Source: GSMArena.com

For a while, there I thought that camera manufacturers were the only ones interested in higher megapixel ratings.  Now, it seems that even cell phone cameras are in on the race for higher megapixel capabilities.

The newly released Samsung M8800 cell phone has an 8-megapixel camera built-in among other features.  With the range of features that it has, the list looks more like an enumeration for a camera more than for a phone.  As expected, it is auto-focus with two LED flash and with two video settings:  WVGA (720×480) and VGA (640×480) @30fps video recording.  Additionally, it has a face recognition software with smile and blink detection.  It also has a shake reduction software.  It can shot at an ISO 1600 rating.  For video playback it also has DiVx video.

Yes, it’s being marketed as a phone first, camera second.  However, note that it has a geo-tagging capability for the pictures.  That means that the picture file will contain information of where in the world it was taken.  This is due to the built-in software and the GPS receiver.  At the moment, most camera makers are still in the planning stage of implementing geo-tagging in their cameras.

The camera has no WiFi capability, but it uses a micro-SD for data storage.

It would do well to remember that Samsung also markets a whole line of electronic products which include electronic cameras.

The mega-pixel race for cell phone cameras is escalating fast as there are 10-megapixel cameras coming out soon.

As an aside, breaking news will most probably be increasingly through first-hand eyewitness video from camera phones, as the London tube bombing several years ago has shown.  The videos from the tube were by regular commuters waiting for their train, and capturing the videos using camera phones.

The Samsung M8800 is set to be sold in France by mid-October, 2008 and starting at 550 euros (about US$800).