some of the newest models lack.
Digital picture quality is measured by how many million pixels, or megapixels, compose a photo. Each pixel is a small dot, so the higher the megapixel count, the more detail in a photo. But even the typical 3.2-megapixel digital camera on today’s market beats the best camera phone.
However, newer phone models are catching up to digital cameras in an effort to make a phone the one and only camera one needs to carry around. The 901i, recently released by DoCoMo, has the capability to shoot pictures with two-megapixel quality.
Top-end models, like the Motorola RAZR V3, are also beginning to bridge the gap between phone and mobile multimedia center. In addition to a 2.2″ color screen, the phone features an mp3 player for playing music or movies and short-range wireless capability, or Bluetooth, in addition to a camera.
Bluetooth in phones is beneficial because people can share files and photos over short-range distances, but it also lets Bluetooth-enabled accessories, like headsets, work with the phone wirelessly or broadcast to a speaker in a car without setting up the phone on the speaker system.
In the end, some students just want phones to be phones.
“With my phone I can make and receive phone calls, and that’s all I need it to do,” sophomore Kit Messinger said.
