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Hey RIM, can we have the B/W and Sepia camera options back?

By Bla1ze on 6 Sep 2010 06:51 pm
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Scenes

A lot of new changes came with BlackBerry 6. One of the most significant was the upgrade to the camera options. Research In Motion introduced "Scenes" to the camera setting, they even highlighted the new multimedia experience on their official blogs. One thing they forgot to mention though was that, with the addition of the new camera options they also removed some features.

The ability to take pictures in black and white as well as sepia is no longer present. Least, not on the BlackBerry Torch anyways. Granted, those options may have been obscure and not used by many but, they are so simple to implement one has to wonder why they even bothered with the removal in the first place. Personally, I used to use those settings quite frequently and was rather disturbed to find them no longer available.

Now, we did get some good scenes to go along with the new options such as Sports which offers a zero shutter lag experience. That said, rather then having a scene called Snow; I think I'd rather have my black and white as well as sepia capabilities back. I'm Canadian, taking pictures of snow doesn't exactly rank high on my scale of things to do ya know? Anyone else missing those options and want them back or am I just crazy? 

Topics: Research In Motion BlackBerry 6 News & Rumors

Contest: 40 copies of AddOnis & WiFi Hero up for grabs Previous
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Bla1ze Bla1ze 3029 (articles) 6919 (forum posts)
39 comments

Crackberrykills

First, I am glad the log in to reduce spam thing is working. lol. Geez. Cannot escape that shite. Second, I agree with you sir; this omission makes little or no sense. In fact, the Snow scene is so non-essential; I cannot believe it was included. Oh well. Perhaps there is an easy fix to rectify this. One would think it would be easy to do in a software update. Meh. RIM. SMH.

Marty

tedesco

the "snow" setting does not emulate being in snow on photos lol. It is a lighting setting which adjusts for bright scenes so when you take photos on a sunny day with snow reflecting, your photo doesnt get entirely washed out. You can also use that setting on a beach with white(ish) sands. It can be a very handy setting, and if I dare say... more usable than b/w or sepia which can be done in post.

Gallia

You're *obviously* crazy.

Vermell1

RIM is a Canadian company shouldn't they know that as well? XD. My guess is that they found out you were feeling depressed and took those options out so as to not take Emo looking pictures.

coldfir3

i didn't even know they removed it! NOOOO! is it just on the torch or has it been removed from OS6 totally?

Brandon 8ch

OS6 hasnt come out for the Bold so they dont know if its only the torch or all of OS6

Brandon 8ch

Ya I'm Toronto. Snow is no object thats for sure. Its a lifestyle. Speaking of which we had snow on Saturday. Anything happen on the East coast yet? I bet Kevin's had it already in Manisnoba

coreyk86

where and how did u get snow already? Its been 25+ degrees for weeks now.

bold1193

You're not crazy, I never use it but I can't see the reason for them getting rid of it.

louieluis

and while they're at it how about zoom.......

Ebscer

Zoom requires moving hardware and is expensive, easy to break, and big. No reason to expect it to be added to phones anytime soon.

About a year ago there were some rumors about RIM working on a water based lens that didn't involve moving parts, but apparently that hasn't worked out...

mike340t

I actually use B/W often...Would be useless without to me...

feetr2c

Zoom is still there. 3x on OS 6 I believe. Stroke "up" on your touchpad to zoom. Removal of the Black n white sucks. I loved the B/W mode. Its easy to show someone a color photo and get a lot of "oohs" and "ahhs". But to get that same reaction by showing a B/W shot means it has to be a pretty darn good photo. Having been a professional photographer since the late 70's, the humble bb cam is not to be underestimated. Granted, there's no f-stops or shutter speed settings, but this is digital photography. Playing with the angle and intensity of lighting can yield incredibly interesting results. Sorry I got carried away here lol. Back to the topic at hand...WAKE UP RIM! Give us back what we the people want!

Vermell1

Its we the consumers, not we the people. We have the power to vote with our wallets yet we hardly ever do so. I find it funny how every single time a 'new' BB model comes out all of us bitch & moan about it being the same exact thing as before only with minor changes...YET people go out there and buy it like there's no tomorrow. If we really want RIM (or any other company for that matter) to 'wake up' we should simply stop buy their products, hit them were it hurts, that way they can actually pay attention and take notes. But I'm just saying...

artie

include them on the 9650 when we get the UPGRADE
(Blacberry 6)

HighwayBob

I'd like to see a way to disable the fake shutter noise. There are times I'd like to take a picture without the whole world knowing it.

XWolf

Has been for a few years now. You cannot disable it because some people are prone to missuse handy, phone mounted cameras.

Having said that, Quicklaunch can disable it. A freeware app called pee-a-boo can reduce it drastically.

con4n007

One free app actually can kill the sound. I've been using it.. Not for bad purpose tho :)
Google it and you'll find :)

9thfloormaniac

How about the ability to turn the shutter sound off!!!!!

Rootbrian

Plug in a broken headset or dead earphones. It silences it, big time.

Trust me, it works wonders...

coreyk86

Or like the post above mentioned, download quicklaunch. Costs $4 or $5 and comes with this little feature called QL mute that will disable the sound completely. (Works with the vid cam too, y'know, in case ur wondering)

tediprude

I can actually remember the days when we culd take nothing but black and white pictures. Why does anyone want to take black and white pictures now when color is so much more wonderful?

I;m not trying to be funny or anything like that. I'm just wondering why anyone would want to do this..

Peace....

arrago

what lies on saturday we never did have snow... I love how people bs alot.

I repeat there was no snow in Toronto.

Mistik

I wonder if RIM reads this blog and will make and adjustment!

deltapi

I agree!! I take alot of black and white pictures. Is there a third party app maybe???

dchawk81

I'd rather see B&W maintained and exposure compensation controls added rather than all those silly scene modes.

irishguy0224

i use my B&W and Sepia settings all the time. It is actually something I like to know is there when I get a new phone. Pretty crappy that it won't be in the OS6. It just seems RIM is failing to keep the younger crowds happy.

vistate1

i think this goes back to the digital zoom idea - how camera junkies never enter digital zoom. why ? they expect the mega pixels to pick up all the raw data and use photoshop or similar to zoom in on a photo.

i think the same idea goes here to - why shoot in black and white - when its really just a color adjustment?

that being said im sure someone out there has an app or is making one for editing pictures

sirk25

"when you photograph people in color, you capture thier clothes. But when you photograph people in Black and White, you capture thier soul."

I am disappointed to hear that there is not a B&W camera setting on the Torch. :-( Lets hope there will be an update to re-add this feature.

Alfonsca

Funny that I read this topic today. Last night, for the very 1st time, I used my Sepia setting to take a picture of my dog. Since he is black, it gave the picture great contrast but not as stark as a B&W, which is a nice option to have. RIM, you must bring ths feature back!!!!!!! I agree with the writer, why did you even bother to remove it in the 1st place?

stoneland

People actually use these options? Why not get better results via editing the photo on your computer?

davidnyc

Exactly. Features like Sepia and B&W are just as well accomplished in post-edit.

mawil1013

Removing those features does make one wonder, but at least you can change a color photo to bw or sepia with most any free photo editing software until RIM comes to their senses, perhaps on the first update which you may get in two years, grin.

Additional gripe, my old curve camera had 5x zoom, I 'upgraded'? to a 9700 to find 2x zoom! Now come on RIM! I had my old curve when I vacationed to Puerto Rico and it was nice to only have to cart my phone around for pics, now, next time I vacation I will need to carry a separate camera.

Nick.net

I can't believe you guys are making a big deal out of this. It's completely foolish to take pictures in sepia or black and white anyway. You always take a picture in full color and the convert it, using one of a million software (mobile and desktop) apps available. That way, you have an original form saved in case you need it for something. If you take it in sepia and need it in color, welp, you're SOL.

I would much rather be concerned with the horrible megapixel count and the crappy zoom - things other companies are leaving RIM in the dust with. Stupid software features that hipster 17 year olds care about is seriously not the thing we should be worrying about.

Omahahaha

Not that that is relevent. It was fun though. I use the B&W and want to continue to use it. No point in taking it off. I think all new BB's should keep existing capabilities as well as perform new ones.

zensen

RIM likes to remove stuff that could have easily been kept such as these options.

But what i'd rather have back is the option to get the lock button back without implementing a pw lock to it too.

OR did they add that back?

yngpapii

i agree.. i love the newer camera on my Torch 9800 , but i wish i could have B/W, Sepia, & Negative options for the camera...

YourMobileGuru

The camera in the official 9650 does not even have these options. All we got were

* Auto
* Closeup
* Night
* Text

What's up with that?

Oh and I also want to see the Black and White and Sepia added back.