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Camcorder Pro for Smartphones

As mentioned in my review of Stunt Car Extreme, I wanted to get a really good piece of camcorder software for my Smartphone. The best one I could find was Philips LifeVibes Camcorder PRO which is actually for the Nokia 6600/6620. Since it's not designed for my phone's hinged-flip pform factor, it has some problems, but I found the quality to be excellent and so went for it. This is what I think is coolish and foolish about the application... The first thing I've noticed is that it tages ages for the software to start. This isn't the camera initialisation process because that takes place after. No, this is something else. I don't know what it is, but it does take a long time. This means that 'capturing moments' (something at which that Symbian Smartphones excel) is a little harder to do with this software. The other issue is how to use the software as a camcorder. Usually, the Nokia 6260 is highly intelligent with the built in camera software that can tell when you're in 'tablet mode' or 'camcorder mode', but since this software isn't designed for the Nokia 6260, you're either going to have to use it in 'tablet mode' but sideways, or go through a whole process of using it in a strange quasi-camcorder mode. The process is this (assuming the software has already been started); Before you start recording, swivel the screen according to what you want to records (you or what's in front of you) The built in camera software will start, but without any exit controls so, activate your favourite Task Management software and kill the 'Camera' application Record your stuff! my preferred use The problem is that you have to go through this process every time you unswivel/swivel the screen. It's at times like this I wish Nokia had put in a setting to turn off the automatic camera mode. That, the fact that it hogs the video filetype from 'Gallery' and the long startup period are my only complaints since the rest of the software is amazingly packed with useful features. For example, you have two levels of digital zoom (I know that there are some reactionary purists who say that optical zoom is the only zoom, but zoom is zoom and this zoom works well), which can be adjusted while recording. Also, you can preset Brightness and Colour/Contrast which is cool because, if you want, you can record movies in Black & White! The ability to pause recording is always a good thing, not only because it allows you to use just one file leaving out the boring bits of whatever you're recording, but you can have a good laugh with some 'vanishing people' tricks! Cool or what!? You can also specify a maximum file size for your recording. This is extremely useful since if you're recording a video to send in a Multimedia Message, you can tell the software "I don't want to record more than 70Kb" (my operator is analy retentively limiting video message sizes). But far beyond using it to conform to MMS standards, this facility is useful for ensuring your files will be easy to send in an e-mail. As you can see, the limits you can set ar 50Kb, 75Kb, 100Kb, 150Kb or No Limit. That's what I call thinking about what the software is supposed to be used for! Nicely done. The built in video album makes it easy to watch videos without having to go out into another application. I don't like the way the software has changed the default file's application to be this Camcorder software, since I prefer to watch using the built in Gallery software or Real Player, but there we go, we can't have it all I guess. There are plenty of options available for the user, many of which will make you think "Hey! That sounds really useful!". One that made me think that was the ability to Add/Replace Audio on an already prerecorded video. Wow! That's a brilliant idea! That's the kind of functionality you'd expect on a PC multimedia authoring application! The Settings functions allow you to configure the Player, Recorder (including Sound on/off, format (MPEG-4 or H263), Quality, Framje Rate and Frame Size), File options (including the afore mentioned maximum size and also the location (internal RAM or memory card)) and network. There is an option to activate the camera (I think) but that doesn't work on my phone and crashes it. That's a shame, but there we go. One final thing to watch out for is that while I've been able to send videos to other video capable phones, and the videos have played in Nokia Lifeblog, there may be issues with compatibility on some PC media players. Here are some examples for you to see for yourself what kind of videos you can expect to record and watch; Costing $25.95, this software isn't cheap, but it is feature packed and if you have a phone for which it was designed (ie, not a flip phone who's camera is on it's side), then it's probably perfect. As long as there's some way for me to transfer my registration for this software to a new Symbian Series60 Smartphone when I upgrade, I'd say it's a dead cert, but if not, it's a probably-good. I've already used to to great extent to record my little nephew, Steven, and I can imagine using it elsewhere as well so I'm glad I bought it and I've not yet seen anything like it on a Microsoft Smartphone. So, what does that tell you? 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