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AnchorDesk

David Coursey
Why I don't like camera phones

David Coursey
Executive Editor, AnchorDesk
Wednesday, Mar. 10, 2004
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A friend of mine says there's an easy way to spot the husbands and wives who are where they shouldn't be with someone they don't want to be seen with: Just pick up your cell phone and hold it with the keypad in front of your face, the back pointing at the crowd.

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Now watch and see who covers their face or (more telling still) turns tail and runs. You have now identified the people who are in the wrong place with the wrong person.

YOU'VE PROBABLY already figured out why, but it took me a minute: The reason so many people run and hide is because so many of today's cell phones are just as likely to take pictures as to place calls. Those pictures can be transmitted to an aggrieved spouse's hard drive before Mr. or Ms. Kodak Moment walks in the door back at home. Can the process server be far behind?

There's no question that camera phones are taking over the handset market. Sony Ericsson just introduced its five new cell phones for 2004; all five have built-in cameras. Furthermore, the company cites stats to the effect that, in 2004, camera phones will actually outsell standalone digital cameras; roughly a third of phones sold in 2004 are expected to be snapshot-ready.

These camera-phone hybrids have accomplished what noisy, rude users had previously failed at: Getting cell phones banned, at least in some locations. Take, for example, health clubs, where some patrons are worried that phones could be used to take surreptitious snapshots. Lawmakers in New York are considering a bill that would ban cell phones--with or without cameras--from health club locker rooms. And one health club chain in Canada has already banned the things.

BUT IT'S NOT the privacy thing that worries me most. Not long ago, a friend (not the one who told me how to spot adulterers) sent me some pictures taken using a cellular camera at a family gathering. At least I think it was a family gathering and that it was my friend in the picture: The image was so lousy it could have been of almost anyone or anything. Perhaps if I hadn't dropped out of the photographic interpretation classes during my brief stay at the National Reconnaissance Office, I'd have been able to decide who I was looking at. But I did, and I couldn't.

Have I mentioned that I don't like these gizmos very much?

That isn't to say there aren't some very good phones that happen to include cameras. I'm talking about products like the NEC 525 from AT&T Wireless or the wildly expensive ($650) Sony Ericsson P800. Or even the Treo 600, if you need the PDA features as well as a cam phone.

I just think that, if God wanted telephones to be cameras, he wouldn't have given us separate eyes and ears. OK, maybe that's not the best analogy. But when you can get a much better camera, one that fits in a pocket or purse and actually takes decent photos for not much money, well, why would you care about a cut-rate camera in your phone?

THE ANSWER is simple: It's because the phone can send the lousy pics it takes directly to someone's inbox, something your average standalone cam can't do (yet). And if all you're taking are fun pics, the trade-off in quality isn't supposed to matter.

But I've found that the fun of the camera phone wears off quickly. The first few times one of these gizmos arrived at my house for review, I dutifully ran out and shot a bunch of pictures and sent them to friends. But the process was cumbersome, and the results not much better than the fuzzy pics my friend sent me. It wasn't too long before I stopped thinking of these phones as cameras.

There's no question these phone cams are having an impact on society--just ask the divorce lawyers and gym rats. But the fact is that I just find them boring.

What do you think? Are camera phones a good idea or bogus? TalkBack to me below! 

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