CrunchGear

If you are going to be taking pictures from afar, why not just use a traditional digital camera with a telescopic zoom. Your subject … the fifteen year old neighbor… won’t be able to see you either way.
Is that a telescopic mobile phone in your pocket or are you just happy to see me? Both!

Amit

this seems like a pretty nice tool, at least people are starting to take notice the most camera phones take horrible photos, and a 1.3 mega pixel camera is pretty worthless.

the telescopic zoom feature is a step in the right direction, but should be an integrated feature not a separate product. Lots of talk about the iPhone, but how about a Canon Phone, or a new Nokia Rebel.

I agree with Amit. Cell phones are great for taking up close pictures of a passed out homeless guy after your frat brother pees on him, the drunk girls boobs, or maybe some quick pictures of your car after you slide into a Jetta at 8 miles an hour for insurance reasons. But who wants to use their Treo to take pictures of Lincoln bugers at Rushmore?
The other big problem I see with this is aren’t gadgets and all this cool stuff supposed to make it so we don’t need to carry a backpack of crap?

“Is that a roll of quarters in your pocket or are you spying on me?”.

I don’t see the point of cell phone cameras so far, maybe when the MP get to 5-10 then it’s a nice feature but otherwise, having a blurry image from afar is the same as having a blurry image from up close. Many cell phones don’t have movement stabilization built in that is worth a damn neither.

Jon

Jon,

I disagree, you don’t need a 5-10 MP camera on a phone to have decent pictures. My Motorolla Q only has a 1.3 MP camera and for point and shoot pictures of my nephew or a quick snap of my flooded basement it works just fine. If you need that kind of quality buy high end camera, if you want a picture of your friend dancing on a table, a camera phone is just fine.

There something I prefer about having blurry, poor quality shots of people wearing acid washed jeans. It takes balls to take those pictures. If I can just taken them while out of fist swinging distance, what’s the point anymore?

I agree with Ryan. It is useful to take impromptu pictures with my cell phone instead of lugging around a digital camera. There have been numerous drunken nights where I have woken up with a ton of pictures in my cell phone and no recollection of taking them. Talk about regretting beer goggles.

Amit

Amit,

I think that was the original idea behind the camera phone. Get a girls number and associate it with a photo. It makes the decision of calling someone back much easier to make the next day if you don’t go home with them.

Bargain in my eyes, now phones with 3MP cameras are coming out, once they support this tool it’ll be a neat little addition to have.

It would be nice if they would come up with a solution where I didnt have to replace my back shell completely but its better than not having this option at all, I suppose. My Nokia 6682 is supported!

I think Hasan’s on to something - why not have a company with experence in cameras team-up (or go solo, though working with a company with experence in phones would be in everyone’s best interest) to make an ‘high-powered’ camera phone?

Or even more interesting - phones intergrated into cameras!

@Isaiah

Phones into cameras? I generally always need my phone and sometimes need my camera, not the other way around.

I heard samsung already has a cellphone out that has a built in non protruding 3x optical zoom.