Sony Ericsson Cyber-shot C905 review

 

Let’s first salute the ergonomics of the C905, uncompromising for its use. Indeed, Sony Ericsson smartly assigned a specific task to each side of the cellular: on the “A side” is a cellphone that looks like a candybar with the digits and various keys dedicated to phone calls.

On the “B side” is a digital camera, the lens of which is hidden under a protective cover which activates the camera when you slide it to the side. Again, it is the very same design that made the Sony T300, T900, etc successful. It is handy and efficient – as each side is dedicated to a specific usage, you have all the necessary controls within reach, no matter if you wish to phone or take pictures: slide the cover to the side to activate the camera, grab the phone horizontally like a standard camera, and on the side of the phone i.e. the top of the camera now (attention, please!) you’ll find controls such as the trigger. The button to switch from photo to video is also well done and very handy.

 

 

On top of its 8.1 megapixels, the Cybershot C905 offers various functions of photo assistance such as the autofocus, Face recognition, a new function called Smart Contrast, the BestPic function and red-eye correction. We’ve even heard of an image stabilizer, but unfortunately it remains a sort of stabilizer as it is only digital. The camera is also equipped with a xenon flash in continuous light and with a flash with a more classical set off, an unusual thing on camera phones, which in general only sport a little lamp. There are numerous functions dedicated to photography, scene modes are even available. Settings such as white balance or exposure correction are available and help give the C905 a “photo” aspect.

 

However, the basis of a digital camera has always been, above all, a lens worthy of this name and on the C905, we have to be satisfied with a fixed focal of the minimalist needle-tip type. Any photographer knows that the main element in photography is the lens. Users of this SE C905 will have to do without optical zoom. In this case, can it really be considered as a camera?

Yes, the double flash of the Sony Ericsson C905 is efficient and powerful. But it seems that this power is hardly managed by the exposure algorithms, which absolutely don’t measure the flash light – its flash lighting seems irreparably fixed. So watch out for foregrounds faded by the flash light and backgrounds hidden in darkness. Not a very photogenic result…

 

 

There are very few cameras equipped with a built-in GPS module (e.g. the Nikon P6000). It is much more common to have a geo-positioning module on a cellphone. The C905, synthesis of both worlds, is equipped with a GPS chip which allows automatic geo-tagging of your pictures. Google Earth fans, the C905 is a good option for you!

 

Think of the first digital cameras and how slow they were to start, trigger, focus, process and record pictures, which kept the camera busy for several seconds. Well, the Sony Ericsson C905 is even worse, and it seems to belong to ancient ages of digital photography.

Being so slow, it gets exasperating and really frustrating using it. With the C905, everything is slow: activating the photo mode, the autofocus, the time-lag when triggering which surely makes you miss the intended picture. Camera processors have been largely improved over the past few years and in 2009, you can even find dual core processors in compact cameras. But on the camera-phone segment, Sony Ericsson undoubtedly let a phone processor perform the job of a photo processor. And here’s the result: the cybershot C905 is fine to help out and take pics every now and then, but completely unrealistic to honestly replace a camera on a daily basis or when travelling.

 

Maybe it should be conceived the other way around: start from the camera to turn it into a phone-camera rather than the opposite …

 

 

The panoramic mode by assembly operates quite well and very easily with assistance for framing, to take pics in the continuity of one another and be sure that the lapping zone is OK. We were partly seduced by the built-in panorama of the C905 which functions quite well as long as there is no foreground. But the "not-very-photographic" aspect of the camera phone is back when you look at the pic that result from the assembly and on which you can see, like here, that the middle picture isn’t exposed in the same way as its neighbours, while the fundamentals of panoramic photo are: same exposure, same white balance, same focus etc… in order to be fully touch-up.

But on the C905, Sony Ericsson skipped over these basic principles, as well as over the possibility for the built-in software to process again the final picture in order to unify the tones.

 

The C905 is first and foremost a phone so it has Blu-Tooth. This little transmission protocol will let you transfer your pics to your computer very easily, without having to plug the camera.

 

The Sony Ericsson C905 remains above all a 3G+ compliant cellphone, with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth but also a GPS module. The screen measures 2.4 inches and displays a QVGA resolution of 240x320 pixels. As regards storage, the C905 is compatible with Memory Stick Micro M2 memory cards.

For a professional use, the C905 is compatible with the sync technology Exchange ActiveSync by Microsoft. The Sony Ericsson Cyber-shot C905 measures 104 x 49 x 18 (19.5) mm for 136 grams.

Being called "Cyber-shot", the name of the digital compact range by Sony, isn’t enough to suddenly become a camera. In terms of electronics, autosuggestion doesn’t work! Though the Sony Ericsson is an excellent cellphone with HSDPA, Wi-Fi, blutooth and even the GPS, all this in a "candy bar" format which is compact and ergonomic, it must be noted that once more the photo offer, although superior to what is usually available on cameraphones, remains way below our expectancies.

 

Of course, the 8-megapixel resolution is comfortable and the offer in photo functions with some rare settings on cameraphones is pleasant, however the C905 remains an ersatz digital camera. The C905, without optical zoom and exasperatingly slow, gives "photos" of which the low dynamics are disappointing. It will be possible and handy to use the Cyber-shot as a backup, to serve as a digital notepad, thanks to its well thought-out double-sided ergonomics, and to the possibility to transfer photos by blue-Tooth. However, as to leaving this cellphone immortalize important events of your life… no, it is not made for this.  

Despite its appealing name the Cyber-shot C905 isn’t a camera worthy of this name, however it remains the “least worse” of cameraphone. In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.... And as each time we review a cameraphone that is said to be very "advanced photographically", we address the following wish to its manufacturer: try again, but try harder...