A mobile phone with integrated camera is sort of a must thing nowadays and as expected, the Samsung SGH-i550 is equipped with a 3.0 mega pixel camera, auto focusing feature and embedded flash. The camera is definitely up for standard photo taking for every Tom, Dick and Harry out there.

To activate the camera, press the camera shortcut key on the right hand side of the phone for a second or so. It will take another two seconds before the camera is ready to take pictures. Two seconds start up time for a normal digital camera is considered to be extremely slow, but for a camera phone, it is still acceptable.

Before I start to elaborate on what you see on the screen, one should know that the image quality can be set to basic, normal or high, with various resolution options, ranging from 320 x 240 to 1152 x 864 to 2048 x 1536. What caught me by surprise is the light metering option, with the standard matrix, spot and center weighted. Enlighten me, since when light metering is part of a camera phone’s option?

The screen displays camera / video camera, phone / memory card, exit / options, auto focus feature on / off, flash on / off, white balance mode, single / burst mode and scene mode.

Instead of going through and deep into option list every time you want to change a setting, there are shortcut keys conveniently placed and can be activated by pressing the relevant alphanumeric keys. Switching from camera mode to video camera mode and vice versa is as simple as gliding your finger across the track ball. “1″ to activate burst mode, “2″ to activate flash, “3″ is to switch between phone or memory card, “4″ for white balance, “5″ to toggle the auto focus feature, “6″ is for white balance, “*” for help, “0″ for settings and “#” for light metering.

Assuming each flip is 1x zoom, there are 9x zoom for this little gadget. 9x zoom, impressive. However, I am not sure whether is it optical zoom or digital zoom. Although both do the same thing, picture quality differs from each other by a rather huge margin. The first picture is at 0x zoom, followed by a 4x zoom and then a full 9x zoom. There’s one thing that bugs me, the very fake laser sound produced each time I zoom in and zoom out. Its the kind of sound you would imagine when a robot moves, in ascending and descending tone. It is not cool, at all, to me, that is.

It is a camera phone and the auto focus feature is definitely not going to be at god liked speed. True enough, there’s a shutter lag of two seconds or more to achieve fully focused before snapping the picture. You just need to press and let go the camera button and the camera will start to focus and snap the picture.

To view the various example of the pictures taken under different white balance, click on the link. Automatic, flash enabled, sunny, cloudy, incandescent and fluorescent. I sure hope I linked the correct pictures to the correct white balance settings as I forgot to label them before I load the pictures into my computer.

The phone also has video taking capability. I have shot two sample videos from two scenes from two different movies. The first one is the confrontation of Jedi Master Yoda and Darth Sidious from Star Wars Episode III : Revenge of the Sith and the second one is a battle of Gundam Exia and GN Flag from Mobile Suit Gundam 00.

At its native resolution, the sharpness is at an acceptable range, but once being maximized or boosted, you will be seeing a pixel-ated movies and chunky characters. Sound quality is mediocre, as noises are captured along due to the unfiltered microphone. If there are too much sounds being played at one go, its really noisy and I doubt one can make out what’s being played. That aside, the phone does record conversations very clearly though.

Inside the Samsung SGH-i550, there is a video editing software that came pre-installed which allows you to create a video out of still pictures or edit a video right on the spot. Handy feature but whether is it that useful, its still too early to say.

You can insert transition effect between still pictures movies and cut / remove certain scenes from a recorded movie. Another neat feature in the video editing application is the live dubbing, which means you can add in your own voice at a later / during the editing process.

Well, that’s about the phone and video camera of the phone. There’s no point in going through every single detail as its up to the user to find out, right?

My take on the camera is that, it is decent enough for a petty and simple picture, but definitely not for pictures with lots of moving actions, require fast auto focusing or that you deem precious and really want to keep it for a long time. It is still a camera phone after all. However, for still objects, it should be able to the job without major flaw.

I am using a Canon EOS 40D and there’s no reason for me to use the camera for my shots. The only time I will use it will be the time when I want to send a picture through MMS, making it the least used feature of all my past, current and even future phone.

Now, smile one for the camera, please?

Do take note that some of the photos taken by Sony Ericsson P1i as my Canon EOS 40D couldn’t do macro.

The Samsung SGH-i550 series :
The Kick Off
The Outlook
The Specifications & Symbian Series 60

P/S : Interested in a surveillance camera for your company? Surveillance cameras, pan tilt and zoom cameras, and a surveillance camera system are all good examples of surveillance devices that can help improve security.

Related posts:

1. Samsung SGH-i550 - The Outlook
2. Samsung SGH-i550 - The Summary
3. Samsung SGH-i550 - Specifications & Symbian Series 60
4. Samsung SGH-i550 - The GPS
5. Samsung SGH-i550 - The Kick Off

Tags: 3.0 Mega Pixel, Camera, Camera Phone, Integrated Camera, Photo, Pictures, Samples, Samsung, SGH-i550, Symbian, Video, Video Editing Application