After about two weeks with the Sony Ericsson Cybershot c905, I have had a fair appreciation of the camera phone. Check out my full review below and the previous unboxing photos I took.
More of a Camera, Less of a Phone.
The construction of the phone itself gives you an impression that the device was built as a camera rather than a phone. That’s not saying that this phone is not well-equipped — WiFi, GPS, and 3G/HSDPA are all present so I give it high ranks on connectivity. There’s Bluetooth, FM tuner and DLNA support so you can send your photos wirelessly from your phone to the TV via Wi-Fi.
This is the first time I ever used a Sony-Ericsson phone but I’m impressed with the UI and the very responsive menu. There’s much eye candy actually but I’m surprised that didn’t slowed down the phone a bit.
Pushing the Megapixel Limit.
If my memory serves me right, it was Sony Ericsson that first announced a camera phone in the 8.1 megapixel range.
You can set the resolution between VGA, 3MP, 5MP and 8MP but at full picture size, a single photo can reach over 2MB (3264x2448pixels). The lens module size is 5.91mm and has a large fixed aperture of f/2.8. The ISO is rated between 80-320 but my Adobe Lightroom reads an ISO 64 on some of the pictures.
Dedicated Camera Functions.
A lot of the external buttons of the phone are dedicated to the camera function. On the right side of the device, you will find the zoom function, switch between video and photo, a dedicated play button and a large circular shoot button.
The buttons at the front side of the phone also doubles for camera function shortcuts — exposure, focus, timing and flash as well as the center shoot button. On the top corner, just beside the earpiece, two more buttons control the preset scenes and shoot modes.
Most of these buttons are back lit so you can easily find them even on low light or shooting at night.
Powerful Flash.
Haven’t seen any phone with as much flash output as the SE c905. The camera lens is encased in an aluminum housing along with two flash sources – a small circular one with 4 LED lights for taking videos and a bigger Xenon flash for taking photos.
I took several shots at daylight, at night as well a controlled environment using my DIY lightbox (more sample shots to follow).
No alterations were made on the pictures except for a resize and high JPEG compression. Without the flash, the picture quality becomes a little grainy on low light. You can zoom in up to 16x but resolution on that end isn’t pretty — that’s just cropping out the image but the 8.1MP helps even out the quality. There are many other bells and whistles that came with the camera functions but I might ran out of space if I list them all down.
The phone comes with a 2GB Memory Stick Micro (M2) and an external USB adapter so you can just plug it in and hook up to your PC for easy file and photo transfers.
All-in-all, I’d call this a solid camera phone and I’m sure Sony-Ericsson fans will love this model. I’m not sure though if the price tag of Php28,000 when it comes out later this month will appeal to many.
@MrLeche
I had the same problems with mine… It’s fun at first but once the defects starts to manifest it’s frustrating, wouldn’t you agree? My phone’s been with the service center for 2 months now… It’s very very VERY unnerving. Now I’m just waiting for them to return it to me so that I could get rid of the damn thing. I’m planning to replace it with a Nokia e72. Its camera is not as good as the c905 but at least it’s very reliable and sturdy.
Anyway… To all SE C905 owners out there (and to those planning to buy it) I read an article about a certain company in the United States recalled all c905 and Satio phones due to the C905’s faulty hardware and Satio’s faulty firmware. It seems SE is desperate to compete with the market that they didn’t put much thought on their products. I just wish the X10 would save the company from this embarrassment.