Nikon, Canon, Olympus or Sony? Which is the world’s largest selling digital camera? The answer will take you by surprise — the international “best-selling” digital camera company is none other than Nokia. Convergence is everywhere. Gone are the days when a camera was just a camera, an MP3 player just an MP3 player and a phone simply a device to make and receive calls. The mobile phone, for instance, enables you to perform a whole range of activities — be it watching films, sending faxes or clicking photographs.

Camera phones, in fact, are no longer the fancy, luxury items they once used to be. With all leading companies slashing prices, such a phone is very much within the reach of the ordinary man.

However, the cameras in all these phones are not equally sophisticated. There are differences in resolution, quality, zoom, file formats and photo handling. So it is imperative that one checks out certain things before zooming in on a camera phone.

The main feature — usually also the bone of contention — is the resolution. This aspect is getting better each day, and a digital resolution of two megapixel is now commonplace. (Digital cameras capture images as pixel elements, known as pixels. More pixels mean higher image resolution. Resolution relates primarily to print size and the amount of detail an image has when viewed on a computer monitor at 100 per cent). An ever-raging war seems to be on as to what megapixel is good enough for quality pictures. It is said that the higher the megapixel, the better the picture quality. Or is this a myth?

“A two megapixel camera phone will suffice if you are happy to just capture a particular moment. But if you want to print the pictures you should definitely opt for a camera phone of five or more megapixels. The print quality of a picture clicked with a two megapixel camera phone will definitely be poor,” says Pritee Shah, editor of Insight, a consumer magazine published from Ahmedabad that tries to raise public awareness.

Professional photographer Desh Kalyan Chowdhury seconds Shah’s opinion. “The difference is not so much in picture quality but in enlargement. A larger resolution camera helps when you want to print pictures,” he says. There are other phones that come with VGA resolution, an analogue graphics display system. Since analogue resolution isn’t as good as digital resolution, images taken with VGA cameras are of lower quality and don’t usually print very well, although they can be viewed on a computer.

Tushar Kanwar, a Bangalore-based technology writer, says, “The megapixel should be two or above, though some of the best pictures I have seen were taken on a two megapixel camera and not a high resolution one. One must keep in mind, though, that camera phones perform best in daylight, and do badly in low light.”

Second on the checklist is zoom. Unlike old analogue cameras, camera phones can have two types of zoom. The camera itself can provide a zoom, which is usually pretty good. But it can also specify a second zoom value, which essentially means that the software inside the phone is zooming in and taking the image. This is actually quite useless, since any image manipulation programme can do it, and it also reduces the image quality. So if you want to click images from afar, you will want a high enough zoom. “One should understand that a camera phone can never be a substitute for a proper camera. You cannot use the maximum zoom with a camera phone, no matter how high priced it is. The picture quality invariably deteriorates when you zoom in,” says Bijoy Chowdhury, a Calcutta-based international award-winning photographer.

The more common digital zoom enlarges the area in the centre of the image and crops the edges, stretching each pixel as it does so. Thus the more you zoom in, the more the quality of the image deteriorates, thanks to the stretching. Optical zoom, on the other hand, ensures that the image is a true image as opposed to a stretched one. And so the quality is as good as if the object were near. However, this type of zoom is not widely available on camera phones yet. “Zoom is almost always digital, so I don’t place any emphasis on that,” says Kanwar.

Next comes the flash. A built-in flash is growing in popularity but the effect is rarely as good as that on an actual camera. Flashes do, however, let you take photos in poor light. So it’s a definite advantage if you want to take photos of a night out.“A xenon flash is handy. The other light-emitting diode (LED) varieties are pitiful beyond a feet from the phone,” says Kanwar.

Most cameras have the “night mode” option, so even if you don’t have a flash you should still be able to click pictures after the sun has set. This mode, however, has a tendency to distort colours.

“A built-in flash is obviously a better option as the night mode has a tendency to sensitise the features,” says Desh Kalyan Chowdhury.

Another feature you must carefully examine is the memory card. “Check out the memory pad. Do find out how many pictures you can click after charging your phone. Many a time it so happens that you click a picture only to find that the battery has run out,” says Shah. You’ll be able to store more pictures by saving them on the memory card, if the phone has one. You may also store your pictures in the phone itself. Memory cards are removable and can be connected to compatible computers, where you can download your photos to the hard disk. “The memory back-up and storage capacity of a phone should definitely be checked out,” advises Bijoy Chowdhury.

Do not forget the software. Some phones come with special software and cables to connect to a computer so that you can easily download your photos, videos and contacts. You’ll have to install the software in your computer to be able to use this facility.

Bluetooth may be used to print photos wirelessly, provided you have a bluetooth-capable printer. However, not all bluetooth-capable phones support printing. Look for a phone that has a “print” or “send” feature so that you can send a photo to a printer via bluetooth.

Camera phones are available in a wide range of prices. The VGA ones start as low as Rs 3,000 while high-end varieties with an 8-megapixel resolution can make you poorer by Rs 50,000. It is advisable to first check out the services you want of a camera phone before buying one.

“But a camera phone is no substitute for a regular camera. It is only the best option for instant clicking where spontaneity matters, not quality,” sums up Shah. So arm yourself to freeze those beautiful moments.