Sony Ericsson c905a

Simply an evaluation/review/commentary of the c905a phone (which I purchased myself, no sponsor and no bias – although I’m always open to free phones, if you’re offering)  and a comparison test between the c905a and a nikon d50.

This is not a full phone comparisson/shootout/what have you… merely a text and examples of the shooting capabilities of the Sony Ericsson c905a, with the Nikon D50 used as more of a benchmark and reference point than a true comparison. I realize that there are significant differences between the SE c905 and the D50, and they don’t compare directly. I have a background in photography more so than in cell phones, so this test of the cell phone is more photographically based than a phone test.

I’ll add and update this page as I make further comparisons, so this is neither complete nor thorough. I just needed a place to visualize comparisons and jot down some of my thoughts.

Thoughts on the 905 camera user interface

Hopefully coming soon. After experimenting with the phone, there are many features and interesting aspects of the camera that I hadn’t seen mentioned previously. I hope to get ‘em up soon.

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Macro focus samples

Initial shot of the scene with Nikon D50 with 50mm ƒ1.8, shot as close as focus would allow:

Nikon D50 – 50/ƒ1.8

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Sony c905a with all settings auto, excepting focus set to macro instead of auto (as close as focus would allow, using the center-most coin as focus point)

Sony Ericsson c905a; auto w/ macro focus

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Nikon d50 with Micro-Nikkor 55/3.5 MF lens, shot to approximate c905a’s field of view:

Nikon D50; Micro-Nikkor 55/3.5 @ ƒ3.5

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The depth of field of the micro-nikkor at ƒ3.5 (above) is significantly narrower than that of the c905a, so I attempted to shoot with the micro-nikkor at 5.6 to approximate an equal DOF:

Nikon D50; Micro-Nikkor 55/3.5 @ ƒ5.6

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and hence the darker exposure at ƒ5.6 vs ƒ3.5, I attempted to use exposure compensation on the c905a to equal the exposure above:

Sony Ericsson c905a; auto, macro focus, -0.7 exposure compensation

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100% crop to 300×300px:

Sony C905a  (above)  Nikon D50 (below)

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I set the Nikon with the Macro Lens at it’s closest possible focus, levels adjusted in PS to compensate for dark exposure to approximate the c905a’s exposure:

Nikon D50; Micro-Nikkor 55/3.5

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To compare, using the c905a, I set the digital zoom to attempt to approximate an equal field of view:

Sony Ericsson c905a, auto, digital zoom of roughly 33%

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And just for kicks, I set the zoom higher… approximately 2/3 of the way to max zoom (i’ve attempted many c905a shots at max and close-to-max zoom and the image quality is essentially unusable. 1/2 to 2/3 is about the highest usable digital zoom):

Sony Ericsson c905a, auto, digital zoom of roughly 60%

All in all, in the macro realm, the SE c905 did pretty well.

Focusing: The autofocus locked quickly (partly due to a surprisingly bright autofocus light.

Exposure: I intentionally gave it a relatively simple lighting situation to deal with. The wide spectrum of exposure probably helps. It seemed to have a tendency to overexpose slightly, whether general or spot metered.

White balance: I chose a white backdrop to help with white balance. I had placed the same shot on a yellow-ish birch table, and both the SE phone and the Nikon had difficulty properly exposing. Auto WB on the SE seems to gravitate toward a more neutral, muted color palette (not necessarily a bad thing for a camera phone). I’ll do a full WB down the road.

Resolution: I’ll let you be the judge. Again, a relatively even and simple range of exposure values, so there’s not a ton of difficulty. On the whole, I feel like it does a pretty decent job in this situation.

The next test

To be decided in the near future (after I finish moving and have a bit more free time).