Camera phones are handy for capturing the ordinary — hanging out with friends, your dog chasing its tail — and the extraordinary — the havoc of the London transit bombings, the harrowing pop of gunfire at Virginia Tech.
By e-mailing their camera phone video to news sites and sites on the Internet, people who witnessed the Asian tsunami, comedian Michael Richards’ use of a racial epithet on stage and other memorable moments shared their images with millions.
Though a stroll through image-sharing Web sites YouTube and Flickr might lead you to think every young adult in America is uploading stuff for others to see, market researcher NPD Group says its studies show 80 percent of mobile phone users leave the photos and videos they shoot stored in the phone.
But there’s a lot of image-capturing potential in a lot of handbags and pockets out there. Americans bought 143 million phones last year, and two-thirds of the devices have cameras, NPD says; according to an October report by the research firm Telephia, 3 percent of wireless subscribers — nearly 8 million people — have used their phones to shoot video. That percentage doubles when you talk about folks who have bought a new camera phone in the last six months.
Among young adults, 42 percent of 18- to 24-year-old cell phone users said a camera was of high importance when selecting a wireless phone, according to comScore Networks. In the 25-to-34 age group, 30 percent said a camera was a highly important feature when choosing a cell phone.
Companies such as Verizon Wireless and Sprint want to encourage sharing; sending snapshots or chunks of video from your phone costs you airtime plus the cost of sending a message — 10 to 25 cents.
When the extraordinary happens, news organizations also encourage sharing from people on the scene. Last week CNN repeatedly aired video and audio of gunfire at Virginia Tech, footage captured on a cell phone by grad student Jamal Albarghouti. (CNN’s site: ireport@cnn.com.)
Late last week, Reuters.com’s e-mail newsletter reminded sub-
scribers that they could post their newsworthy images to the You Witness News site, run jointly with Yahoo News ( pics@reuters.com). To be sure, not all camera phones can record video, and many lack the resolution to capture sharp images. But clearly, as more people buy and carry camera phones, the chances increase that when a newsworthy event occurs, someone with a camera phone will be nearby. Even if you never intend to make your images public, these tips will help you get the best results with your phone’s camera.
Keep it steady: Hold your phone with a relaxed hand and wrist to avoid jumpy, jittery shots. If you can, use your non-shooting hand to gently grasp the other wrist, providing support.
Squeeze, don’t punch: It’s tempting to press down on the record button to capture your images, but that jars your phone and creates a blur. Instead, rest your finger on the button and gently squeeze. Try to anticipate the moment; there will be a delay between your button press and the start of image-capturing.
Keep shooting: Whether taking snapshots or capturing video, it’s always better to have more images to choose from than fewer.
Save it to your computer: Camera phones often come with a slot for a microSD memory card and a cable that connects to your computer. Save your images to your card, and when you return home, copy the images from your card to your computer. Your owners manual will tell you how.
If you can’t store to a card, e-mail: When studying the images on your phone, you might see a command such as “Send.” Pressing the button under the word “Send” usually brings up an e-mail form with the familiar “To:”, “Subject:” and “Description” fields. You can e-mail your stuff to your friends, to yourself or to photo- and video-sharing sites such as Flickr (You’ll need to set up an account first.) Note: Video clips are limited to 15 seconds or so. That’s why it’s better to save your longer clips to a memory card and download them to your computer, if your phone provides the option.
If a camera is attached to your phone, you might as well try it; you’ve paid for it. With warmer, clearer weather coming, you’ll have more chances to capture candid moments in interesting places. Practice and experiment; you might discover a new hobby.
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egwinn@tribune.com
