5 Megapixels Camera Phones

One could reasonably argue that the race for the 5 megapixels camera phone has ended several years ago when the first 8 megapixel was introduced or at least that it should have ended last summer when the 12 megapixels entered the scene. But in fact the race is not only far from over but is being run on a multilevel track. That is because the hardware technology isn’t really going as fast as the guys in the marketing department would like so they keep upping the stakes without real backup. That is to say that as the race rages on for the best picture a 5 megapixel can deliver – which is fair to say is being joined by the higher resolution cameras as well – there is also a second race for the best HD movie a phone can provide and the fact that they have not taken this to the 8 and 12 megapixels wars proves the technology isn’t ready for that level yet. Even more, the rogue of the mobile world, the iPhone has come out with as a 5 megapixel camera phone signaling that the technological infrastructure can only support so many megapixels.



And as always Apple has succeeded in bringing to the market one of the best 5 megapixels camera phones. Say what you will about their marketing techniques, their elitist, condescending attitude towards competition but when they come out with a new phone it is usually the best the IT world can offer at that time. And the quality of the pictures speaks for themselves. It is true that they don’t have a dedicated shutter key but color rendering is quite nice though oversaturated and in broad daylight there’s plenty of resolved detail. So overall you get sharp and vibrant images. There’s no sign of chroma noise, it just seems that Apple R&D prefers that untouched grainy look that is more sparing on the fine detail. Otherwise they could have wiped it clean with some noise suppression.



However the iPhone 4 is not the only great 5 megapixels camera phone on the market as the Samsung I9000 Galaxy S means to prove and their noise reduction techniques are flawless. Although it doesn’t have an dedicated shutter key either, the autofocus is probably the fastest on the market today and the tap to focus feature allows you to focus on any part of the picture. The level of details is almost doubled and 100% zoom compared to the iPhone so that is another great plus. Also the controls for the video camera of the Galaxy S are far better than those of the iPhone resulting in a better control of the image quality.



The time will soon come for the 12 megapixels but now the 5 megapixel camera phone is peaking and the fact that it is a somewhat older technology means that it can actually fit in smaller and smaller devices. This being where the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 mini hits the market because if you are bent on taking photos with your phone it probably is because you have decided not to carry a sluggish DSLR camera around and be always ready for a snap. And the minuscule size of the Xperia X10 combined with the great quality of the pictures it takes might just make it reign even over the Galaxy S or the iPhone. Granted the menu is minimalistic at best and there is no HD video camera feature but the photos are as good as any 5 megapixel camera phone can hope to attain.