[roja]

Hi, I'm looking for some advice on which new mobile to get, and seeing as this was THE place to come when looking for TV/Home cinema advice I thought I'd try my luck at getting some reactions on the phone side of things.

I'm looking for the mobile with the best camera that can take decent pics in dark situations - nothing too sinister! I go to alot of concerts and nights out clubbing/gigging etc and my current SE K850i is terrible at taking pics in dark or dark/bright/dark stage light combo situations. Its OK in daylight and the best-shot feature is quite good for spur-of-the-moment type events but thats about it.

I understand that a phone is never going to get great pics in these conditions but a friends old N95 took pics 100x better than my K850i! And taking an expensive camera and phone to a gig isn't an option.

Does anyone know how decent the LG LGK910 Renoir or GD900, Samsung Pixon or Tocco Ultra, SonyEricsson C905 (I'd be wary of the same issues with K850i) or Nokia N96 are at night shots and video recording? Or any other thoughts?

I only use the phone to call, text and occasionally browse (no email or anything necessary so no requirement for a smartphone).

Thanks in advance for any kind words of wisdom.

Roj

[chrispeters]

Hi mate...
The BEST camera i ever saw on a phone is the
"LG Renoir" hands down its the best cam on a phone out there !!! its pretty incredible...
phone is half decent too.

[deakodude]

You answered your own question get a N95.It does loads of other cool stuff.

[trice1921]

I'd suggest a N82. Same camera as the N95 but with a proper flash that's great for dark situations.

[RobM]

The quality of camera phones, in terms of picture quality, hasn't really improved much over the last few years. They are getting bigger, for sure, as companies ramp up the dimensions (mega pixel war!) to attract the type of person who thinks 12MP is better quality than 3.2MP, but the actual lenses, the optics that make a picture simply haven't improved a huge deal.

As said above, the N82 is a very good shout and is not an expensive phone. It's a damn good phone though. But the camera is good and low-light shots are as good as a phone will get.

[EnigmaCode]

Originally Posted by RobM83

person who thinks 12MP is better quality than 3.2MP, but the actual lenses, the optics that make a picture simply haven't improved a huge deal.
.

quite true. unfortunately, there are many many gullible members of the general public out there who fall for this marketing nonsense. it's much cheaper for manufacturers to increase the megapixels than it is for them to increase the quality. the important point here is that, because the megapixel count can be quantified(as opposed to the quality), it's far easier to sell that aspect of the phone and make it look good on paper.

roja
stay away from sony ericssons. they are notoriously unreliable. they are also notoriously overpriced for what they offer. the c905 is no exception. buy it at your peril!
i would say get the renoir. the pics that it produces look superb! the video record capability and quality is also among the best.
btw as previously mentioned, don't be taken in by megapixel count. megapixels DO NOT equate to quality. there is no relation between the 2.

[jonas000]

omnia hd. 8mp and records 720p or the nokia n86.

[/////AMG]

Originally Posted by trice1921

I'd suggest a N82. Same camera as the N95 but with a proper flash that's great for dark situations.

Another vote for the N82, best camera phone out there. Proper xenon flash, hardly any phones have this.

[apolloa]

Originally Posted by EnigmaCode

roja
stay away from sony ericssons. they are notoriously unreliable. they are also notoriously overpriced for what they offer. the c905 is no exception. buy it at your peril!
i would say get the renoir. the pics that it produces look superb! the video record capability and quality is also among the best.
btw as previously mentioned, don't be taken in by megapixel count. megapixels DO NOT equate to quality. there is no relation between the 2.

Hmm, Sony Ericssons are not ALL bad, speaking as someone who's had them for the last 4 years with NO problems. And the C905 does beat other phones in photo shoot outs in reviews and magazines.
It is also known it's the carriers that are driving the mega pixel race and not the manufacturers, they seem to think as you said Jo public likes the bigger numbers to sell phones. Weather it will go higher then 12 who knows? But SE are launching the Satio and Samsung have launched a 12mpx phone and are going to announce another this month according to rumours so expect everyone to do the same soon.
Xenon flash is also a must for decent indoor photo's, how many compact camera's have LED flash?

Optical zoom is what you really want now Xenon flash is here but alas you won't get it. Currently. Take a look at the Nokia N82 or 6220 if you don't like SE and want a good camera.
This looks good too, no mention when it's out but I'd of thought it would be soon and may be what your after?:

http://www.samsung-phones.org/samsun...sung-sch-s740/

[SibTiger33]

Originally Posted by trice1921

I'd suggest a N82. Same camera as the N95 but with a proper flash that's great for dark situations.

yep right on the money mate

u gotta get a phone with a good flash (not this LED rubbish)

the N82 and the Motorola ZN5 both have great flashes for night shots


i've used a hell of alot of high end phones and all the ones with LED flashes have been really poor


the other factor to take into account is shutter lag.

some phones such as the G600 from samsung take really good pictures but suffer from crazy shutter lag (i.e you never end up taking the picture you wanted)

also turning on night mode on some of the "good" camera phones also creates lag

in my experience i would recommend either the

nokia n82
or
Motorola ZN5

if you have the budget get the Nokia

else go for the motorola (not the easiest to use in terms of its OS - but the camera is great and battery life also great - nokia is a better overall phone though)

[RobM]

Just a brief point on the LED flashes... whilst they aren't as good as Xenon, they are used more because they can be used for video recording as well as still images, whereas Xenon flashes cannot be used for video.

Occasionally something like the K850i pops up and features both, but generally it's one or the other. And in the case of the K850i, it was a great camera in a awful, awful phone.

I would say it depends on how good you expect your pictures to be. There are so many buying guides for camera phones out there that tell this and that. I believe that if I want really, really good pictures I need a real camera.

[RandomLee]

I have a N95 8GB and the photos it takes at night are terrible (and I do know who to use it as photography is one of my hobbies!).

Squeezing more and more pixels onto a sensor so small just means more noise, and this is always more apparent at night as the camera always wants to ramp up the ISO to get a usable shutter speeds.

Maybe not what you want to hear but a good phone and a cheap point and shoot camera would be a better bet

When you combine lots of devices into one there's always going to be compromise.

[nicsonian]

Originally Posted by chrispeters

Hi mate...
The BEST camera i ever saw on a phone is the
"LG Renoir" hands down its the best cam on a phone out there !!! its pretty incredible...
phone is half decent too.

I agree the Renoir takes a nice pic and offers lots of extras.

[Technaut]

I had a nokia n95, the camera was good quality but the phone took ages to take the photos and sometimes by the time it took the photo the picture was useless :/

The best one I have seen speed and quality wise is the Sony Ericsson C905 Cyber–shot phone, really amazing quality

[nicsonian]

Originally Posted by Technaut

I had a nokia n95, the camera was good quality but the phone took ages to take the photos and sometimes by the time it took the photo the picture was useless :/

The best one I have seen speed and quality wise is the Sony Ericsson C905 Cyber–shot phone, really amazing quality

If you are looking for a camera with no delay then the Samsung U900 Soul has immediate capture. I went to my kids sports day a few weeks back and the delay was a real problem (I kept getting empty pics). This review gives a bit more detail:

Samsung U900 Soul: Review this mobile: mobile-phone contract | Mobile phone contracts

Hope it helps!!

[Spiderkid]

Originally Posted by trice1921

I'd suggest a N82. Same camera as the N95 but with a proper flash that's great for dark situations.

Another vote for the N82 here. An awesome all round phone (should have been a Nokia flagship but they overlooked it in favour of the N95 and N96). The camera is the best I've seen on any phone. At 5MP it is about the perfect resolution for a phone (final picture quality is restricted by the physical size of the sensors they can fit inside the camera, so after about 5MP you don't get significant increases in quality with proportional increases in the number of MPs - not that you'd know that if you listened to the crap the manufacturers spout about '12MP camera phones'!) - it has a very rapid autofocus (almost comparable to most average digital cameras) and an excellent xenon flash which again competes with many digital cameras. It really is in another league to most camera phones out there.

On top of that, it's stylish, cheap, has expandable memory (up to 16GB microSD), WiFi, GPS (with free mapping software) decent music player and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

It's so good that I'm having a really hard time trying to justify an upgrade to just about any other phone on the market! Buy it. Now!

[JenniferL]

Thanks for all the recommendations here. I used one of those buying guides for camera phones and still couldn't come up with a decision. What do you guys think of the Iphone? Is it really worth it? Thanks in advance for the answers.

[NicolasB]

Originally Posted by JenniferL

Thanks for all the recommendations here. I used one of those buying guides for camera phones and still couldn't come up with a decision. What do you guys think of the Iphone? Is it really worth it? Thanks in advance for the answers.

The camera is certainly not the iPhone's strongest point, but otherwise I think it's a very impressive piece of kit. Everything is beautifully integrated and the user interface is delightfully intuitive. I didn't buy one in the end, but it was a tough call.

[SteveAWOL]

The sample shots on the official blog for the upcoming Sony Ericsson Satio look quite impressive:

More Fresh Sample Pictures « Satio Launch Blog

Currently got an N82 which I'm happy with, tho the Satio is the 1 phone that might tempt me into an upgrade if the reviews are good and it doesn't suffer from the same reliability problems as C905...