Yes. I have a Moto RAZR V3, and its max quality is like 800x600. The digital zoom is useless. It's OK if you just need to snap a photo for archival/litigation purposes, but even for candid snapshots it is no good.

I also don't recommend the phone because the vibrate is too gentle (don't say it) and the speaker volume is too low/directional -- you have to hold the phone in just the right position to hear the other person.

eponysterical, Rock Steady ;)

Are they as crappy as I think they are?

Yeah, but that's part of their charm. Go through the camera phone tags at flickr - you'll be surprised how uncrappy some of the photos are. They do have a lot of "atmosphere", if you like that kind of thing. Graininess, softness, whatever.

Check the flickr tag 'cameraphone' for an idea of the quality. On a free phone, you're likely to end up with 640x480 max.

Still, as Rock Steady says, it's nice to have when there is a picture you just have to take and you don't have your regular camera with you.

Yeah, don't get me wrong, I picked the phone partly because of idea of having (an albeit crappy) camera with me at all times, but I knew what I was getting going in on that score (not so much the vibe or the sound).

Here are some images from the phone from a recent trip to see the Sox come all the way back from a 6-run deficit in the bottom of the 8th, only to lose it in the 9th.

Rock Steady -- those are kind of cool. They remind me of a Lomo camera. How many... um... megapixels, I believe the term is, is that camera? As far as I can tell, my choice is between 1 megapixel and and .3 megapixels.

Thanks for that flikr tag. I'm sold -- I could have fun with one of those cameras.

I like those photos a lot too, Rock Steady.

I've been craving a camera phone recently - the pics definitely have a "hypo-real" quality, and they're great for taking pictures of odd things in stores, etc. My guy has a samsung cameraphone - it has almost no focusing capabilities at all but otherwise it's a hoot to use.

I took this photo with my cameraphone; it came out pretty cool. Here are all of mine. They vary in quality based on lighting conditions, etc. My camera is as shitty as they get - 640x480 (.3 megapixels) max resolution.

I got it for the same reason; it came free with my phone. It comes in handy for gotta-have-a-picture moments, but lately I'm thinking I'd rather have a digital camera that is small enough to always have with me.

≡ Click to see image ≡
I took that the other day with mine. It's kind of fun, and it's surprising what it will do, actually.

Phone cameras are great at what they were designed to do (ie quick snapshots that you can easily transfer from one phone to another...or something like that). To expect anything more of them is, well, stupid. But that doesn't mean you can't have fun with one; on the contrary, that's another thing they were (probably) designed for.

Or something.

Well, thanks for the compliments. I am pretty sure the camera in the V3 is less than 1 megapixel - 640x480 max, I think. I guess that's probably the .3 megapixel one.

You may also want to think about how you are going to get at the images. You could email them to yourself, but I don't have a data plan, so I don't do that. The V3 has a regular mini-USB jack, and I use a random mini-USB cable I had from some old MP3 player and a program I ... found ... called mobilePhone tools from Motorola to get pix (and ringtones) on and off of it. If you pick a phone with a proprietary jack, you may have to shell out for a cable that will connect that jack to USB, if you want the images on your computer.

Here are my phonecam photos, taken with my LG slider.

Convenience is indeed the benefit.