Is ATEKSoft CoolCamera really better at taking photos?

darkdestroyer · 07-11-06, 07:31 PM

This new camera application from ATEKsoft seems to be all the rage on Mobile news sites. While it does offer the added functionality of using your PDA with Camera as a Webcam, I don't believe it improves anything on the photo taking aspect. Instead I believe it's a worse Still Photo application than my built in "Camera" program.

I posted an analysis with photos about this application over at SmartMobileAssets.com

There are a few side by side and hybrid photos that shows the difference (or lack of) between photos taken with this application and the built in Camera application.

Click the link below to see for yourself:
http://smartmobileassets.com/cgi-bin...s,m=1152660405

Menneisyys · 07-12-06, 03:59 AM

First, thanks for the link at the end of your article :)

Well, there're several aspects of taking photos with built-in cameras in PDA's.

First, the quality of the lens system. The most important thing; the one that can't be fixed from software.

Second, the quality of the JPEG compression algorithm, its parameters. If the built-in software ("Camera" in HTC-manufactured devices) is faulty at this, a third-party app will be of great help.

The built-in "Camera" app (I’ll refer to it as "Camera" from now on) isn't at all bad when compared to some older camera applications shipped with CF/SD-based camera cards. With them, CECam, the most widely known third-party camera app for the PPC, helped a lot (see for example Gerard’s posts at Brighthand on this question; for example, here ). With “Camera”, the problem isn’t topical any more because “Camera” already has a decent JPEG compression algorithm, which can’t really be made better.

Menneisyys · 07-12-06, 04:07 AM

BTW, I've linked your article (and this thread) from the PPCMag Expert blog (see this).