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Sony Ericsson C905 - Celebrating in Eights

By Seow Tein Hee - 22 Nov 2008

Camera

Just Shoot Me!

With a concentrated focus on its imaging prowess, the C905 comes with a slew of camera features that shrinks the gap between a camera phone and a digital compact camera. But before checking out its features, there's more to discover on the aesthetic nature. Previously, we mentioned how the C905 goes against the norms in providing numerous navigational buttons on its body. This comes in nicely for a few reasons: ease of accessibility.

The use of the directional pad as shortcuts for certain camera features probably isn't much of a surprise for many. It was the addition of two buttons at the top corners of the device that made the difference. Acting as dedicated keys to the various Scene and Shoot modes, we were able to cycle through the various settings in a breeze. With the camera put to sleep, both buttons will double as shortcuts to your Gallery too (top showing all images while bottom reveals one image at a time).

With the camera active, the directional pad is lighted up in blue, and from the top in a clockwise direction: Exposure, Flash, Timer and Macro.

We did like the ease of access provided with the top two buttons. The top one provides you with the list of Scene modes, whereas the bottom one allows you to cycle through the various Shoot modes that includes BestPic and SmartContrast.

We looked up the 8-megapixel device's sleeves, and found a whole bag of tricks. These include familiar features such as Face Detection and Image Stabilizing that's already a common sight amongst the top tier camera phones. The newer additions, namely its BestPic and SmartContrast, are what one should take note of. BestPic does what its name implies: it goes through a series of burst shots taken and saves the best image in the series. Furthermore, the BestPic feature doesn't just toss the unsaved images, it allows you to view and even save images that might look better according to your perception. We tested out the BestPic feature and in terms of its accuracy, it's good to know that it did recognize and save the better image.

Using the BestPic feature, we checked through all the possible images and noted that its accuracy is top notch in giving us the best rendered image, as you see here. However, the white-washed issue is still at hand.

If you understand how the word contrast fits into photography terms, you'll probably know what SmartContrast means. Now, this could be useful for one very important reason: strong backlight situations. Notice we used the word "could". The SmartContrast was a good move on Sony Ericsson's part, but it wasn't the solution that one needed. Comparing shots with and without SmartContrast under strong backlight, the edited image came out too washed in shades of white.

Without SmartContrast With SmartContrast

As you might have noticed, the SmartContrast was a good move in combating backlight glare. However, more often than not, the compensating contrast would render the image too washed in hues of white.

Another sight for sore eyes (in the most literal sense) is the strong Xenon flash. For better or for worse, it's undeniable that the Xenon flash can solve low lighting conditions, but at the expense of a much more washed out image.

Sony Ericsson kept to the Xenon flash route instead of the dual LED flash as seen on its competing 8-megapixel device, the Samsung INNOV8.

The use of a Xenon flash is still debatable. On one hand, it is stronger than what you can get with a single or probably a dual LED flash. On the flipside, you'll be looking at an even more white-washed image.

Leaving all its features aside, users would find themselves using the Auto settings as the common denominator. With that in mind, we did our resolution and color chart test on its Auto settings, as presented below:

Colors were adequately balanced, but didn't seem as rich as we had seen in the Samsung INNOV8.

Line resolutions came in at a reading of 1000 lpph for both the vertical and horizontal axis.

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