'Hey you! Japanese!'
Anyone who have been to the Amsterdam Red Light District will know that, or the tour manager will advise you that, you are not to allowed to photograph the prostitutes parading in the cubicles. The ladies are at work and they are protected by the 'mafia' who mind the flesh industry. Secondly, pick-pockets are rampant as Amsterdam is a cosmopolitan of many nationals. It's not necessary to flash your digital gear around or the risk is entirely yours.
Mindful of the risks, I tried to push my luck a little by using the LG Chocolate phone which I brought along -- snap some quick photos and, perhaps, test its picture quality with the 1.3-megapixel CCD under unassuming conditions.
This is one which I took with the LG Chocolate at the entrance to the RLD around 10.00pm. The summer sun was fast setting, giving it a twilight mood.
The picture you see above did not go through any digital post-processing and, at 640x480 resolution with 1.3-megapixel sensor, you can't possibly ask for more. The sensor touch control, a feature that's ONLY available on LG Chocolate in the market now, allowed me to snap any sneaky photo in a jiffy! The shutter of LG Chocolate is as responsive as my mind had wanted! I was reeling with pleasure at my catch and then...
"HEY YOU! JAPANESE!" There was a raised voice near me. A police van. The policeman at the wheel, I saw him giving instructions to his subordinates several streets ago. He was using eye contact to signal me to get near him. Trouble? I obliged and got near him. (Niamah, don't you see I'm a proud Malaysian and I am using a Korean phone lah.)
"You Japanese?""No. I come from Malaysia. Trouble Sir?"
"Ohhh... You from Malaysia?"
"I know. I shouldn't shoot at the shops in this area..."
"Kuala Lumpur haa?"
"Yes, Kuala Lumpur. I will be very careful. I won't shoot the ladies at work."
"No camera. No expensive phones. Pick-pockets, you know! Trouble. You Malaysia no pick-pockets?"
At that point, I knew I broke no laws and continued bull-shitting with him.
Come to think of the LG Chocolate, it does give me reasonable quality when shooting the streets. This one taken near the Parliament House in The Hague, below, clearly shows that it is capable of capturing details. I put it through some digital post-processing and the finesse comes out.
Read on for more pictures.
The following three pictures were taken when I roamed the streets in The Hague. It was high noon, and I had wanted to test Chocolate LG's performance under high contrast, condition that even digital SLR may not guarantee good returns.
As you can see, using the default settings of the phone-camera, I chose high contrasts of intense light outdoor ajnd the dark shades in the shadow. Clarity was obviously compromised. As I couldn't see clearly into the LCD screen under the hot sun, I think my hand shook, hence the blurry pictures.
Before the flight home, I took yet another shot at the outdoor performance of the LG Chocolate in my departure lounge.
This one, below, was taken behind a wall-height class window, tinted and about a quarter-inch thick. The indoor is shaded, so I could see the LCD screen clearly, while the outdoor is a late morning sun at low altitude. As the glass window is tainted, shooting through it is like shooting with the aperture at half an F-stop under.
Surprisingly, the Chocolate gives me a bracket of three shots to compare. All are exposure under.
Then, an auto prompt pops up the Chocolate's LCD, asking me whether I want to swift to a high light source, or in camara jargon, to shoot with a bigger aperture open. There are three steps to adjust the light intesity upwards, each with live demos. I chose one-step up and here is the picture -- no digital post processing.
It will be a pity when LG Malaysia repossesses my Chocolate at the end of the preview. I have grown to like it more for my stealth photo projects.
NOTE: All images captured on LG Chocolate are at 640x480 resolutios with 1.3 megapixel sensor. They have been resized to 500-pixel width to fit the configuration of this blog.
Comments
Hehe... I tot I were reading KennySia...
Well, Jeff why dont you ask LG if they can give you extra good price in exchange for your Test Drive help. Token Price would be nice, and its not even a car, wont be very expensive rite?
Tun got to test drives Proton for quite some times also what? Ohh.. does Pak Lah get to test drive NEO now?
Posted by: -ah-Liong![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jeffooi.com/nav-commenters.gif)
|
June 20, 2006 12:13 PM
Hmm the LG pictures don't look that great.
The snaps from my k750 seem much clearer, better white balance, highlights not blown out etc.
LG is supposed to be using CCD too?!
Check out some k750 samples here:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/k750i/pool/
Posted by: ShaolinTiger![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jeffooi.com/nav-commenters.gif)
|
June 20, 2006 01:35 PM
seriously, anything is better than O2 Mini or Atom ! they are complete waste of technology to place cameras on my phone ! UGHGHGH...
Dopod on the other hand, is amazingly SHARP! sharper than any Phone camera i have seen.
Jeff, where's the pros working in cubicle you SNapped ?
JEFF OOI says: You worked for the 'mafia'? :-)
Posted by: terenceg![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jeffooi.com/nav-commenters.gif)
|
June 20, 2006 04:08 PM
Frankly speaking, crappy pictures. Sony Ericsson's w800i much better.
Nevertheless, it is interesting to see how LG targets celebrities (including bloggers) to 'hard sell' their phones. And I thought that you get to keep it at the end? No? I'm not quite impressed with slide phones though; sorry.
Oh, speaking of the Red Light District, nobody stopped me what...but I snapped at night lar...did not dare to shoot those pros though.
And yeah, ALL yellow-skinned people are Japanese/China-Chinese to them...
Posted by: howsy![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jeffooi.com/nav-commenters.gif)
|
June 20, 2006 07:05 PM
When I was at Amsterdam Chinatown, a guy came up to me and threaten to rob my SLR. And it was in broad daylight! Fortunately, he was a man of words and not action. He left after I ignored his threats.
terenceq: I have a dopod 577w running on 1.3mpx camera. The quality is not that superb though.
Posted by: xes![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jeffooi.com/nav-commenters.gif)
|
June 20, 2006 09:55 PM
somebody should create online petition with title like "I think LG Chocolate Phone is cool and Jeff Ooi should keep his."
Posted by: Steve![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jeffooi.com/nav-commenters.gif)
|
June 21, 2006 01:01 AM
hi
frankly speaking i agree that the pics are not really that good.
Samsung E730 snaps better ones.
but good review though. thanks dude...hopefully we'll see other products.
good work....
Posted by: i2ammar![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jeffooi.com/nav-commenters.gif)
|
June 22, 2006 08:38 AM