Following on from my camera/camcorder series here on AAS, here's a look at the pros and cons of adding focussing to video capture in Symbian smartphones. What should a manufacturer do? What's the best way forwards? Is continual auto-focus practical yet? Is initial focus necessarily better than a preset focus? The pros and cons may surprise you...
Read on in the full article.
Yes, I'm surprised the fluid lens isn't already built into phones - philips announced this over 5 years ago...
I think personally that 2 focal settings would be enough. Nokia N95, N82 and N86 pre focus of approx 2m is good enough but they should include a macro focus mode in video record. I don't think that pre focus every time is neccessary and maybe that is why Samsung removed it from the production release of the i8910.
The N96/N97 idea of setting focus to infinity is a rediculous idea and makes the experience far less appealing.
Yade, not a bad idea, but then why not include the initial focus as the second option instead of the macro one? That would cover everything.
It really isn't there anymore on the i8910? Shame. Can you perhaps switch it on in this handy service menu they included?
@yade: Though note that the N96 v30 firmware brings back pre-set focus, a la N95. I'm hoping they can add these software drivers to the N97 as well.
leave these so called technology, my 3 year old SE w810 with modified drivers can do manual focus on the fly.
Great overview Steve.
I remember the mighty N93i with continuous autofocus. I've popped up some clips to YouTube as I thought other readers might be interested in seeing what it was capable of.
I'm sure it'll be back soon, one way or another. ^_^