Camera
You can easily access the Katana's VGA camera using either the internal or external camera shortcut key. As a security measure to avoid accidentally turning on the camera, you have to hold down the external button for approximately 3 seconds to activate the camera. The external key allows you to shoot a photograph without opening the camera, which makes for painless self-portraits. Since the lense is flipped 180 degrees when the camera is open, images taken this way are upside down. I was surprised by this occurrence the first time I took a picture using this method, but it is easy to turn the picture right side up using the Rotate function.
The Katana is capable of taking photos in three sizes: a minimum resolution of 160 x 120 pixels, a medium resolution of 320 x 240 pixels, and a maximum resolution of 640 x 480 pixels. You can zoom up to eight steps at the middle resolution and up to twenty steps at the lowest resolution, but you can't zoom at the highest resolution, which is a bit of a disappointment.
The best features of this camera are the options. They aren't complex or cutting edge, but you can do some really fun stuff with photo manipulation, like adding stamps, frames, captions, or color overlays to your images. There are also several effects you can set before you take a picture, like selecting one of the picture modes (Normal, Beach/Snow, Scenery, Night/Dark, and Soft Focus) to change the appearance of your photo or choosing from the multi-shot options (Multiple Shots and Stitch Shot). Multiple Shots lets you take several shots in rapid succession, which is useful when you are photographing action shots. To get the effect of a panoramic or wide-angle shot, Stitch Shot allows you to structure a series of photographs by showing you part of the previous picture so you can line up your next shot to match. There are also a number of standard options that let you control things like brightness, white balance, shutter sound, and color effects.
While you can order 4 x 6 prints of your photos directly from your cell phone using the Prints by Mail function, the Katana doesn't really take print-quality photos. I suppose there are times when you just have to print a photo, like when your dad dresses up as a member of KISS for Halloween. Other than that, however, the images this camera takes are great for use on your phone or to send to friends' phones, but they aren't high enough quality for much more.
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4.3
