Phone cameras

[Stephen]

Back in the late 1960's, in the UK, the GPO, (later British Telecom), did massive research into mobile phones, the requirements, facilities, and ranges of radio reception. I was on the team that did our areas traffic research.

The whole concept was dismissed by the GPO board, there would be too little traffic to bother, the radios were too large, they only fitted cars, and operators would be required to place the calls, in the same way as then in car phones!(in those days you called the radio operator to make a car phone call, and they called you to ask if you would take a call).

The estimate for our area, Kent, was based on about 50 cars having phones then, and the estimate they came up with was amazingly about 50, the same people who could afford the car phones!!

We did point out Swedish and US developments in smaller phone units, and the possibility of digital multiplexing, they asked why?, as the UK public could barely afford a land line, let alone radio!

Despite all of this, the GPO proposed a system, and costed it out, only to have it turned down by Whitehall, as MP's objected to it on the grounds only the wealthy could benefit, therefore it was best not introduced at all!

Stephen.

[lloydy]

My wife went mad at me today. "Why don't you answer your ******** 'phone?" Telling her that I didn't hear it, calmed her down a bit, but then she asked the important question. "Why didn't you hear it?". "Because I don't know where it is" wasn't the right answer, especially when after an hours searching I found it, with flat battery, in the bottom of a camera bag I last used about 5 weeks ago!
I suppose I'd better put it on charge.........

[ellacoya1]

The nice thing about phone cameras...you always have it with you. My smart phone...well, handling a simple phone call seems to be "beneath" it. The sound is horrible, the calls cut out suddenly with no warning, that's if you can place/receive the call in the first place.
But it makes a nice little mp3 player for my walks/jogs, and once in a while it comes in handy for a moment like this

922937_546660052046312_1547897255_n by rwethairyet, on Flickr

Great photo? No. Pleasant to look at on my work desktop as a break from scheduling screens, work lists and reports? You betcha. And all I have to do is email it to myself to get it up on that computer screen.

(Lake Pemigewasset, one of the many ponds/lakes I pass on my way to work every morning. This particular morning I just had to stop)

[Rachel]

Although I have a mobile phone only a couple of people know my number. If it were to ring in my handbag I doubt I'd hear it. It has a camera but it's not very good. You can see I'm not a very enthusiastic owner of the thing.

[Deleted]

While my mate and I were in town today we stopped at a preview of items that were to be auctioned off on line this evening. As I was browsing one item that caught my eye was a relatively early Yashica J5 SLR. I thought it might be early enough to be worth bidding on. I pulled out my phone, went online on Ebay and discovered that a J5 and three dollars might get you a cheap cup of Starbucks coffee. It was nice to be able to check. It will also be nice next month when we are in Russia to be able to text with out daughters anytime we have a wifi connection. We didn't get "smart" phones until after we retired and I know we used them more now that we ever would have used them when we were working 8 hours a day. In fact, last December we dropped our regular phone land line and made our cell phones our only phones.(Had to keep a hard line for the internet but it is DSL only). I worried about Sara making the transition but she uses the "smart" features more than I do. When I started checking into it I tought going strictly cell would be too expensive. But I found one of our bills from the early '70s when touch tone was just coming into use. When you compare '70s dollars to today's dollars the cells are within a few dollars of being as cheap as the '70s phones.

[dee]

My Fujifilm XF1 is my 'phone substitute,meaning that my old 'phone is tiny and slips into the bag pocket designed in the days before smart 'phones.
I was really delighted that my daughter bucked the trend and asked for a proper tiny camera to take to Disney World - another FX1 of course..
everyone seems content with 'phone cameras and iPods.
Where did the search for quality go?