[Ferretling]

This morning I wanted to take pictures of the Snowpocalypse, as this storm is truly an historic event: the 3rd-largest (possibly 2nd-largest) snowfall Chicago has experienced since records have been kept. Given that the winds were about 30mph and gusting in the 50s, I wanted something I could slip in my pocket between shots so it would keep dry. So I decided to take out my trusty Style to "document" the event.

All told, the phone worked admirably. Autofocus did have some difficulties when flakes would land on the lens, so I would have to take a longer time waiting for the focus before taking those pictures. There were 2-3 out of 50 where a bit of my glove got in the pic, but I blame the gloves more than camera placement. Some of the pictures are a tad blurry, but that is because the wind kept knocking me and my hand about. (Those were also the ones where the snow got on the lens for autofocus problems.) The only grainy pics were taken without flash from our living room at about dawn-ish. The snow setting worked well and the colors and shadings came out true-to-life. In some pictures the camera even managed to pick up the blowing snow, and when the sun came out brightly, despite the white glare from the snow, they didn't seem overexposed. Below is the link to my Flickr album for examples:

Groundhog Day Storm - Blizzard of 2011

Final verdict: Surprisingly handy gadget to have when the Snowpocalypse comes to your town.

[jpicky86]

lol looks like you had to do just as much shoveling as I did today

[MsFabulous]

Nice! I just took the plunge with Sprint tonight, and am really looking forward to my Style arriving on Friday. My Curve's camera was better than the Pearl's but still way behind. These pics look better than the first 1MP digital camera I had years ago. Am I right in reading comprehension to think that this has a bunch of real camera-like settings to use for different situations? If so, I'm even more stoked. This is the first affordable upgrade that seemed to be a real improvement... please tell me it's true!!! The combination of camera/email/GPS/text/MP3 player is what has kept me on BBs for this long... I think all of my dreams are about to come true if the quality of each of these things has improved as much as I'm hearing!!

[BergerKing]

I think you'll find the Style to be quite a step up from what you're used to. The camera does have a number of mode settings, and does take some pretty sharp pics. Automatic, Face Detection, Party, Snow, Landscape, Portrait, Sports, Close-up, Beach, Night, Text, just to give you an idea.

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[Kerri Neill]

LMAO when I saw the title of this thread. Over here in Bloomington, we got slammed with 15 inches of snow minus the winds you got there in Chicago. I busted out my Style to document the freakish weather as well.

[AnthroMatt]

Thanks for sharing. Although I wouldn't want two feet of snow, it does make me miss the phenomenon known as "weather."

[Ferretling]

It was actually kind of funny. My mom wanted me to take her digital camera with me. I looked out and said, "Is it waterproof?" Well, no, of course it wasn't. And no, neither is my phone, and I don't have a case, but it's a lot easier to keep dry in the pocket. The clamshell itself did a great job of protecting the phone. So the Style actually got chosen over the camera. And, in that wind, with the stability I needed, the much-maligned camera placement was actually a bonus.

I'm not saying it takes professional-level photos, but it's really great to have a decent camera that can document all sorts of picture-worthy things attached to a phone that works and is reliable even in very adverse conditions. (My old Moto RAZR, for example, had to be warmed against the skin in weather under 25F) I'm definitely glad to have the Style as a blogging and Twitter tool.

[danisnotstan]

I think you guys brought some of your snowpocalypse to Phoenix! Man its cold! Being from NJ I'm used to it but it was still unexpected... At least we don't have snow and it'll be back in the mid 70's by the weekend haha sorry... On a related note to the camera... Has anyone else noticed pictures look REALLY hazy and washed out in low light? I know phones don't take the best pictures, especially in low light, but here is what I mean... I take a picture in low light... The image looks great for about 2 seconds as its showing the preview, but I guess as the phone is saving it, a second later it looks like someone spilled milk all over the image! This is on auto settings... Does anyone else experience this? Is there a setting I could adjust? Being that the image looks incredible for a few seconds I would think that it is something that could be corrected as the hardware takes and displays the picture great before the processing or whatever ruins it! Any ideas?

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[AnthroMatt]

How did I not notice you are in PHX? Yeah, it has been crazy cold here. The winds yesterday were NASTY. But still better than Ohio winters that I moved here from.

[danisnotstan]

How did I not notice you are in PHX? Yeah, it has been crazy cold here. The winds yesterday were NASTY. But still better than Ohio winters that I moved here from.

Yep... I'm actually in Chandler now, but close enough.. The only thing worse than the wind was my ***** neighbors wind chime! I seriously wanted to make that thing disappear haha

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[Ferretling]

On a related note to the camera... Has anyone else noticed pictures look REALLY hazy and washed out in low light? I know phones don't take the best pictures, especially in low light, but here is what I mean... I take a picture in low light... The image looks great for about 2 seconds as its showing the preview, but I guess as the phone is saving it, a second later it looks like someone spilled milk all over the image! This is on auto settings... Does anyone else experience this? Is there a setting I could adjust? Being that the image looks incredible for a few seconds I would think that it is something that could be corrected as the hardware takes and displays the picture great before the processing or whatever ruins it! Any ideas?

There are a couple of things you could try. There is a Party setting, and that says it is for "capturing people in dim, indoor environments". There is also a Night setting for "dim, outdoor scenes". You could try either of those. Also you can experiment with putting the flash on Auto or even turning it off. Auto is a good general setting, but indoor lighting and dim lighting can be especially tricky, so I'd experiment with those two settings to help you out.

[Ferretling]

lol looks like you had to do just as much shoveling as I did today

.... there's an app for that ...

[danisnotstan]

There are a couple of things you could try. There is a Party setting, and that says it is for "capturing people in dim, indoor environments". There is also a Night setting for "dim, outdoor scenes". You could try either of those. Also you can experiment with putting the flash on Auto or even turning it off. Auto is a good general setting, but indoor lighting and dim lighting can be especially tricky, so I'd experiment with those two settings to help you out.

Yeah, I have experimented with some of those settings and definitely see an improvement... for example, I took a picture of a receipt and used "Auto" and then "Text" and the "Text" setting looked MUCH better, but no matter what the picture always seems to look better while the image preview is shown before the phone saves it. Does your phone do this?

[Gorilla]

Pics look nice... Man I wish i could trade my bold 9650 for a style.

[stoneTASTIC]

wow! that was a lot of snow! i just wish i could see any kind of snow, not just ice on my truck.