HTC Excalibur S620 review | Camera
HTC Excalibur S620 - Camera
Like practically every other phone nowadays, the HTC S620 has a digital camera. The HTC Excalibur S620's camera has a resolution of 1.3 Megapixels, which is hardly the highest resolution around. Despite this, the camera takes reasonably high-quality pictures. You can activate the camera in two ways, either via the menu (if you use the camera often via the Top 10 in the start up display) or by a key combination on the keyboard. After the camera has been activated via the menu or the key combination, it takes a while before you can use it. This is either due to its rather limited buffer, slow image processor or the internal memory's slow processing speed.
HTC Excalibur S620 - Delay
The confirmation key in the middle of the phone functions as a shutter release for the camera. The HTC's camera reacts almost immediately, but I still found a slight interval of the shutter release. Fortunately the shutter lag wasn't long enough to be a nuisance, but you would be better off with a normal digital camera or the Sport setting if you want super speed pictures. If you go for the latter option, the HTC S620 can take 3 or 5 photos in succession very rapidly. This is the first time I've seen a function like this in a mobile phone.
HTC S620 - Quality setting
HTC S620 - Quality setting
The camera has various quality settings that can be accessed via the settings menu. The highest camera resolution is 1280x1024 pixels. You can also choose a low resolution (640x480 pixels), medium resolution (320x240 pixels), or super low resolution (160x120 pixels). After you have chosen a resolution, you can still choose from a range of quality settings: normal, fine and superfine quality. In the menu where you can select the quality setting, there is an option for putting a date on the photo.
HTC S620 - Record mode
HTC S620 - Record mode
The HTC S620 has various record modes. You can simply save the photos as photo, but you can also choose to make a video of MMS video if you go to the menu function record mode. If you want to show your contacts with a photo, you can select the function "depict contact," this function ensures that you can attach a photo directly to a contact person. There are also the image theme and sport functions. With the image theme function you can choose a nice frame and then take pictures. For example, you can also put three different people or objects in one frame, which is nice!
HTC S620 - White balance
HTC S620 - White balance
When taking photos you will notice that occasionally, the colours are not quite right. You can correct this using the white balance. You can choose from: automatic, daylight, night, sparkling and fluorescent. In daylight, outside, I found that the automatic white balance was satisfying and that the photos didn't show any large colour deviations. In addition to this, there are also various special digital effects. You can choose from grey, sepia, cool and negative. You can combine these effects with the aforementioned image theme, a combination that gives really nice photos. So, you can also give a free rein to your creativity with the HTC S620.
On-screen camera settings
HTC Excalibur S620 - Camera
If the HTC's camera is activated, you can change some settings directly. You can use the select key to zoom in and out by pressing it upwards or downwards. You can determine the brightness of the photos by pressing the same key to the left and right. Of course, this brightness function does not make up for the fact that HTC has not fitted a small flash on the HTC S620, but at least you have something to improve photographs taken in dark lighting conditions. If the object to be photographed has been selected, you will see a lot of pixels on the picture before the shutter is pressed in, but after the shutter key has been pressed, the picture is clear again and very good indeed for a 1.3 Megapixel camera.
Advanced settings menu
HTC Excalibur S620 - Menu
Finally, we come to the HTC Excalibur S620's advanced camera-settings menu. Via this menu you can change settings like the record format, but they could have left this setting out as far as I'm concerned because you can only choose from the JPEG format. Fortunately, the HTC S620 also allows you to turn off the shutter sound. As the HTC Excalibur S620's shutter sound is very loud and anything but attractive, it's a good thing that this option is available. If you leaf to page 2 of the advanced settings menu you will find the vibration adjustment function. You can use the vibrations adjustment function if taking photographs indoors in artificial lighting as this setting absorbs the vibration waves of the artificial light. You can choose from the following options: automatic, 50Hz and 60Hz.
Editing and sending photos
HTC Excalibur S620 - Editing
The HTC S620 enables you to edit photos in various ways after they have been taken. You can make a selection, cut it out and place it straight when your photos are still turned. It is also possible to adjust the brightness and colours of the photos. After all the selections have been made and photos are neatly turned up the right way and the colours and brightness have been adjusted, you can show them to everyone. The HTC S620 also gives you several possible ways to do this: you could, for example, make a slideshow or send the photos to your friends via MMS, MSN or E-mail. You could also choose to transfer the photos to a computer or laptop via USB cable or Bluetooth. Transferring 52.6MB took two and a half minutes using the USB cable that came with the phone.
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