Picture Imperfect

I'm a photography junkie — so much so that my 10-month-old knows to smile every time I put a camera up to my face. So I was excited to test Sprint PCS's new PCS Vision Samsung color phone and attachable camera from Infohand. The thought of being able to send photos wireless-style is pretty appealing for any part-time paparazzi.

For starters, the pocket-sized digital camera proved surprisingly lightweight. After firing off some test shots of the aforementioned tot, I tackled the downloading process. Plugging the camera into the bottom of the phone, I scrolled down the menu choices to find the “Pictures” option, and then chose “Camera.” All easy enough.

I watched during the eight-second loading stretch anticipating a baby's face, but the first picture showed blurry, gray nothingness. I scrolled to the second — same result. The fourth picture was better, the fifth another blurry mess. Ultimately, I salvaged three decent snapshots out of 10 in my first go-round, and about 50% of my second batch turned out surprisingly well.

Part of the frustration with wireless photo transmission — at least with the Sprint PCS setup — is not seeing immediately whether the photos turned out. That's one of the main advantages of bypassing the one-hour photo hut and going digital. Also, when I e-mailed myself one of the photos (from the loaner phone's pre-programmed e-mail address), it came into my inbox looking like any other hunk of spam: “A picture from my Sprint PCS Vision Camera” in the subject line is pretty close to “Come see me on my new Web cam” and other assorted junk that wears out my delete key.

A digital camera/mobile phone is compelling in theory, but until handset makers integrate the camera inside the phone, it's likely to be a tough sell to photo-philes like me who want to capture the moment, quickly look at it and send it right off. Maybe Sprint PCS jumped the gun — if so, they wouldn't be the first to make an ill-considered foray into the world of photography. Just so long as their excuse isn't, “We were young… and we needed the money!”