23 replies to this topic

[shadamehr]

As an owner and avid user of a FujiFilm FinePix S7000 Prosumer D-SLR like Digicam, as well as an F10 compact Digital, and now a new swanking Fuji S9500 D-SLR, can I just briefly chip in and say there is nevertheless a HUGE range of times and places where having a camera on a mobile phone is a great thing - even when I am out shooting, it is nice to be able to take a camera pic at the same time, and MMS a copy to family back wherever, there and then, and then show them the real full Digicam set later on.

Evidence after car crashes and bumps is handy too, as well as PROVING you are in a meeting (hence why I think you SHOULD be able to take a photo silently).   Many a time I have rejected a call while in meetings, and taken a photo of the committee, without them knowing, with the clock on the wall above, and sent that to whoever didn't beleive I was genuinely in a meeting, and thought I was just avoiding them for an afternoon.

Downsides though, as have been mentioned in here... well here's a curious but obvious one, albeit with a gender twist to it...

I was recently working the Doors Bouncing again (I do this as a night-time job when I feel like it), and I was at a certain lap-dancing club near where I live (there are only two in our City, and I have worked both as they are sister-clubs anyhow, same company, so easy to work out where I mean if you know it).

Anyhow, I had invited our lass and her mate along (clearly, as the avatar shows, it's something that appeals as much to her as us blokes *lol*).

Well, our lass is TERRIBLE for texting - indeed her main SIM is an orange TEXT ONLY account of 3000 texts for £20 a month.

And she was sitting in the club, texting away to her mates no doubt telling them what a great time she was having etc etc..

And I as Doorman, and her partner at that, had to go over and have words with her about her use of the phone, as she hadn't realised she kept 'pointing it upwards' to read it easier as she typed, and it of course looked like she was constantly taking photos, so I needed her to stop in case the manager took it the 'wrong way'

Such is the issue of simply having a camera on the back alone...

So there will never be an easy answer to this one.

The argument about future business phones not having a camera on (as two out of three of the forthcoming Nokia 'E' series Enterprise phones will not have) seems a bit of a none-starter to me, as many other sites are these days highlighting the benefit of a camera on a phone for business, sales, and out in the field users...

So even 'business use' does not mean camera not wanted or needed anymore...

[Br1an_g]

dont blackberrys omit a camera? and are mainly business use?

most companies where you need a mobile as part of the job will provide this type of device..

[kc1]

Disco Stu, on Jan 25 2005, 16:11, said:

With respect, there's a wave of hysteria fuelling this at the moment.
When it dies down I don't imagine anyone will be worried about camera phones.
After all, industrial espionage didn't start with camera phones. Same with the other issues.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The hysteria might calm down, but hardware manufacturers won't stop integrating cameras as standard until the network providers (who lean on them) feel they've got enough got non-voice revenue to get them out of the 3G licenses hole they dug - i.e. never...
...so irrespective of whether or not workplaces/etc. like them, we'll be hard pushed to get any decent phones in future that don't have cameras.

I agree with some others here that the camera is wasted space/cost/effort/complexity in many phones.  I would rather they offered models without them that were that little bit smaller/cheaper/simpler software as a result of not having a camera.  

...for that matter I could easily (and have since my first phone in 1999) live without MMS, picture messaging, DJ-nonesense, albums and all that other multimedia stuff

[shadamehr]

Br1an_g, on Nov 20 2005, 17:59, said:

dont blackberrys omit a camera? and are mainly business use?

most companies where you need a mobile as part of the job will provide this type of device..

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It does indeed (for now).

And when you think about it, isn't that a bit bizarre.

Because you have, in a Blackberry, a PERFECT device for sending Photos FULL size (i.e. via built in full email client), yet, not means to take said pictures.

So, if you are in Marketing, and attend a trade show with betas or suggested designs on show, and bearing in mind of course it is permitted to use a camera, you could take a reasonably decent image, and send it full size, not a tiny MMS thing, using the Email facility of the Blackerry, straight back to Head Office there and then.

That is just a quick and simple, contrived example of its uses.  By the same token, having a Camera on a Blackberry at a trade show could indeed PREVENT you from being able to take your Blackberry into the show, if cameras are barred, so there is an equally contrasting slant to this of course.

But I just thought it important to highlight that the example of a device you mention that does not have a camera on it, doesn't really mean anything - it could equally just as usefully, if not more so that normal phones themselves with small MMS pictures only, be an argument FOR cameras on it, not against!