Camera Phone

A camera phone is a mobile phone which is able to capture still photographs (and usually video). Since early in the 21st century the majority of mobile phones in use are camera phones.

Most camera phones are simpler than separate digital cameras. Their usual fixed focus lenses and smaller sensors limit their performance in poor lighting. Lacking a physical shutter, most have a long shutter lag. Flash, where present, is usually weak. Optical zoom and tripod screws are rare. Some also lack a USB connection, removable memory card, or other way of transferring their pictures more quickly than by the phone's inherent communication feature.

Some of the more expensive camera phones have only a few of these technical disadvantages, which apply most acutely in low light conditions and in any case have not inhibited their widespread use. Most model lines improve in these regards every year or two. Some, such as the Droid Incredible only have a menu choice to start an application program to activate the camera. Others, such as the BlackBerry Storm2, Droid X, Motorola V980 and Nokia 5800 also have a separate camera button for quickness and convenience. Windows Phones can be configured to operate as a camera even if the phone is asleep. Some camera phones are designed to resemble separate low-end digital compact cameras in appearance and to some extent in features and picture quality, and are branded as both mobile phones and cameras, including certain Sony phones.

The principal advantages of camera phones are cost and compactness; indeed for a user who carries a mobile phone anyway, the additional size and cost are negligible. Smartphones that are camera phones may run mobile applications to add capabilities such as geotagging and image stitching. A few high end phones can use their touch screen to direct their camera to focus on a particular object in the field of view, giving even an inexperienced user a degree of focus control exceeded only by seasoned photographers using manual focus.