Convergence

Many of the phonecam's most zealous proponents are either arty types who fancy the low-tech quality of the images, or they are gadget geeks who, as a matter of course, simply love everything new and whizzy. However, as one who fits into both categories, I am sensible enough to understand that the average person likely doesn't buy their phone for the quality of the camera. They set out to buy a phone and are happy to have the picture-taking capability included along with the other features.

So, why are we covering a phonecam in Photo Review?

The answer is simple. We believe that the technology is rapidly approaching quality and performance levels that are close to those of entry-level point-and-shoot digital cameras.

Note, we said 'approaching' and 'close to'. The fact is that as of late 2005, phonecam images are not the equal of inexpensive digital cameras. However, the arrival of megapixel sensors and improved lenses clearly suggests that the gap is beginning to close. And Sony Ericsson's K750i is a telling case in point.

The first of the 2-megapixel phonecams to reach our shores, the K750i looks at first glance like a standard mobile phone - it's small, has a bright and colourful display, and naturally enough has the usual keypad and navigation buttons. But flip it over and you discover a rather natty sliding lens cover.

Flick the cover open and the K750i instantly switches to camera mode. The display becomes a 176 x 220 pixel colour electronic viewfinder and you notice as you hold up the camera, er, phone,  to look at the image, your right forefinger comes to rest on the shutter button, while your left forefinger touches naturally on the rocker switch that controls the 4x digital zoom. Give the shutter button a half-press and you find that the camera has an autofocus system.  Nor, as consulting the manual soon reveals, is that an end to its purely photographic feature list.

The K750i allows the user to select from three different capture modes (normal, frame and panorama), two jpeg quality settings, three image resolutions, four different effects (including sepia and black & white) and, as the ads on late night TV say, that's not all. You can adjust white balance, make exposure compensation changes, use the night mode for lower noise levels in shadowed areas, employ the macro mode, shoot a burst of three pictures, record video clips at two different resolutions and even switch on an impressively bright pair of LEDs above the lens in order to illuminate macro subjects.

It's hard not to be impressed by the scope of the engineering marvels, but as photographers what we really want to know is if it's any good for picture taking. From an ease-of-use standpoint, there is little room for complaint. It's just like using a simple point-and-shoot camera. The autofocus works well and the display is a typical LCD; which is to say that under bright conditions, it's sometimes a little challenging to use. Shutter lag was a just-okay 1.7 seconds without pre-focusing, and a better, but unspectacular 0.6 seconds with pre-focused shots. That said, any number of entry-level point and shoot cameras would be doing well to match or beat the K750i's shutter lag performance.

So, what are the pictures like? Well, it's a case of 'compared to what?' As noted earlier, the K750i gives you a picture that is inferior to what you'd produce with a two-megapixel camera with a proper lens. But if you put it up against something like my year-old 1 megapixel Nokia 7610, there are clear and substantial differences.

Taken with the 1 megapixel Nokia 7610

Taken with the 2 megapixel Sony Ericsson K750i

The K750i images are obviously sharper and though the jpeg compression seems unnecessarily severe to me, the image degradation is not as pronounced. Contrast and colour balance are better as well. The average image size at maximum quality (1632 x 1224 pixels) was around the 400KB mark. The phone has 34MB of onboard memory as well as a Memory Stick Duo slot into which Sony Ericsson has slotted a 64MB module.

You wouldn't want to make 10x8-inch prints from one of these images (then again...) but standard 6 x 4's come up pretty well. The colours can have that slightly pastel and flat look to them, but my guess is that most people would look at such prints and say 'you took that with your phone?!' If you'd like to see how the Ericsson's images compare to my Nokia 7610, please log in to www.photoreview.com.au where you'll find a few sample shots you can study in some detail.

The bottom line? If I wasn't still paying off my current phone, I'd be very, very tempted to grab the K750i. Not only does it have the best camera section in our market as of this writing, but the rest of the feature list is very impressive, including as it does such refinements as an MP3 player, an FM radio, a sound recorder, tri-band reception, contacts, calendars, alarms, Bluetooth, speaker mode, and much more. This one's well worth a look - even if you weren't planning to update your phone just yet. [25]