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Can a mobile phone challenge pro cameras? Really?

Normally, the difference between even the highest end cameraphone and the lowest end digital camera can be summed up in one word: "Latency". It takes too long after pressing the button before the picture is taken. But is that about to change?

How about doing 20 frames/second, instant full- resolution image handling, as well as 'zero shutter lag', burst-mode image capture, and instant zoom/pan at the moment the image is captured, all on a smartphone? Apparently, it's all in the software.

Scalado says  it will demonstrate the first camera to include both its SpeedTags and Camera Engine at Earls Court exhibition in London over the next two days.

This solution is a collaboration between Scalado, Symbian, Texas Instruments
(TI) and OmniVision. Scalado's latest mobile imaging technology will operate with TI OMAP platform for Symbian OS™, the market-leading open operating system for mobile phones, and OmniVision's smart camera sensor, with Scalado SpeedTags embedded to manage the large files produced by high-resolution images and to improve overall JPEG image handling performance.

Normally, says the company, "only advanced Digital Still Cameras (DSC) and Single Lens Reflex (SLR) cameras are capable of managing the delay between pressing the capturing button, and actually saving the captured image."

As a result, says Fadi Abbas, VP of Business Development at Scalado, 'shutter lag' has typically been one of the biggest technical challenges facing camera phones, especially when photographing moving objects.

"With Scalado's 'zero shutter lag' feature, however, users can be sure that the image which they see in the viewfinder is the image that they capture," says today's announcement. Abbas predicts: "The combination of Symbian OS, TI’s OMAP platform, the OmniVision Sensor, SpeedTag technology and our next-generation camera architecture will revolutionise the way mobile users take pictures."

"This new imaging technology is a significant step towards achieving advanced DSC performance on a camera phone, and we are delighted that Symbian is the platform of choice for this achievement," adds Tony Newpower, Director of OS Product Management, Symbian.

This latest camera solution from Scalado will appear in future versions of Symbian OS.

There will be a Learned Paper (probably, an excited marketing statement, but what the heck) at the Symbian show first day (Tuesday 21st) from 1 PM to 2 PM when Mats Jacobson, President & Chief Executive Officer, Scalado AB & John Turner, Multimedia Product Area Manager, Symbian will speak on "Take the phone, leave the camera."

The Camera Engine technology has already been announced by Sony Ericsson for the Japanese markets