Camera Basics
Lens Cover - The lens cover takes after the Sony T-series. The slider cover has been getting mixed reviews, the main complaints have been, lens cover being too loose, which causes the lens cover to open at unexpected times, such as in one’s pocket. Before I actually had the chance to test the K790, I had a feeling these criticisms may have some ground. I previously owned a Sony T-series camera that used a sliding lens cover as well. The lens cover would open accidentally in my pocket as I walked, it wasn’t frequent enough to become a real hassle, but the problem did exist. So when I got my hands on the K790 I paid close attention to the lens cover, checking how secure the lens cover was to the handset. I’ve tested two different K790 handsets over a time period of 2-weeks and found the lens cover did it’s job just fine. As with most smooth metallic surfaces, the lens cover attracts finger prints like a pro, but this is easily avoided by using the edges of the lens cover to activate the camera.
Flash - The Xenon flash capability was big news when the K800 was released in Asia, before the K800, cell phone cameras used LED flash or torchlight(think flashlight). Xenon flash provides a much stronger source of light, that gives more natural looking results compared to LED flash and also allows for shorter shutter times, thus reducing the chances of photo blur. With the great benefits of Xenon flash comes one glaring weakness, high power consumption. In my testing, I found the flash range of the K790 to be roughly 12 feet.
Focus - The K790 does an excellent job of focusing on it’s subjects, whether it’s in well lit conditions or complete darkness, thanks to the AF(auto-focus) assist lamp. The AF lamp is integrated with the Xenon flash module, if you look closely at the image above, you can see a translucent circle on the right edge of the Xenon flash module, that’s the AF lamp. The AF lamp also has the ability to reduce red eye, it pulses a few flashes to help the eye adjust before the actual shot is taken. As you could imagine, the flash pulses have adverse effects on battery life, so use sparingly.
In macro mode the closest an object can be is 5.2mm, anything closer and the AF will not lock. In terms of focus, people have said auto mode will do just as well as macro mode for close up shots. I made a mental note to test this, I learned there actually is a difference. When focus is set to auto mode the closest distance for AF to lock was a little over 13mm, that’s more than twice the distance of macro mode, so using macro mode does make a significant difference.
BestPic - This is considered by Sony Ericsson as a new feature, it supposedly takes 4 pictures before and after camera button is pressed, then the user would choose which pictures out of the 9 to save. I find it hard to believe BestPic really works the way they described it. I think BestPic is a fancy way of saying Burst Shot, which has been around for ages, the key difference being BestPic allows you to choose which pictures to save, where as Burst Shot does not. Initially when the camera button is half-pressed, the camera will attempt to get a focus lock on the subject. Once focus is locked then the user would go on to a full press of the camera button, taking 9 shots in rapid succession.
If BestPic really did work as Sony Ericsson describes, it would be silly to waste 4 shots while the camera is attempting to focus on the subject, resulting in only 5 focused shots. Another detail that readers should be aware of is the quality of BestPic photos are normal and not fine. Normal photos are usually 500KB in size and fine photos are 800KB.
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Filed under: Sony Ericsson
14 Comments
Odd question, but I just bought one of these bad boys in the UK when i was visiting, vendor told me it was unlocked and I found that to be certainly untrue when I came back to the states. Now for the last 3 weeks I have been using it as a $200 paperweight. I’ve visited about 2 dozen shops around Chicago and a handful of websites and still can’t find anyone to unlock it, you wouldn’t by any chance know anyone who can unlock it?
Now, you really pushed me into buying this phone. Thank you very much for the great review. I will be going back here for more updates. MORE SE REVIEWS!
Eja,
Hehe, just try to remember, I’m not a salesman, I just try to show the product for what it is. I’m glad you enjoyed the review and I hope the product is everything you expected it to be.
As much as I’d love to do only SE phone reviews, I’d rather not give readers the impression that this site is a SE only site. No worries though Eja, I promise you that I’ll continue reviewing more SE products in the future.
joel… i dont know that too.. i suggest u fly back 2 the uk and kick that guys ass XD other than that…
hmmmm… try some asian stores… they can usually unlock anything but for a price…i think its close 2 $100 CND (im from canada) sry dude thats the best i can do
Thanks Kai for your help. I ended up selling it on craigslist to another Chicago resident who, lucky for him, visits the UK so much that he has a vodafone contract out there.
I would personally like to see a review of the iPhone. Gimme!!!
Hi i purchased the Sony Ericsson K790a brand new on ebay and when i recieved the phone it was locked to Rogers. I thought the phone came unlocked and I have a T-mobile sim card that I was wanting to use with the phone.. Do you know the best possible way that I could have the phone unlocked so I can use my sim card with the phone??
Thanks for your time!
Kyle
Kyle,
Excuse the late reply, I was managing the website’s database and lost some recent changes made to the site, such as your comment. I managed to retrieve your comment and repost it.
About your problem, I found some bits of info that will help point you in the right direction.
If you have a friend that uses Rogers, you could ask them to pretend they own your phone, and ask the customer service reps about getting unlock codes. Depending on the cellular provider, they have different rules for allowing unlocks, some more difficult than others.
For example, Cingular will only let you unlock your phone if you are traveling out of the country, and you have to go through a lot of questions with their fraud team before they actually give you the code. They also check to see how long you’ve been using that particular phone, and if it hasn’t been long or at all, they don’t give you the code.
I’ve never dealt with Rogers, so here’s to hoping they are lax about unlocking code policies.
For more information on the topic visit this website.
mucha, como le puedo meter windows xp a un sony ericsso w810′
porfa duganme se los agradecere
I recently got Sony Ericsson Camera phone, but I didn’t get the software to upload pictures to laptop, What do I do, how do I transfer my pictures to pc.. please help
Sara,
You can transfer the photos from the SE phone by going to Start > My Computer then double click the SE phone, it should show up as an external USB, from there jump into the folders until you find the photos you are looking for. Then it’s just a matter of dragging and dropping the photos onto your desktop. Let me know if you are still having issues. I’ll be glad to help.
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