Camera

With a 3.2-megapixel camera with flash, 2x zoom, auto-focus and video, the Storm is ready to take high-quality photos. It captures higher resolution images than the 2.0-megapixel ones featured on the BlackBerry Bold and Apple's iPhone 3G, although the BlackBerry Curve also offers a 3.2-megapixel camera.

RIM BlackBerry Storm (9530)

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Overall, the Storm camera delivers large photos that faithfully capture true colors and lighting and with the strong flash, few photos came out too dark. In close-up photos, the camera snaps details such as the individual threads in a piece of fabric. The camera also captures details at a distance, including the smaller twigs on branches of a tree.

The camera has an impressive amount of contrast so photos generally do not look washed out or too dark. Colors were brilliant and realistic, for both indoor and outdoor photos.

At night, the camera still works well - when there is at least some light. The flash is relatively strong, and photos is not grainy. Photos taken in dim light captures detail, but users will need to get close to the subject for the flash to work best.

When the Storm is in camera mode, a touch to the menu key brings up the options of "help," "view pictures," "options" and "video camera," among other things.

When a photo is displayed on the screen, there are a number of ways to adjust the camera. Touch the menu key, and up comes a list of options, from "zoom in" to "view photos." If users select "options" at the bottom of the list, it takes them to a screen where they can adjust several things including the default flash setting, white balance, photo size, quality, geotagging and color effects. The last feature includes choices of normal, black and white, sepia and whiteboard.

These menus could sometimes be difficult to use, and in several instances it took multiple attempts to delete a file because a different virtual key remained highlighted despite multiple clicks on the "delete" key.

When a photo is selected by pressing on it, users can pan around the photo and zoom in and out by touching and dragging the photo with a fingertip. As with Apple's iPhone, the touch screen allows users to flip through photo files by swiping their fingers across the screen.

Video recorded indoors with the Storm was occasionally grainy when the video light was turned off, and the transition from landscape to portrait view was delayed once while recording and playing video, with the screen stuck in landscape for a moment. The phone recorded clear sound when it was pointed directly at the sound, although the recording was fuzzy when the device was pointed away from the sound.

The quality of video was good and relatively sharp, although it did not capture colors as true as in still photos. Video taken indoors was slightly grainy. As with still photos, users can adjust the camera by pressing the menu button and selecting "options." They can then turn the video light on or off, select from three color effects and two video formats - normal and MMS mode.

The extremely bright video light on the Storm is almost blinding, but it helps produce decent video even in dimly lit locations. It might also double as a flashlight in a pinch, although a message pops up when users turn on the light, warning that it will sap the battery.

The Storm camera performs well, with great detail, realistic color in most cases, and a strong flash to capture higher quality photos than many other cell phones. When compared with the iPhone 3G camera, however, the Storm camera did not seem quite as sensitive to light. In an office setting, the iPhone was better able to capture the scene as it existed, without requiring the flash. The Storm flash went off automatically in the same location, creating a slightly bluish tinted photo. While the Storm's camera is superior to those on many other cell phones, it still falls short of the iPhone.

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