Cell Phone as Camera
I've never been a fan of the camera function of cell phones. Without knowing much about it I've reasoned that they must be simple and clumsy, analogous to the old Kodak instamatics.
Well, I've changed my opinion.
I also was no fan of the complicated "smart" phones like the iPhone and Galaxy. I was happy with a simple cell that made calls, period.
Then I splurged and bought a Samsung Android Galaxy Note II. It's a whole new world and I love it. I hate to call the Galaxy a phone. It really is an electronic Swiss Army Knife. It's a camera, a phone, a golf gps, a driving gps, an address book, a calendar, a watch, an alarm, a yellow pages, a puzzle player, a library, a book, a TV, a video viewer, a messager, a news-reader, a notepad, a voice recorder. So it shouldn't be called a phone. So, for now I call it my eTool.
So what's to say about the camera hardware on the phone and the applications that use it? It is an 8-megapixel camera, with LED flash, image stabilization, geo tagging and all kinds of shooting modes. It takes 1080p HD video at 30 f/sec.
It's fun to use. Here are some of the features: A panoramic mode where you just sweep the camera sideways; A low light mode that builds a well exposed picture from multiple exposures.; special effects a plenty e.g.. posterize, vintage, solar; Best photo and best face where multiple pictures are taken; burst mode; HDR; Exposure value slider; white balance; ISO selection. Now you couple this with aftermarket editing tools right on the phone and you have a pretty good camera set up.
I'm a fan!
Here are some pictures illustrating a few featrures.
Picture from Den
Posterized
Low Light Mode
No Flash Used
Panoramic Mode
