Quote:
Originally Posted by Lady Fitzgerald
Even a bottom end digital camera takes better photos than a camera phone simply because the optics are so much better. The odds are the sensor is much bigger in the camera than in the cell phone. Since even if I had a phone with a camera I would never leave it turned on, I keep my old HP 735 Photosmart camera in my purse. It takes the phone 25 seconds to fire up; the camera needs but 5 (I just timed both out of curiosity with, get this, an analog watch). Any cell phone would poop out long before the camera would. I use that camera for quick candid shots (granted, a cell camera on a continuously on phone would be a bit faster), a portable scanner (great for when you want a copy of a magazine article or ad in a waiting room somewhere;camera phones may or may not be able to pick up the detail), pictures of products and their descriptions when shopping for research later, etc. It would be handy for recording details of an accident scene, etc. It's a bit bulky but doesn't weigh that much. If the batteries do poop out (2 AAs; it takes a few hundred 1.5 MB photos to do that), it takes 30 seconds to pop in a fresh pair of rechargeables.
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My phone takes pretty good pictures, though, and since it is always on, the camera fires up fast. I use it for all those things you mentioned above, and in fact I've been known to take a picture of a label on a medicine bottle and blow it up on my phone screen so I can read it. (I swear that print is getting smaller and smaller.)
It works great for beach pictures and such, and since it's always in my pocket I always have it with me even if I don't carry a purse. So yeah, for people like me who don't require a high-end camera, it does replace what I used to have. Beach picture I took last summer with my phone: