Handspring Treo 600: Feature-rich phone, feature-poor camera

On Wednesday I got a great new toy: A palmOne/Handspring Treo 600. My down-and-dirty review is in the headline: A great full-featured cellular phone with disappointing camera phone capabilities.

I haven't had as much chance to play with it as I'd like -- work and Thanksgiving (people actually want to do things besides watching me playing with the Tree 600!) are interferring with my fun -- so perhaps I'm missing some features. I read the manual, viewed the phone-based camera phone tutorial (these tutorials are a nice touch) and I think I understand the camera features.

For a phone with lots of capabilities, the camera lacks some basic features. If I overlooked something, please let me know.

What's missing?

Here's what I think is lacking on the Treo 600's camera:

* There are two resolution settings, not three. The Treo has a "large"/high resolution setting (640 x 480 pixels) and a "small"/low resolution (160 x 120). Where's the "medium" setting for 320 x 240 pixels?

A medium resolution could be useful because a high resolution photo (and I laugh every time I refer to 640 x 480 as high resolution) sometimes results in a photo that is too large to fit in a Weblog template. For example, it happened when I sent a 640 x 480 photo to one of my TypePad Weblogs; the photo was too large for the template. The medium resolution was a good size.

* No manual settings for white balance (sunny, cloudy, tungsten, fluorescent, dark, etc.). Automatic white balance settings usually are fine. But sometimes I want to try another setting; I will often switch to "dark" in dim light situations when the camera phone doesn't automatically use that setting.

* No digital zoom. Granted, I don't think I've ever used a digital zoom because it reduces the image quality. But a "full featured" cellular phone like the Treo should offer a zoom capability, which might be useful in a few instances.

Nice to have

The Treo doesn't need these features, but I think they are nice to have. In the future, "nice to have" will become more of a standard feature.

* Flash. Very few camera phones have a built in flash. It requires more space on the phone and reduces battery life. Also, the flashes on camaera phones are quite weak. However, the value of a flash is obvious.

* Swivel camera. The ability to swivel the lens up and down (or left and right) isn't critical, but it's a nice-to-have feature.

* Dedicated camera button. Unlike some camera phones, the Treo doesn't have a button on the keypad that launches the camera application. However, there is a way to associate the "option" key and another key with different applications.

I don't know if you can remap one of the four dedicated keys -- phone, calendar, messaging, screen -- for another application, but I'd remap "calendar" to "camera."

* Frames and borders. Given that the Treo 600 is a high end product -- certainly based upon the price -- and geared more towards business people, the lack of borders and frames isn't a big deal. But bundling a few color borders and funny frames couldn't hurt.

Also, I believe there will be a vibrant software market for camera phones, and borders and frames will be part of packages that users will be able to download.

How's the photo quality?

I haven't had enough time to take photos and, especially, to take the same photo with multiple camera phones. I have established a Treo 600-only moblog, where I have posted several photos.

Also, I have posted a few photos comparing the Treo with the Hitachi G1000 and the LG VX6000 on the moblog I established to compare the same photos taken with different camera phones.

My very initial impression is that the Treo 600 camera is good, but not the best of the camera phones available in the United States. I've been told by someone in the camera phone business that the Hitachi G1000 take the best photos, although I think I prefer the Nokia 3650 photos and I established a moblog for that handset as well.

Unfortunately, my 3650's photo uploading capability died. The software indicates the photo is being transmitted, but there's no confirmation that the image has be sent successfully and it isn't included in the e-mail. AT&T Wireless' data expert wasn't able to solve the problem so I have to return the unit.

The image quality of the LG VX6000 is quite poor.

The best camera phone images?

Do any of you have preferences about the camera phone (in the U.S.) that has the best quality photos? My vote, so far, is the Nokia 3650, but I haven't tested the majority of handsets, including the newest Sony Ericsson camera phones.

Comments

[David Lewis]

I think the camera on the treo 600 is very poor. They need to do something about it like a software download to improve the quality because right now it does not have any.

[cg]

Are there any "add-ons" commercially available or methodologies to improve the Treo 600's very poor camera quality?

[cg]

Are there any "add-ons" commercially available or methodologies to improve the Treo 600's very poor camera quality?

[marc]

Of the widely available handsets here in the U.S. i would say it is the Nokia 3650 (hands down). All my moblog photos are taken on that camera. Prior to that i had the Sony Ericsson t68i which was actually pretty good too.

My moblog: http://marc.buzznet.com.

With that said, i'm desperately waiting for something better in low-light.