The best camera to own is the one you will always carry with you.
This is the advice I give whenever someone asks me “what camera should I buy?” I spent the past 26 years carrying thousands of dollars of photo equipment with me as a photojournalist. Now that I'm a photo editor and commute to work on my motorbike, I don't carry a bag full of professional cameras. In fact, I don't carry a camera with me at all – I've got my cell phone.
Last spring I bought a Treo 650 to replace my old phone and Palm T2. It has a measly 0.3 megapixel camera, but I've learned a few tricks to make it deliver the images I desire. (And I follow my own advice that the best camera is the one you always have with you.)
Having a cell phone camera has reinvigorated my desire to shoot personal images. And its small size and silent operation makes it easy to be a fly on the wall while I shoot. But it does have its limits. For instance:
Sharpest focus is about 4 feet from the phone.
Left side of lens is blurry.
Constant magenta cast.
Unable to resolve detail inpoor light
But I've learned to make these defects work for me. I don't shoot with the idea of obtaining highly detailed images. All it takes is a bit of work in Adobe Photoshop, and I'm happy. I use a Photoshop action that creates the effect of a Holga plastic camera and then make my own adjustments.
To learn more about my Photoshop tricks to enhance cell phone camera images, tune in next Tuesday, March 13.
Don't forget to post some of your cell phone camera images below ! And remember to check back next Tuesday for PhotoShop tricks to enhance your phone camera images.
- Cliff
7 comments:
I'm retire from the Virginian Pilot photo dept. For 6 or 7 months I didn't shoot a frame and then shot a very few with my cell camera. My grown daughter gave me a digitalpoint and shoot that I'veused very little. The best photo I've made since retirement is one of my granddaughter.....
You are very right about what constitutes the best camera. I have missed more images than I have captured with my rig. I just can't carry it everywhere. I just can't seem to muster much faith in my camera phone, and its a whopping 1.3MP. I do like how you have managed to work around the shortfalls of your camera. Very nice images.
Greg
yes i too agree with you, i am new to photography and have been using cell phone camera. i share some of my photos with you for ur comments.
please have a look at my photos here at http://pictures.aol.com/galleries/sancnyan
Truer words could not be said; "The best camera to own is the one you will always carry with you."
I love all of the photos you've posted. Each one is a gem. Art is in the mind and and the disply not in the equipment you use.
Thanks,
j
Cliff I LOVE the fact that you're not a gear head. Good pictures are good pictures no matter how you make them.
jenna
Oh, I'll have to tell my mother these hints! They're basic enough for her (and me) to understand:) The last entry I had, I used her grainy dark cell phone photo as a test (first time she'd taken one, and my daughter had to send it to my phone which I learned how to retrieve via the tmobile website). 4 feet away, now that is relatively clear advice which we did NOT follow at the time but will now! -- Robin
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