October 10th, 2008
Can these cell phones replace your digital camera--and your dermatologist?
Eight-megapixel camera phones are no longer so unusual–we’ve known about the Sony Ericsson C905 for a while and the recently announced Samsung Pixon has been getting a lot of buzz since it was announced last week. But the LG Renoir and LG KC780 (announced October 2 and yesterday, respectively) have added so many camera features that it’s easy to forget that these are cell phones. Both sport Schneider-Kreuznach certified lenses, built-in flash units (the Renoir’s is a Xenon flash) and adjustable light sensitivity up to whopping ISO 1600. In addition to image stabilization, face detection, and smile detection, the LG handsets both offer video recording and include some interesting shot modes that you won’t even find in some camera cameras, such as Smile Shot (which automatically triggers the shutter when your subject is smiling) and the oddly intriguing Beauty Mode, which lets you “remove spots and imperfections on people’s faces.”
The Renoir is the more interesting of the two–it’s an iPhone-esque 3G touchscreen phone that includes WiFi and GPS features, allowing you to geotag photos and e-mail or upload them easily and even offers a manual focus option. The video capabilities are also more high-end, with 120 fps slow-motion video and 5 fps time-lapse recording. There’s even built-in support for DivX and Xvid encoded video.
The Renoir will begin shipping in Europe this month (and expand to other markets afterwards) and the KC780 will follow in November.
Janice Chen has been covering technology for almost two decades. She got her hands on a Nikon Coolpix 900 back in 1998 and has been a digital camera enthusiast ever since. See her full profile and disclosure of her industry affiliations.
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