7 Mega Pixel Mobile Phone On Way, Samsung Say - "Ave It".

[Stewart]

So, whats the camera like on your phone then? Good one is it? VGA maybe? Or one of those flash new mega pixel ones perhaps?

Of course, it can be improved on, but what can we expect soon? 2 mega pixel? Maybe 3? Try 7.

Samsung, makers of probably the best all round non-smart phone in the shape of the very sexy D500 have announced the 'all bets are off' SCH-V770, boasting a high quailty 7 mega pixel camera.

Look at the specs on this baby:

7 mega pixel phone mounted camera.
16-million-color liquid crystal display (LCD).
32-megabyte external memory card.
Auto focus, optical zoom functions, and a digital power amplifier that produces high quality sound and video recording function.
An image quality so fine it could be blown up and put in a 10x14-inch (25x35-centimeter) frame.

Just imagine being able to take genuine photo-album quailty snaps on your mobile phone? That family holiday in Paris or the birth of a newborn (Are there any other sort of births?) can be captured forever, on a non-dodgy camera based phone.

Of course, this is hot of the press, and as such there is no price at present, nor any release date, but it it rumoured to launch in Japan first, perhaps sometime in July. It will debue at CeBIT 2005, one of the worlds largest international IT events.

Anyone who is anyone will be there, and of course, that means the world class coverage of all things techy from HEXUS will be represented. Expect much news on all aspects of your favorite tech areas and details of potential new toys and kit in the very near future on the site. You'd have to be mad or something to go anywhere else.

So lads, what do we think? Sounds like a pretty serious bit of kit, a mobile phone with a telephoto lens or wide-angle lens attached and 7 mega pixel image quailty and a DSLR (digital single lens reflex) camera that are designed for professional photographers and photography enthusiasts, as well as manual focus, shutter speed controller and auto-exposure-lock and manual exposure controller.... no longer a gimicky VGA camera, for taking drunken photos of a mate falling over after too many pints on a Friday night.

Something we'd be interested in or not? Likely to be priced well out of the average pocket or not? This is very likely to be avalible in Europe well before the end of the year chaps, so its almost upon us already!

Exciting times or just the natural progression of undeeded gimmicky features?

Let me and everyone else know know what you think.

[unrealrocks]

The thing is, on a phone there is limited space. Which means there is limited lens space. It doesn't matter how high quality you make the CCD, if the lens is still a pinhole plastic thing - I think they need to work on the lenses, especially the barrel distorsion which is terrible on phone cameras.

[Aaron]

At what point does a cameraphone become a phonecamera?

Judging by Samsung's current 5MP cameraphone, it'll have a "proper" lens and zoom mechanicism. Of course, this means that it'll be very expensive (the 5MP model retails for over $1,000) and quite large.

[noah]

i'd agree with the lens comment, ive seen many good enough snaps taken at 1.3mpixels with a digicam that look great on a computer screen, but the one taken on the phones are still terrible, even on the best ones out there at the min. maybe when they decide to implement phones into cameras like the cannon ixus40/pentax optio s5? they're small enough to fit in your pocket happily. and as for price, those camera's are around £250ish i think, and when you look at mobile prices (my motorola v3 is around £4-500 sim free!!) that doesnt seem like too bad an idea!

just a thought

[javalord]

Samsung cameras arent fantastic. Also, when squeezing so many CCDs on a small area, you get an increase in image noise. Now fitting a small 1/2.5" ccd with 7mp of sensors will just result in poor quality.

[DsW]

I don't really see the point of a 7MP camera phone.

Why compromise on both camera quality and phone size and battery life?

Anyone who wants a decent camera will buy a (seperate) decent camera.

I suppose larger images could potentially allow operators to charge more for them being sent over their network.. so maybe it's just their way of helping the operators to squeeze money out of their customers!

[Aaron]

Picture.

Looks more like a camera than a phone to me.

[iMc]

Its most definitely a phone camera...

impressive nonetheless.