Re: camera phone as "alternative"

[Barry Kleider <bkleider@sihope.com>]

Judy,

I recently needed a new cell phone. The young buck behind the counter 
suggested this little Nokia flip job.

"Hey, I'm a professional photographer. I don't need a phone with a dumb, 
piece of junk camera in it," I told him.

"I don't either," he said. "But it's the best performer we've got here."

After looking at the other choices, I bought the phone.

It wasn't out of the box 5 minutes before Kate and I were playing with 
the damn camera. I use it all the time!

I love the stupid thing! I no longer have the excuse of saying, 'Gee too 
bad I didn't bring my camera.' And I don't have the pressure of making 
every exposure pro-grade: it's just for fun.

I also do a lot of work with kids K-12. I'm thinking about doing a 
project which would give kids these cell phone mini cams.

My phone saves pictures as jpegs on a micro SD card. I download the card 
directly to the computer. (If you send them by phone the quality goes 
way down.)

Minnesota Public Radio recently hosted a discussion entitled "Is 
Photography Dead?" Far from lowering interest in photography, I think 
developments like the cell phone camera will breed the next generation 
of shooters. (Long live the Brownie!)

Cheers,
Barry



Judy Seigel wrote:
> Baby's first photograph taken by camera phone sent (like a phone call 
> I suppose) to another camera phone is IMO somewhat to the north of 
> Star Wars. But my son (on the west coast) has sent photo of self with 
> newborn taken on his cell phone to his sister's cell phone, said 
> sister (east coast) having kindly given us a glimpse of the tiny photo.
>
> We would like to see the photo a bit larger, also to print it out to 
> share -- minus cell phone. Folks I've asked say yes you can upload a 
> photo from a camera phone to a computer "if you know how," but so far 
> no one knows how.
>
> The computer is Mac, system 9.2 or 10.39 (no leopard!) Any info or 
> advice on the topic would be greatly appreciated.
>
> J.