Ok, this is getting a bit out of hand, but I guess it was inevitable. Why bother with Photoshop when your camera can do most of the work? There are already cameras that make your eyes bigger... give you a tan... why not an instant face-lift?
The Olympus VR-340
The Olympus VR-340 looks like your average 16mp point and shoot, but hidden in the menus is a "Beauty" mode which allows you to do spot 'enhancements' like whiten teeth, eye shadow add/remove, and a few more 'fixes'.
With all the negative issues with retouching photos... I don't think this is exactly a step in the right direction... why bother being in the photos if it's not going to look like you at all? Oh well... C'est LIE vie.
Ok, my movie playback review is long over due (that's still coming up)... but I've been playing with the camera of the ray in more situations and this may interest some readers.
I've found that when a bright light source is hitting the ray from the side (effect is more pronounced if the light source is coming from the left - where the lens is closer to the edge) there's very slight ghosting visible in the photo. You can simply change the angle you shoot at, cup your hand over the lens, or make a very small/short lens hood. The X10 Mini Pro didn't have this problem as the lens was recessed further into the body.
I made a crude one out of electrical tape, just to see if it would work. The cleanest way I've found is to get a cone shape slope as close to the lens as possible (reverse of a regular lens hood) to minimize the visual change in the phone.
Slight ghosting visible on the upper left
With the lens hood, slight improvement
My initial idea was to blacken out the silver ring
Electrical tape
Cut a hole slightly smaller then the silver ring
Tweezers make the job a lot easier
The tape slopes and floats a little above the lens
Extending the lens hood to about 1-2mm improves the effect, I'm guessing a small rubber O-ring would do the trick as well.
Over-all I decided to remove my lens hood despite the effect simply because I felt is was only in certain lighting conditions that it had an effect. YMMV, so you may choose to improve on this concept or ignore it all together. Just wanted to share my discovery.
Since the introduction of the celfone cam, people have documented every single moment of their lives (both drunken and sober) and has caused a boom in digital photography.
The latest generation of mobile phone cams boast specs that exceed most professional cams a few years ago... but do specs tell the whole truth? Numbers are quite easy to fudge, and test parameters can easily be biased to favor one manufacturer over another. I've found that most of today's mid-to-high end devices are all comparable to each other. This review is to give a real-world comparison and evaluation compared to point-and-shoot cameras.
Most phone cam lenses are fixed at around 28mm (in full-frame DSLR equivalent) this gives the most practical field of view for group shots, parties, and roughly 95% of the events people use their phones to take pictures of.
The Xperia ray sports an 8 megapixel Exmor R sensor which is supposed to be excellent in low-light situations. I'm not fond of using a flash, on any of my cameras... so this was something that caught my attention. Along with the claimed f2.4, this should make the ray perfect for capturing events at concerts, clubs, parties, candle-lit dinners and other things that happen in the dark...
But does it really work well? How does it fare against the previous generation X10 Mini Pro? Against a decent point & shoot camera?
The first shot was taken using my Panasonic Lumix ZS3. This is one of the better all-around point and shoots on the market with a focal range of 28-300mm and a Leica lens. It shoots in 720p HD so this will also be the baseline for the video comparison.
Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Pro
This was taken using my X10 Mini Pro. As you can see, colors are a bit washed out compared to the Lumix, but general detail is preserved. A noteworthy observation is that the grill on the car looks more 'detailed' with the X10MP, but it's just heavier post processing on the phone's part.
Sony Ericsson Xperia ray
And finally, the shot taken using the Xperia ray. Bokeh is slightly nicer on the ray... not by much, but if you look at the car in the background, the rims have stronger lens blur. Color accuracy on the ray is also closer to the Lumix which is a plus. I initially thought that the X10MP was sharper, but it turned out to just be stronger sharpening post processing.
With the absence of a dedicated camera button however, it is harder to take a shot with the ray. Touch focus doesn't always work and can sometimes give a completely blurry shot. Auto focus gives decent results most of the time, but limits compositional freedom. Over-all the ray has a better camera, but without a dedicated camera button, it takes longer to take a shot.
Forget the front camera... it's sad. Washed out and very soft focused. Flashback to an 80's webcam. It's there. But don't expect iPod Touch/iPhone 4 quality video calls. But there is hope for self-portrait fans. Sony Ericsson's "Smile Detection" allows you to use the rear camera, then the phone automatically takes the shot when you smile. Although this doesn't guarantee it's framed properly.
Now onto the video. The Xperia ray records in 720p HD. Movies are in the standard MP4 format and trimming recorded clips is possible on the phone itself. I did find it nice that the phone records in stereo. Utilizing the back mic for the left channel, and the phone mic for the right channel. The odd position of the mics does create an issue for users that are unaware that both mics are on. If you're holding the bottom part of the phone, you may be blocking the "right" mic and thus audio may sound weak. Because the mics are farther apart than on most point and shoot cameras (like the Lumix ZS3), stereo separation does sound more prominent on the ray.
The following video was taken at night using only automatic settings. This is how most people will be using the camera on this phone so I decided to make a direct comparison with the ZS3's HD capabilities as well. Audio on the left channel is from the ray, audio on the right channel is from the ZS3.
As you can see, the Exmor R sensor does an excellent job of low light recording. Not much noise is added, and detail is quite good. Focusing is ok, but not great. Clarity is still better on the ZS3 of course, but I would have more practical use for the ray's shots than the ZS3. And a little post processing on the Xperia to improve black levels and the shots taken would actually look better than the ZS3. Audio is decent for a device of it's size. I didn't notice any weak audio, I suspect that early reports either had different firmware, or were accidentally covering the right channel mic with their hand.
Video verdict? The Xperia ray is a very capable video recorder. The Exmor R sensor does work and can be used in very difficult lighting situations. Make sure you have a lot of storage though because HD video does chew up quite a bit of space. I can now leave my ZS3 to the dedicated task of just scuba videos. The Xperia ray will now be my everyday video device.
**A usability tip: There are different camera shortcuts that you can add to your homepage for easy access. I added the Camera and Video Camera shortcut. It may not be a dedicated button, but it's a lot easier than scrolling through a menu!**
After seeing how great the Xperia ray's screen in my Part 1 review was, naturally I wanted to check how good its media capturing capabilities are. Does the Exmor R camera really deliver? How's the audio during video recordings? What about music and movie playback? Or are they all just marketing stickers on the box?
First up, audio/music playback. Test was conducted using the ff:
I decided to compare it against my X10 Mini Pro as a reference playback unit. I used a 256kbps mp3 of Dave Brubeck's famous Take 5. The results from switching from one playback system to another are:
Included headsets aren't great. Better than Apple's stock earbuds, but not by much. So I won't bother giving a detailed review of these. But these choke the sound quality of the ray to about 40% of their capabilities.
The Xperia ray's volume is about ¾ of the X10 Mini Pro. This makes it quite weak, even with efficient headsets. Although volume levels are loud, some people may feel it isn't loud enough. Personally I find it's well within the safe db levels of listening even at maximum volume. I would however, recommend using a headphone amp.
Xperia ray has an annoying clicking while NOT playing any media, this can only be heard through my reference K240DFs, not the K324P or the included headphones.
The Xperia ray has much cleaner bass frequency response than the X10 Mini Pro, bass notes are fuller at lower frequencies without being muddy or overpowering. Treble on the ray seems more balanced than on the X10MP, which may make the MP seem 'clearer'.
xLoud feature on the Xperia ray only affects the built-in speaker, and not headphone playback (good call!)
The X10 Mini Pro built-in speaker is much louder and much fuller than the Xperia ray.
Both the Xperia ray and Mini Pro built-in speakers sound 'clearer' than the X-Mini 2, albeit a lot weaker.
xLoud feature on the Xperia ray makes ringtones sound just as loud as the X10 Mini Pro.
Xperia ray built-in speaker sounds best 1 notch below maximum volume, at maximum volume, you get a resonant buzz from the casing of the phone itself... this resonant buzz is not present on the X10MP, I'm assuming this wasn't by design, but just basic acoustics. The sheer volume of the X10MP gives the built-in speaker a larger 'cabinet' to work with thus making it sound fuller and louder.
EQ has a few presets, I'm not an EQ kind of guy, but they work better than the ones on the iPhone 4 or iPod Touch 4 which to me introduce way too much distortion. The ray's EQ is acceptable... although I would still recommend leaving it flat for the best audio quality.
Over-all, I'd say the Xperia ray has average music playback capabilities. Nothing bad, nothing great. I find it cleaner and clearer than the older X10 Mini Pro, but the lack of volume output makes using a headphone amp almost necessary, which negates the convenience of a small phone. Although using it in the car is quite nice and I prefer the output going into my car headunit.
It won't win any audiophile awards, but then again, neither will any mobile phone... will you be happy with the music playback capabilities? I would say yes. Unless you like listening to your music at ear-bleeding volumes, it's quite decent for most users. It sounds better than the 2nd gen iPod Shuffle, but not as good as the iPod Touch 4.
Final verdict: Average music playback. Decent frequency response and respectable bass extension. Low volume output, not a deal-breaker, but some may find it a bit too soft. The included earbuds aren't isolation buds so they do let in a lot of ambient sound, which drowns out the already weak volume of the ray. So unless your unit came with the LiveSound headset, I'd seriously recommend getting a better pair of cans.
Most people don't realize how handy their celfone camera can be. Aside from taking party shots, or embarrassing Facebook photos, your celfone camera can be used as a portable document scanner.
It may not be as clean or clear as a real flatbed scanner, but for making instant soft copies of receipts, invoices, and other important documents, it's handy because you have your phone with you everywhere.
The great thing about it, is that you have an instant jpeg that can be emailed or uploaded right away. And on Android and iOS devices, this also means instant sync with your Dropbox folder for archiving or printing.
Some tips:
3.2 MP is clear enough for most documents. Autofocus/Macro is needed. Fixed focus cams are no good, almost all your documents will be blurry.
Lay the document down as flat as possible. If you can, tape the edges down before taking the shot.
Be as steady as possible when pressing the shutter, use both hands.
Wait for your camera to focus lock and check that the image is really in focus
Although some phones have a dedicated document mode, taking a document in full color/macro mode usually gives better results.
I first got into photography simply to make my blog photos look nicer. Coming from my SonyEricsson mobile phone cams, it was quite a step up when I got my Canon 400D. Since then, most of my photos have either been using my DSLR, or my phone cam.
Last month, I decided to get my first real point & shoot camera. The point & shoot I have is a Canon A80 which I got used and use exclusively for my underwater shots (This will change once the UW housing for my Lumix arrives...whenever that is...)
Veering away from the popular Lumix LX3, I decided to go for the ZS3/TZ7 for it's high zoom (12x, that's 25-300mm in SLR terms) capabilities.
I was never too fond of the automatic settings found on consumer cameras, but I have to say, Panasonic did good with their Intelligent Auto mode. Unlike the bigger LX3, the ZS3 has no manual controls so you can only select iA mode or one of the many presets. But it does a good job about 90% of the time.
And even though I do miss the manual controls, I am quite happy with how well the ZS3's iA setting performs in most conditions. And even when the iA can't quite guess what you're taking a photo of, you can just select the right setting from the many presets that are built into the camera. (Sunset, Candlelight, Fireworks, and Underwater are just some of the many scenes to choose from)
The ZS3 can also record in 720p HD using the AVCHD Lite which basically means you've got a very decent camcorder with an excellent zoom lens built into the ZS3.
Over-all, the ZS3 is a very capable point & shoot camera. I feel it offers more versatility than the popular LX3 due to the very long zoom. It's a small, light, and relatively affordable camera.
If you're in the market for a good point & shoot camera, I would seriously recommend the Panasonic ZS3/TZ7 to be on your list of considerations.
Although it won't replace a full-size tripod... the Gorillapod allows you to use whatever it can grab hold of as a tripod. It's very light, and easy to carry. It comees in 3 variants, the original, SLR, and the SLR-ZOOM (holds cameras up to 3kgs)
...yes, that's my cam taking a self-portrait of itself... hahahaha...
