1. walt63's Avatar
    Since the release of the Bold 9900/9930 series and other BB7 devices, I've heard talk about its camera being not good or just a total piece of crap. In comparison to many Android and the iPhone camera, the Bold (not sure about the other) takes a pretty good if not better quality picture.

    I was recently in a situation when I was asked to take a picture of my wife and several of her friends at a restaurant. One of the friends asked me to take the picture with her iPhone. I took the picture in the lowly dimmed restaurant and the picture came out with them all "cat-eyed". They all had glowing eyes. I retook the picture and got the same results.

    The other friend gave me her Android device (cant recall which) to try for a better quality shot. This one came out fuzzy. The lighting by the flash was terrible. Like the ISO was too high.

    After four botched pictures, I used my Bold 9930. I turned my flash on auto and snapped. No joke. In one snap - better lighting, no "cat-eyeing" or red eyeing, and overall better quality. All in a lowly dimmed restaurant with a phone which people say sucks and many of BB users say the camera is bad. I then sent it to my wife's BBM to upload to Facebook and tag all her friends. Wa-la, done

    Maybe it was the iPhone/Android users' settings or something at the time but i feel that I'm missing something when people say that BlackBerry needs a better camera. Maybe now with the new Samsung and iPhone5, it needs to be better. BB10 should bring us up to speed. But before those launches, it was in the same class...IMHO.

    I urge you to do a OS vs OS comparison and see if BB is doing the camera justice. Again, I think so, but establish your own opinion or course.

    Sent from Bold 9930 #blackberrybychoice
    10-20-12 07:25 PM
  2. dieseldude's Avatar
    I have had good picture quality s on my bold. I have just come back from the iphone and I think its just as good. I have also tried a few androids as well and with those devices I never thought the quality was good.
    10-20-12 07:53 PM
  3. JWWDUKE's Avatar
    Its the lack of auto focus that is disapponting about the 9900's camera. I think my 9900 takes beautiful pics, until I get close up.

    It's been said many many times that the lack of auto focus on RIM's flagship phone was a mistake, and I agree.
    jamesharmeling and BBPandy like this.
    10-20-12 08:04 PM
  4. Bold_until_Hybrid_Comes's Avatar
    If you were in a dark restaurant and put it on auo the flash would have gone off. Flash pictures at a dark table never look good. The bold camera isnt anything special.
    10-20-12 08:11 PM
  5. Cesare21's Avatar
    Could be just me, but I think my 9810 (with auto focus ) shoots almost at-par pictures with other similar devices. It's sometimes better, sometimes worse... It's almost......
    10-20-12 08:36 PM
  6. thecsman's Avatar
    That's right. A big miss on this flagship device was the autofocus, which is handy some times. The rest is just fine.
    10-20-12 08:40 PM
  7. up488's Avatar
    i personally think the camera on my 9860 is awesome and being a huge picture freak i think it takes excellent pics. i hardly even use my 14mp point and shoot anymore.

    and as others have mentioned above, i cannot comprehend why the 9900 wasnt given auto focus although it does take a great pic still. i shake my head at that one.
    10-20-12 11:47 PM
  8. grahamf's Avatar
    My old Storm 9530 had an awesome camera. I think my 9360's camera is pretty similar to the 9900's, and it's just not as great.
    10-21-12 12:22 AM
  9. Bold_until_Hybrid_Comes's Avatar
    I just hope the London camera is exceptional. It will have 8mp as far as I know. This is the standard. I do hope that the quality of the pictures is superior to set it apart from all the other 8mp
    10-21-12 12:32 AM
  10. yorkshireman2's Avatar
    The photos on my 9900 seem just fine to me.

    My wife has an iPhone and I have to confess that I prefer taking photos on the 9900 because it so one handed and less fiddly than the iPhone.

    Also, with a right-click I can send the photo to email, BBM contact, Facebook, etc, etc, AND the 9900 gives me four options for reducing the file size before sending. The iPhone just sends the massive file from what I can see, which is BAD if you're abroad. Of course you could install a photo app on the iPhone to achieve the same thing, but you don't need to on the 9900 as it is all built in.

    And have you seen the HD videos on the Playbook. I am gobsmacked as to how good they are. For the money the Playbook is worth it for the HD video camera alone.
    10-21-12 05:24 AM
  11. sedalia066's Avatar
    My wife and I both have 9900's. We also have digital cameras. In most circumstances we use the phone camera for convenience sake. Neither of us has any substantive complaint about the quality of pictures. The picture taking options offered in terms of flash control and other adjustments work just fine in our lives.
    10-21-12 05:56 AM
  12. belfastdispatcher's Avatar
    I am a big self confessed fan of the 9900 camera, everybody keeps pointing out its one flaw, close up photos are not good but they keep ignoring it's huge benefits.

    1. It's extremely fast, especially in sports mode and fast at full quality.

    2. It's very good at taking pictures in the dark or dim, night mode and flash turns night into day.

    3. Red eye is never a problem

    4. It captures subjects near or far in perfect focus

    When you zoom into photos they do get grainy but they still show an astonishing amount of detail, the writing on a plane for example.
    10-21-12 06:34 AM
  13. richardat's Avatar
    The photos on my 9900 seem just fine to me.

    My wife has an iPhone and I have to confess that I prefer taking photos on the 9900 because it so one handed and less fiddly than the iPhone.

    Also, with a right-click I can send the photo to email, BBM contact, Facebook, etc, etc, AND the 9900 gives me four options for reducing the file size before sending. The iPhone just sends the massive file from what I can see, which is BAD if you're abroad. Of course you could install a photo app on the iPhone to achieve the same thing, but you don't need to on the 9900 as it is all built in.
    .
    Actually, if you just click the send button while viewing the photo on the iphone, it will give you options for sending by different mediums. If you ever send a photo by email, when you send the picture, a huge menu pops up asking which of four sizes you wish to send it as. You should really try these things before talking about them.
    10-21-12 06:54 AM
  14. ubizmo's Avatar
    It's just the lack of auto-focus that's the problem, as others have already said. Since some people need this for work, it's significant. Other than that, it works fine. I took hundreds of pictures with my 9900 while visiting Taiwan and Scotland this past year, and most came out great. It takes a while to learn how to use the scene modes, but they can really enhance the quality of the pictures you take.
    10-21-12 07:00 AM
  15. qbnkelt's Avatar
    The 9900 camera is adequate.
    The Samsung Galaxy camera is exceptional.
    The iPhone 4S camera is really really good.

    That's the truth of it.

    The pictures I take with my Samsung Galaxy Skyrocket rival my Nikon point and shoot.
    10-21-12 07:05 AM
  16. belfastdispatcher's Avatar
    The best thing about the 9900 is you never ever miss an opportunity, it's just so fast. Sure, other platforms can have burst like apps for the camera but that results into small files. Here's an example of an opportunity not missed.
    Attached Thumbnails What's this talk about a crappy camera?-img-20121019-00006.jpg  
    Stewartj1, wolfee48 and sk8er_tor like this.
    10-21-12 07:12 AM
  17. belfastdispatcher's Avatar
    The 9900 camera is adequate.
    The Samsung Galaxy camera is exceptional.
    The iPhone 4S camera is really really good.

    That's the truth of it.

    The pictures I take with my Samsung Galaxy Skyrocket rival my Nikon point and shoot.
    That's too general though, there are situations where the 9900 camera excels simply for not having autofocus. Having everything in focus at all times is much better then having the need to focus.
    10-21-12 07:24 AM
  18. mikeo007's Avatar
    That's too general though, there are situations where the 9900 camera excels simply for not having autofocus. Having everything in focus at all times is much better then having the need to focus.
    In what way? I'd be interested in hearing a scenario where this would be better. Keep in mind that your speed example above wouldn't qualify in my mind since the 9900 actually takes pictures slower than most modern phones.
    10-21-12 07:26 AM
  19. belfastdispatcher's Avatar
    In what way? I'd be interested in hearing a scenario where this would be better. Keep in mind that your speed example above wouldn't qualify in my mind since the 9900 actually takes pictures slower than most modern phones.
    In what way? Is making helicopter blades appear still in mid flight fast enough? How about making an airoplane propeller appear still in mid flight?

    I'm sorry but no other autofocus phone can match that.

    The moment you press the trackpad it shoots the photo, no delay whatsoever and then it's instantly ready to take another shot(assuming you have disabled the default 3 second preview)

    In fact, going from an autofocus to EDOF you end up taking photos too soon until you get used to it.
    Stewartj1 and recompile like this.
    10-21-12 08:32 AM
  20. mikeo007's Avatar
    Have you used a modern smartphone camera? They can do everything you're talking about except with better photo quality. Try taking a photo that's not in sunlit conditions.
    10-21-12 08:42 AM
  21. Roo Zilla's Avatar
    Taken from my iPhone. Pic at night.
    Attached Thumbnails What's this talk about a crappy camera?-photo-5-.jpg  
    10-21-12 08:50 AM
  22. tezuka's Avatar
    I have both iPhone 4 and Bold 9900, the Bold's camera takes pretty good photos but close-up pictures suck so much. When I have to take the picture of a business card or documents it becomes blurry. So I have to use my iPhone for this task.
    10-21-12 08:51 AM
  23. Roo Zilla's Avatar
    Don't know how popular QR codes are elsewhere..... but there's the occasional use for it. Pic of a train ticket. I don't know if the photos are reduced in quality when they're uploaded to CB, but on this, you can make out the anti-counterfeit watermark on the ticket in detail.
    Attached Thumbnails What's this talk about a crappy camera?-photo-6-.jpg  
    10-21-12 08:54 AM
  24. qbnkelt's Avatar
    Seriously?
    The close up of Billy with his head down was taken with the 9900.
    The close up of Billy looking away from the camera was taken with the iPhone.

    Are you SERIOUSLY saying the quality is comparable? Do you want me to take a picture of the exact same thing with all three phones and post it here? Do you REALLY want me to do that? I can tell you the results won't be to your liking.
    What's this talk about a crappy camera?-12894_10151102515740735_735684855_n.jpg
    What's this talk about a crappy camera?-550611_10151104105275735_775628709_n.jpg
    esk369 and richardat like this.
    10-21-12 08:54 AM
  25. belfastdispatcher's Avatar
    Examples of fast shutter speed:
    Attached Thumbnails What's this talk about a crappy camera?-img-20120819-00054.jpg   What's this talk about a crappy camera?-img-20120824-00197.jpg   What's this talk about a crappy camera?-img-20120823-00150.jpg   What's this talk about a crappy camera?-img-20120819-00037.jpg   What's this talk about a crappy camera?-img-20120819-00053.jpg  

    10-21-12 08:54 AM
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