Megapixel Cameraphone Shootout
Editorial by Michael Oryl on Thursday November 04, 2004.
Megapixel cameraphones are all the rage right now, and all of the manufacturers like to brag about having megapixel cameras in their handsets. But the truth of the matter is that not all megapixel cameras were created equally. This is true for dedicated cameras, and even more true for cameraphones.
In this quick and dirty, horribly un-scientific, seat of the pants comparison story, we square off three current megapixel cameraphones against each other. The contenders are the Sony Ericsson S700i, the Siemens S65, and the Motorola V710. I had planned on including the Nokia 7610 in this comparison, but had to return it before I could get to putting this story together. I'll toss some photos from the 7610 and some from the Sharp GX30 into the end of the story for you to look at. You just won't be able to make direct comparisons between them and the other three handsets since the subjects of the photos will be different.
Our first test subject is my car, a Saab 9-3 with what Saab calls a "Steel Gray Metallic" paint job. You can call it dark silver. In terms of the color reproduction, the S700i does the best job of getting it right. The photo to the left is pretty much exactly what the car looks like in person. The V710's color rendition is also pretty good, but the contrast is too high (more on that later). The S65's color is too warm, though not annoyingly so since a warmer color reproduction, especially when photographing people, is pleasant.
When it comes to focus, though, there is no comparison. The S700i photo is far and away the sharpest. The S65 does a reasonable job of focusing on the car, but the things on the other side of the street are pretty blurry. The V710 is quite blurry in both the foreground and background. This is a common theme for all of the photos. The S700i is almost always sharp, the S65 focuses well at close ranges, the V710 is always blurry.
Another thing to look at is how the cameras handle the "hot spots." Look at the bright area above the rear wheel in all three photos. The S700i's photo definitely shows that the color has blown out (ie. it is white), but it does so in a reasonably smooth manner that looks good. You can see a bit of purple fringing on the chrome on the back edge of the rear window, but it is not too bad. This purple color effect is common in digital cameras with small, inexpensive lenses, such as those in cameraphones.
The S65 handles the bright spots on the rear of the car pretty well; with one exception. Notice the black spot near the bottom right most corner of the rear door's window. That is where the sensor overloaded and reported no data. It went black. I've seen this in other cameraphones from time to time, but not often. I don't think I saw it in any other situation with the S65, either. To its credit, the S65 keeps the purple fringing under control.
The V710's camera seems to be much more contrasty than the cameras in the other two, and as such, it has a real problem in situations like this. Not only are spots like the hood of the car darker than in the other photos, the lighter areas of the photo are far bigger and more washed out. The darks are darker, the lights are lighter. Too much contrast in general. The purple fringe can be seen all over the place, too.
Winner: S700i