Mobile photography dates back to the early 2000s when cameras on phones were first introduced. In 2000, Sharp Corporation released the J-SH04. The phone had a camera with very low resolution tiny, almost postage-stamp-sized digital images of 0.11 megapixels, which was a breakthrough at the time, but it was only available in the Japanese market.
Samsung also lays claim to the title of “first phone with a built-in camera.” Also released in 2000 was the SCH-V200. It had a 0.35-megapixel sensor and could take up to 20 photos before you had to hook it up to a computer and download the images. Samsung also claims to have invented the selfie camera. In 2002, the company released a flip phone with a rotating camera, the SCH-X590.
In 2002, Nokia introduced the Nokia 7650. It had a 0.3-megapixel camera and a color display. This was the first camera phone to be sold in Europe.By the end of 2003, camera phones had taken off in the U.S. and over 80 million had been sold worldwide. Continuing with the camera phone trend, Sprint released the PM8920 in 2004. It was the first phone in the U.S. to feature a 1.3-megapixel camera. These pictures were good enough to print and you could share them wirelessly as well. It had a dedicated camera button and a variety of settings, including a multi-shot option for taking eight quick photos in a row and the ability to record your shutter sound.
In 2005, Nokia dropped the N90 to take the camera phone to new heights. It had a 2-megapixel camera and Carl Zeiss optics, autofocus, and an LED flash. It is probably best remembered for its rotating screen, which gave it a camcorder feel.
The main competitor for Nokia in the camera arms race was Sony Ericsson. There were quite a few decent releases intended to steal Nokia’s camera phone crown, not least was the Sony Ericsson K800i released in 2006. It had a 3.2-megapixel camera with autofocus, image stabilization, and a Xenon flash.
Samsung made the first 5-megapixel camera phone, but the first to be popular was Nokia’s N95. It was chunky and packed with many features, but none were as impressive as its 5-megapixel camera with the Carl Zeiss lens. It took beautiful photos and it could record at 30 frames per second. 5 megapixels remained a high-end standard for several years. Unfortunately for Nokia, the smartphone revolution was just around the corner, and the Nokia N95 lacked a touchscreen. A good camera was not enough to keep Nokia on top.
Apple introduced the first iPhone in 2007, just a few months after the N95, which revolutionized the way people used their mobile devices for photography. The iPhone had a 2-megapixel camera with no flash, auto-focus, or video recording capability. In the following years, smartphone manufacturers continued to improve the cameras on their devices.
Two years later, in 2012, Nokia introduced the Lumia 920. It had a camera with optical image stabilization and a Carl Zeiss lens. This phone was marketed as a camera phone and became very popular with photography enthusiasts.
The race to improve the cameras in phones stalled as smartphones took off. The iPhone proved that there were more important and useful features than the camera. It was also vital for manufacturers to produce slim, attractive devices. The powerful camera phones up to that point had all been seriously chunky.
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https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/camera-phone-history/
https://www.automate.org/vision/blogs/the-evolution-of-camera-phones
https://autopix.no/smartphone-cameras-have-come-a-long-way-since-the-early-days-of-mobile-phones/
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