Several months ago I wrote that I wanted a cover for my camera phone lens. I have covers for my film camera lenses and my digital camera lens is covered when not in use.
Now, Samsung has introduced a camera phone that has a way to protect the lens on its new SGH-X600A (see below), according to a brief item in The Straits Times.
I believe one or two other camera phones (Sony Ericsson?) have a lens cover or some way to protect the lens when it's not in use. It's a very good idea.
Greater chance of damage
You carry your camera phone a lot more often than your digital camera and the chances of dropping your phone aren't insignificant. If you scratch your phone's outside case or LCD screen, it doesn't destroy the functionality.
Scratch the lens (or the glass covering it) and you need to replace it.
X600A features
The SGH-X600A has only, alas, a VGA camera. You may set four resolution modes: VGA (640 x 480), qVGA (320 x 240), QQVGA (160 x 120) and mobile (128 x 90).
The lens rotates 180 degrees and the handset includes a flash (see above). Although camera phone flashes aren't powerful, I hope the feature becomes standard on all handsets. Even a little light can make a difference.
I put a small piece of the material used to protect PDA screens and stuck it over the glass on my 3650. I just leave it on all the time. I haven't noticed any reduction in quality.
Posted by: Tom Karches | Tuesday, April 20, 2004 at 05:16 PM