Motorola ZINE Cell Phone Review - Imaging

The ZINE performs admirably here in terms of still resolution, yielding the best resolution test results we've ever seen on a cell phone. Unfortunately, that doesn't carry over to video recording in any way whatsoever and the ZINE performs on par with more basic cell phones that have lower-resolution cameras in this area. We do like the still image interface a lot but disliked the flip-flopping between landscape and portrait mode that it does without regard to the way the phone is being held.

Resolution (13.67)
To evaluate a camera's resolution, we take pictures of an industry-standard chart and run the resulting images through image analysis software made by Imatest. Imatest analyzes the pictures to measure the point at which black and white lines lose definition and begin to blur into each other, expressed in line widths per picture height (lw/ph) on the horizontal and vertical. As with most things we measure, higher numbers mean better resolution.

A picture of the resolution chart taken with the ZINE

The ZINE performs fabulously here with its 5.0-megapixel camera and auto-focus lens, posting the highest resolution score relative to our comparison phones as well as every cell phone we've ever tested to date. A dedicated point-and-shoot digital camera will still be a better bet if you want keepsake-worthy photos to print and frame, but the ZINE will still take care of you if you don't have a dedicated camera on hand.

Cell Phone	Motorola ZINE	Nokia N82	LG Dare
Score	13.67	4.08	6.96
lw/ph horizontal/vertical	1754 / 1523	958 / 1049	1251 / 709
Image of Resolution Chart

Cell Phone	Samsung Instinct	Motorola Razr2 V8	Sony Ericsson W580i
Score	1.40	4.29	6.35
lw/ph horizontal/vertical	562 / 623	982 / 982	1195 / 960
Image of Resolution Chart

Color (5.61)
To evaluate a camera's color accuracy, we use another industry-standard chart, the GretagMacbeth chart. Pictures of that chart using the phone's camera are run through the Imatest software, which then provides data on how closely the camera reproduced the chart's colors. The data comes in the form of 2 charts - the first is a view of the GretagMacbeth chart and gives a visual demonstration of what the camera captured. In this chart, the smallest rectangle shows the actual "correct" color, the largest rectangle shows what the camera captured, and the last interior rectangle shows what the camera should have captured with correction for lighting.

The ZINE's color chart

As you can see from the ZINE's color chart, the "ideal color" rectangles are darker than what the ZINE's camera captured across the board, indicating it captures under-saturated color. This is not uncommon for cell phone cameras, and the ZINE ties the Sony Ericsson W580i for the highest score among our comparison phones in this area.

Imatest also generates a color error chart to display graphically how "off" the camera was in capturing color. In this chart, the squares indicate what the ideal color capture would be and the circles show how the camera captured that particular color. The line connecting each square and circle represents how accurately the camera captured the color - the longer the line, the more inaccurate the camera was. The chart also shows the level of saturation for each color captured by the camera - if the circles are closer to the center of the chart than the squares, the camera is capturing under-saturated color. If the squares are closer to the center of the chart than the circles, the camera is capturing over-saturated colors.

The ZINE's color error chart

As you can see from the ZINE's color error chart where the circles are closer to the center of the chart than the squares along most of the color spectrum except for the reds and grays to whites, the under-saturated colors the ZINE captures that are visible to the naked eye in the color chart above are more clearly quantified.

Cell Phone	Motorola ZINE	Nokia N82	LG Dare
Score	5.61	5.41	3.77
Color Checker Chart

Cell Phone	Samsung Instinct	Motorola Razr2 V8	Sony Ericsson W580i
Score	1.67	4.41	5.61
Color Checker Chart

Noise (0.27)
The GretagMacbeth color chart is again the tool used to evaluate the level of noise in a phone's camera. We use the phone's camera to take pictures of it at various lighting levels ranging from the equivalent of bright daylight down to candle light. Noise is more prevalent in low-light situations since any capturing errors in the image sensor can produce signals greater or less than what is actually present in the image being captured, resulting in graininess and inaccurate color. The resulting images from the various lighting levels are run through the Imatest software, which evaluates noise consistency through the different lighting levels.

We generally don't expect much from cell phone cameras in this area since they lack the features to appropriately adjust for low light conditions. The ZINE does have a low light mode, but we did not use it to maintain consistent testing with every other cell phone we've tested - we left the ZINE on its default settings and only ensured the flash did not go off. In this test, the ZINE performed poorly, earning the lowest score out of all our comparison phones.

Live Preview (9.0)
The ZINE's live preview takes up the entire screen and only works in landscape orientation so that the dedicated camera button is always under the index finger of your right hand. Guide lines form a broken square in the middle of the screen, which turn from red to green when the scene is in focus. Status and setting indicators are shown in the top left and let you know if you're in video or camera mode, if the flash is on, how many photos can be saved to the remaining space on the memory card, and more at a quick glance. Photos taken with the ZINE look exactly as they were framed in the live preview, which is rarer than we'd like in cell phone cameras where pictures often include more or less than what was intended in the end. The live preview also keeps up with fast movement well.

The ZINE's still image live preview

Overall, the ZINE's live preview is generally what we like to see with key setting information present in an unobtrusive manner, the entire screen as the viewfinder to help you frame your shots, and pictures that come out exactly as you framed them. Our only issue is that it is only shown in landscape mode.

Unlocked Standby to First Shot (7.29)
To see how quickly it's possible to capture a spur-of-the-moment shot with a phone, we time how long it takes to go from the home screen in the unlocked state to the moment an image is captured. On the ZINE, the quickest way to get to the camera application is to simply open the lens cover on the back and the ZINE posted an average time of 2.74 seconds to capture an image in this test, putting it in the middle of the pack among our comparison phones, only slightly slower than the Sony Ericsson W580i. For more information on how we conduct this test see this article.

Shot to Shot Time (3.12)
To see how quickly a phone can take multiple shots in a row, we time how long it takes a phone's camera to capture multiple images, enabling burst mode if available and turning off any post-capture image review, and calculate frames per second from the resulting time. The ZINE does have a burst mode that takes 4 images in immediate succession and it captured 4 images in 3.74 seconds, translating to 1.07 frames per second. This score isn't too bad, but the ZINE is out-performed by the LG Dare and the Sony Ericsson W580i here.

We noted one significant nuisance in using the ZINE's burst mode. After capturing the 4 successive images in this mode, you are forced to choose to save or delete the captured images even if you have Auto-Save enabled in the camera's settings, which is enabled by default. Even if you press something as innocuous as the Back button, the images are deleted against your will. We think that the Auto-Save option should govern all of the camera's actions, regardless of the selected capture mode.

For more information on how we conduct this test see this article.

Shutter to Shot Time (12.24)
In this test, we time how quickly a camera's shutter activates after the shutter button is pressed - the more quickly a shutter activates, the more likely you are to capture the exact moment you intended. To time this, we start a stopwatch at the same time the shutter button is pressed and the resulting picture of the stopwatch provides the time to shutter activation. The ZINE performed very well here, taking an average of 0.16 seconds from the press of the shutter button to actual shutter activation, one of the best times relative to our comparison phones. For more information on how we conduct this test see this article.

Interface (6.0)
The D-pad offers quick access to some camera settings, including the flash mode, white balance presets, and low light and auto-focus modes. Other buttons in between the numbers on the keypad allow you to toggle between the camera/video mode and image review modes, delete images, and the simple share feature to quickly select a method to upload or send a selected image.

The camera's main settings menu

The left soft key brings up the Options menu, and this menu appears as mostly translucent so you can still see the live preview behind it. What we don't like here is that the Camera Settings menu shows up in portrait orientation only, so you have to turn the camera to read it and turn it back when you go to camera mode. It would be nice if the settings were in line with the rest of the camera's interface in terms of orientation.

The still image settings

Another thing that's awkward in the camera's interface is the placement of the labels for the soft keys - they appear in the bottom corners (in portrait orientation) that align with the Send and End keys, not the actual soft keys themselves. We found ourselves hitting the Send and End keys most often at first when going by the labels until we got used to aiming for the soft menu keys instead.

While we're not usually fans of duplication and repetitiveness in phone interfaces, we would have liked to see the settings options accessible through the D-pad duplicated in the Camera Settings menu. Unless you've read the manual, the settings accessible through the D-pad aren't all that intuitive and it would be easiest to be able to find them all in one place and use the D-pad for quick changes on the fly.

Photo Album Software Internal (4.0)
Right off the bat, the ZINE's photo album software is annoying in that it only displays images in the Captured Pictures folder in landscape mode, as if the only time you'll access these will be while using the camera when the phone is held in that orientation only. We think an accelerometer that could automatically rotate the display based on the phone's orientation would be in the ZINE's best interests in future versions.

Photo album view of captured images

If you go to All Pictures in the Multimedia/Pictures folder instead, you'll see a normal thumbnail view of every picture saved on the ZINE and its microSD card. From here, the Options menu offers a slideshow view and the ability to delete, send, and print photos, as well as select them to use as wallpaper, contact photos, and more. The Setup menu here offers only 2 slideshow options to adjust the length of time each picture is shown and turn shuffle on or off.

The Multimedia/Pictures folder

When viewing the Captured Pictures, you see them in full-screen mode only, with a running band across the bottom showing you thumbnail versions that can be scrolled through using the D-pad. The Options menu in this view is the same as found in the All Pictures photo album view.

Photo album view of all pictures

Overall, the ZINE's photo album software is fairly easy to use, though it's annoying to see the orientation discrepancies that could be easily solved with an accelerometer.

Manual Control (4.0)
Surprisingly, the ZINE doesn't offer much in the way of manual controls, offering only a low light mode to help when pictures are taken in low light conditions. It does offer a panoramic setting that will help you take 3 pictures that will be stitched together automatically.

Zoom (1.0)
The ZINE offers a digital zoom, controlled by using the volume up and down buttons, to 2x and 4x. Digital zoom only serves to crop and enlarge an area of the scene, performing far less effectively than optical zoom. We award devices with digital zoom a standard 1 point in this area.

Focus (5.0)
The ZINE has an auto-focus lens with 3 settings via the camera's settings - automatic, landscape, or macro. It's not often that we see auto-focus settings on a cell phone and the ZINE offers flexibility here to help with close-up shots and those with subjects at greater distances.

Flash (8.0)
The ZINE has a Xenon flash to the left of the camera lens, and you can set it to always flash, stay off, automatically flash depending on the lighting level and to reduce red-eye in subjects. It provides a good amount of light to illuminate dark scenes. We don't see Xenon flashes very often in cell phones and are pleased that Motorola chose a good flash to accompany the 5-megapixel sensor in the ZINE.

Metering (0.0)
The ZINE's camera has no metering modes or settings to adjust how light in a scene is judged.

White Balance (2.0)
White balance settings determine how white is judged in a scene, and the settings we find most often on cell phones are presets for common lighting conditions. The ZINE offers 5 white balance presets: automatic, fluorescent, tungsten, daylight, and cloudy, earning it 2 points in this area.

Image Handling (6.0)
There are a decent number of photo editing options on the ZINE. You can rotate, crop, and resize images, or flip them with a mirror command. You can also apply styles like grayscale, sepia, negative, reddish, greenish, and bluish, or adjust the brightness and contrast or sharpen or blur the photo. The Add Elements menu allows you to add a graphic, border, text, or a timestamp to a photo as well. There's also a command on the Edit menu called "Apply Kodak Perfect Touch" - the manual does not describe what this is, but it appears to be an overall enhancement effect, similar to the Auto Smart Fix you'd find in Photoshop Elements, though not quite as powerful. However it is more than what's offered on most phones we see.

The Edit menu in the Photo Album software

Video Quality (3.5)
To evaluate a phone's video quality, we record a video and transfer it to a computer to watch in full-screen mode. Unfortunately, despite the ZINE's fantastic still image resolution, video image resolution is limited to 144 x 176 at its highest setting, no better than the Razr2 V8 with its 2.0-megapixel camera. We really wish that Motorola had chosen to offer higher resolution settings here instead of limiting the ZINE's video quality level, apparently in favor of making all videos appropriate for MMS message attachment.

Video Resolution (3.5)
To evaluate a phone's video quality, we record a video of the same resolution chart used in our still image resolution test, take a randomly-selected sample of individual frames from the video file and run them through the Imatest software. As expected given the ZINE's highest resolution setting of 144 x 176 for video recording, its score here is pretty dismal, coming in slightly lower than even the Razr2 V8.

Video Compression (2.0)
The ZINE records video in 3GP format and the ZINE offers no other format options from which to choose.

Interface (5.0)
The ZINE's video interface is shared with the still image interface, with not much unchanged about the location of settings and current status indicators, which is good since we really like the still image interface. Unfortunately, there is one major issue with the video recording interface - when you press the shutter button to begin recording, it goes to 1x zoom automatically, causing the live preview to "jump" closer to the image you had framed. The zoom cannot be turned off, so you'll have to get used to re-framing your videos as soon as you begin recording. It would be much nicer if the live preview in the video mode showed a more accurate version of what you're going to record from the get-go - the ZINE's video interface loses points here compared to the still image interface where this does not happen.

The video capture live preview

Manual Control (0.0)
Unlike the still image interface, there are absolutely no control settings for video recording on the ZINE. Though this is not uncommon at all on cell phones - in fact, none of our comparison phones offer anything in this area either - we expected a little more from a phone promoted as a fantastic camera phone.

Zoom (1.0)
The ZINE's digital zoom works here, offering 1x, 2x, and 4x levels. The 1x settings is enabled by default and cannot be switched off.

Editing (0.0)
Like most cell phones, the ZINE offers no on-device video editing functionality, but this puts it behind the Nokia N82 that offers the ability to cut out sections of video, add audio tracks, and more.

Modes (0.0)
The ZINE offers no scene modes for video recording. In the Video Settings menu, you can adjust the resolution to an even lower setting than the default at 144 x 176 to 96 x 128. Why Motorola thinks anyone would want to do that given the poor quality at the highest resolution setting already, we don't know, particularly since videos sent at 144 x 176 will be fine for MMS attachments as it is.

The video capture settings menu

Previous    Next
Shop for a wireless plan Shop Carrier Type Minutes $/Min Cost Shop   Close Individual 1000 0.0600 59.99 Shop   Close Individual 1500 0.0467 69.99