Cameras on cell phones

Cell phones have many spectacular features, which are more common on computers and laptops, not on tiny devices like smart phones. One of the is the camera, a novelty introduced, about 10 years ago, on a line of exclusivist phones, but which is not embedded basically in any cell phone. Digital cameras are very common devices, and many users are accustomed with them. They’re very cheap and easy to carry around, but the fact that they can be integrated in a little cell phone is quite outstanding. The freedom you gain by having a camera on your phone is worth mentioning. You can take pictures and videos as well wherever you are, without having to bother carrying around with you a dedicated camera. All you have to do is take out the phone, point it at something interesting and record. And, considering that most phones can also connect to the internet, you will be able to publish them on your blog or on some video sharing site in no time. The quality delivered by cameras on cell phones is not as good as that you can get from a separate camera. Most entry level cameras on smart phones have a 2 MP (megapixel) sensor, while mid-range entries settle for 3.2-3.5 MP. The difference in quality is not very significant, as both types of cameras deliver decent pictures, but only in good light conditions. In dark rooms and at night, taking pictures and videos might be quite difficult and the quality might suffer. Any camera on a phone should have some minimum features for making the experience worthwhile. The camera should have white balance, for properly balancing the colors and shades in the pictures- so it doesn’t seem “burned” when you look at it. Also, it should be able to distinguish between portrait and landscape mode on its own, which usually happens thanks to the gyroscope inside the phone, a function also useful when playing games. Face recognition is another important function a phone with a camera should have. If it recognizes the face of the person in the picture, the camera can adjust brightness and colors so that the person is clearly visible, and considering that that’s the most important element in the photo, it’s quite an essential feature. As for formats, the camera should offer you the option to save pics in JPG and JPEG, which are the most common types of files for photos. As for video, formats like MP4 or MOV should be supported, as most computers, no matter the OS they run, will read these files with ease and so you won’t have problems enjoying the videos you took right away. In more recent times, after the proliferation of very fast networks and operating systems like Android or Windows mobile, the cameras on mobile phones started being used as web cams as well. Phones can be now used as mini computers for video chatting with friends, some of them being even able to offer HD quality. Newer cell phones offer rather complex cameras, trying to equal in terms of quality what standalone cameras can do. This way, simple users can record HD videos and photos, something considered impossible just a few years ago. Although not perfect, cameras on cell phones are more and more competent and enrich the lives of users worldwide.