Shoot to smile

Shoot and smile are two words that I love to associate with any of the gadgets that I tend to use. So whether it is a smartphone or a tab, the first thing I try to explore is the camera and the possibilities of editing apps. The screen resolution is important but what is more interesting is if the gadget gives me some feature that isn’t there in others.

The Dell Venue 8 Pro 5830 is one of the better designed and built tabs and though the weight tends to make your smile less bright, there are two features that are simply awesome. I believe that there are two personalities within me – one is a photography enthusiast and the other is a writer, blogger, and a poet! So obviously, I will prefer a gadget or a device that helps these personalities within me grow and become better… or at least happier!

Despite the specs not being very encouraging, the screen resolution did not really appear alarming to me… I mean, a native resolution of 1,280×800 isn’t something you get up and applaud. I must admit here that this tab does have a superb brightness level of 399cd/m2 and so the the Venue 8 Pro will never look dim. This dell tab has a contrast ratio of 1,663:1 which means that the screen will always have a lively verve that many others in this category lack. I am mentioning all these specs as to a photography enthusiast these will mean a lot. If I shoot a picture and the immediate view is insipid, my enthusiasm goes for a six!

Yes, changing orientation and coaxing the keyboard to come alive are disconcerting, but then I suppose one does need to understand that with some good things there will be a few bad features as well. So if I have mentioned on disorienting fact, the rejuvenating one is that the viewing angles are superb, the touch works smoothly and the screen does not give you that sick grainy look.

Let me give you a quick bulleted overview of the camera and the features that won my heart:

When you launch the camera you come face-to-face with three buttons. One is for still shots, the second for video and the third for a panorama shot.
A swipe up from the bottom of the screen gives you more options, for instance, the choice to go to the camera roll, flip from front-to rear-facing, a timer, and settings for exposure and spot adjust.
The rear camera is 5 megapixel and the front camera is 1.2 megapixel. Not the best, but the shot I took with the rear camera were reasonably good for my blog posts. The front camera shots too are fine provided there is sufficient light.
The picture editor included with the tab happens to be fairly intuitive and has quite a bit of editing mumbo-jumbo to take care of whatever fancy-work you may want to aim for.
No LED flash… but then camera flashes aren’t ever the sort that can go piercing the darkness to give you a good picture in low light.

Now for a quick word on the editing software that comes bundled with the Dell tab. There are all the basic fixes like rotate, crop, straighten, red eye, and retouch. You can play with light too and can modulate brightness, contrast, highlights, and shadows. Colour button leads you to tweak the temperature, tint, saturation, and even a colour enhancer! But here comes the winner… tap on ‘effects’ and you get not just the option to create a vignette but also a selective focus. The selective focus does get quite near the bokeh effect and helps you focus on the part that needs to be pointed out.

The low sensor of the tab, however, makes low light photography and HD video recording not a very pleasurable experience and I’m sure Dell will consider adding them to further releases.

Photography has become rather vital for smart gadget buyers today because without it the gadget remains a passive device for picture and video viewing or for games. Obviously, the other vital aspect is the ability of a gadget to give you a professional level of writing abilities. But then, we will discuss this feature in another post.