[Hands0n]

A simple question really, are 2 megapixel cameras in the likes of the iPhone and others quite so bad? Much hoo-ha is made about 5 megapixel and upwards in the likes of the Viewty and N95 and later. But my own experience of these cameras is that they don't show as much of an improvement in picture quality over the lower pixel count models.

Attached is one such 2 megapixel photo for your own judgement, taken on a moderately sunny day, slightly overcast, in a conservatory so the light is somewhat filtered.

NB: Typical moggy, set down some washing for a moment and he makes a bed of it!!

[Ben]

Looks like maybe the colour is a little over saturated but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't perfectly adequate as a mobile phone snap. I have no qualms about using my iPhone to take pictures stepping down from my N95 8GB.

Flash, though... that'd be useful.

I think, for the vast majority, camera stopped mattering when we got past 1.3 megapixels. Bizarrely most people I know take their 'Facebook' photos on a real digital camera, would you believe, rather than one of the 'high end' camera phones.

What'd be really interesting would be an independent camera quality standard, assessed by lord knows what but resulting in an actual rating that can be stamped on camera (and camera phones) to give an indication of actual image quality. I'm thinking 1.0 up to 10.0, but obviously nothing gets 10.0 and only the most basic image gets 1.0 with anything below not being certified.

[miffed]

i have always felt that the camera on the iPhone is "adequate" apart from the lack of a flash - At least for the sort of spontaneous snapshots I'd use it for.
Recently I have been chatting to a mate (Accomplished Professional photographer of around 30 years ) about the recent influx of 5-8 MP cameraphones , He tells me that due to the size of the lenses involved , the whole "megapixel" thing becomes irrelevant at anything beyond 4MP , and this makes a lot of sense IMO , when was the last time you saw an SLR (or even a DSLR for that matter) with a tiny "camera phone-esque" lens ? The manufacturers are happily reeling customers in on the rationale that "if x=good , then x+1=better ... whether there is any real world performance or not
I know my "Real world" experience with the N95 vs E90 supports this , the pictures taken with the 3.2mp E90 were much better than the 5mp N95.

The thing that really annoyed me about the N95 was the ridiculous 'lag' when pressing the shutter !

[Ben]

It's like the megahertz myth that surrounded the Intel Pentiums. In the end facts didn't matter - sheer MHz in the marketing were enough to fend off the competition until Intel had new horsepower of its own.

Shutter lag on cameraphones is mental, isn't it. I assume they're simply not powerful enough to process images of the sheer size these crazy-big sensors are capturing.