Diaries of a Nokia Fan Boy

I’ve been wanting to write about this for a while now, and with some previous events this seems like the right time to do so.

I’ve never really considered cell phone cameras as being able to replace regular cameras in everyday lives, that is until I got my N95 8GB. Previously it was my strong belief that cell phone cameras are good for emergencies, for picture caller ID, or for that time that you absolutely have to take that picture but don’t have an actual camera.

When I got my N95 and started taking pictures my stance quickly changed, aided by the fact that at about the same time I became camera-less. I started taking photos and was pleased with them for a while. Then I compared my cell phone shots with my previous camera shots and fonud that some aspects of the image could use a lot of work. There are really two major problems: noise and poor low light visibility. Ironically both could be solved quite easily by just using a larger sensor and some clever optics.

Now some would argue that putting in a larger sensor would increase the size of the cell phone, but I don’t think it would. Look at cameras like the Sony T90 or Canon SD780 – both are tiny and could be smaller the screen size was to be decreased, and both take great shots.
But what about driving up the cost? Granted, the phones would be a little more expensive to manufacture, but they would sell for more as well, and would be much more difficult to copy, which is becoming a major problem.

So lets take a look at the extra components required and their costs:

1. New camera sensor. Wouldn’t have to be the same quality as in actual cameras, simply some 4x larger assuming the megapixels would remain the same (and there is absolutely 0 reasons to have more than 8MP)
2. Better optics. Again, nothing like in actual cameras, just a decent glass lens with a cover.
3. Dedicated, specialized processor. This would be best in a partnership with a dedicated camera manufacturer, like Motorola and Kodak.
4. A decent flash. Best would be a pair of LEDs along with a nice Zenon flash. I don’t think I need to explain this one.

And what would be the cost of this? Manufacturing wouldn’t increase by more than 10%, but I would expect it to be less than 5% increase. The biggest costs would come from forging partnerships, developing and designing. But the pay offs in quality would be huge.

So what would this do for us? Create more functional cell phones, and reduce the number of gadgets we carry around with us on a regular basis. My phone is already an email and IM portal for me, it is currently my only camera but I would like to have a much better quality camera if I could.

For the skeptics out there that don’t think its doable, take a look at the Samsung INNOV8 and Motorola ZN5.

Posted by Wordmobi