Camera

The M500 features a 1.3-megapixel camera lens capable of shooting photos and videos to be viewed and sent to friends via MMS (Multimedia Messaging), Bluetooth, and PictBridge.

Best described as average, the M500's camera doesn't give the best of what the latest camera phones have to offer. Taking average photos with decent clarity and color, the lack of a flash requires increased reliance on white balance and brightness features during low light.

The camera features a variety of ways to get creative and customize shots with seven different color filters and 10 "fun frames" - decorative borders and images that can be superimposed over the photo.

Its viewfinder can also adjust from full screen to widescreen, which is a good feature to have for panoramic shots. Other features include a 5 or 10 second self-timer, multi-shot option, four shutter sounds and silent mode. There is also a 4x zoom that can be used only when resolution is switched below the default 1280 x 960 px, to 640 x 480 px (High), 320 x 240 px (Medium) or 176 x 220 px (Low). Additionally, picture quality can be modified between Fine, Normal and Economy.

The same settings modifications are available in the 176 x 144 px camcorder mode, which shoots at 13 frames per second with sound and can provide decent audio quality, so long as the sound source isn't too close to the phone.

One of the more impressive features of the M500 is that it provides multiple ways to save and send images to friends. Users can choose between MMS (Multimedia Messaging), Bluetooth or PictBridge, which allows them to print directly from a digital camera to a printer without a PC. Consumers can also store and keep track of photos and videos in three different places: in the M500's 53.0 MB internal storage, on an included external 32 MB microSD card (additional cards can be purchased separately) or emailed to an online album.

With so many other camera phones touting higher megapixel quality, like the 2.0-megapixel SPH-M610 or the 3.2-megapixel SCH-A990, the M500 isn't necessarily for someone looking for a top tier camera phone. But it certainly has the basics - standard color and resolution, plus a great number of options for sharing and modifying pictures.

Overall, the M500 provides standard camera and video quality for a cell phone with its main highlight being ample storage space for image files.

< Prev Next >

This article is Copyright 2002-2009 Mobiledia Corp. and the review in part or in whole may NOT be reproduced in any electronic or printed medium without prior permission from Mobiledia. For information on reproducing any part of this review (or any images) please contact us.