Times Have Changed: Replace Your Video Camera with a Cell Phone

Just a few short years ago, I posted that replacing your digital camera and video cameras with a cell phone was not a good idea. Well? Now it is. In fact, this is perhaps the most commonly cited reason for the failure of the Flip video camera.

Consumers no longer really need small portable cameras and camcorders, because many of the best smartphones now include very high quality, high megapixel digital cameras and video cameras. A phone is no longer just a phone. Many cell phones these days pull double ( more like triple/quadruple!) duty as cameras, camcorders, personal organizers, GPS devices, music players, web browsers, and payment processors. The possibilities for wireless seem endless.

And it seems like as we move into the future, the subject of this blog will become more relevant. Consumers will care less about the quality of video cameras and more and more about the video features included with available smartphones. We will try to highlight phones and carriers that offer the best in video function.

Replace Your Digital Camera or Video Camcorder with a Cell Phone; Not Likely

People have definitely thought of replacing their digital camera with a cell phone. This site mostly deals with the video function. I would say emphatically that one should NOT seek to replace their video camera camcorder with a cell phone. I think this is something that SHOULD happen in the future but right now with the current technology video camera cell phones don't really have the quality to replace even the most basic ( read: cheap) camcorder.

Replacing a digital still camera is another story and some manufacturers are counting on it. See this ZDNET Blog: Can a Cell Phone replace your digital camera.

Motorola and Kodak ( among others) have teamed up to create the Motozine ZN5. This and other new camera phones really look like cameras that happen to be a phone, not a cell phone with camera function as an afterthought.

Apparently My phone is an Alias

In my last post I mentioned that I was happy with my Samsung phone. I took decent video ( for a cell phone) at my son's little league and b-ball games. I saw a commercial lately about the "Samsung Alias" and thought "hey wait a minute-that looks like my phone."

Sure enough I went to the Verizon Wireless site yesterday ( I was ordering a new phone for my wife) and the sch u740 is now also called "alias." I managed to get the phone for free back before it had any marketing push.

I got my wife a Black Cherry Chocolate LG. She had been using a Virgin Mobile prepaid and it was just annoying to always need to buy $20 cards for it. Prepaid works for a lot of people, but we use the text messaging a lot. Getting her on verizon we now have ( or she does anyway) unlimited "IN" texting to each other.

John.

Getting good Video on my Verizon Samsung SCH U740

I remember a few years back when it was a big deal if a cell phone came with a digital camera. These days, everyone has a digital camera on their phone and everywhere else. Even video capture capability is very common as everyone has digital camcorders as well.

When I got my phone The Samsung SCH-U740 for Verizon I didn't even care about the camera or video features. I got the phone for the convenience of the size and keypad.

But soon I discovered something else I enjoy. My previous phone was several hundred dollars and didn't have any video camera features so I had never had this option on a phone before. While watching my son's baseball game last summer I was still figuring out my phone's features. When I figured out how to take short vids it was pretty cool.

When it really came in handy was for taking short videos of my baby daughter. I was able to take short clips when my daughter reached milestones like rolling over and crawling. I was able to send my mother ( her grandmother) a video clip of her laughing and crawling for the first time!

I think I'll stick with this phone for a long time and make sure all my future phones do video- I'm not sure, maybe they all do anyway? but I thought it was pretty neat.

For more details about the phone I have see: This phone is no longer avilable but you can see other Verizon Phones here Featured Phones for Verizon Wireless