Through the lens of a Sony Ericsson S700i

On a typical travel assignment, Singapore-based photojournalist Lester Ledesma usually carries a digital camera and three zooms: a 15-30 mm, a 28-135 mm and a 73-300 mm, plus a back-up body and lenses at the base.

But when he recently went on a tour of the Philippines to take shots of spectacular sceneries, he only took with him two Sony Ericsson S700i 1.3-megapixel camera phones — one for his photo shoot and the other as back-up unit.

Ledesma’s goal may be simple yet the way he attained it was unique: capture the beauty of our islands with a camera phone and instantly share his photographs and experiences real-time to mobile phone users nationwide who choose to subscribe to his service.

The service, MMS Travel Diary, is being offered to Smart MMS subscribers. By typing MTRAVEL and then sending it to 286, Smart MMS phone users are given a daily download of quality travel photographs taken by the award-winning lensman.

"Lester’s tour showcased the natural beauty of the Philippines, as captured by a camera phone in the hands of a truly talented photographer," said Ramon Isberto, head of Smart’s public affairs department.

Ledesma traveled the entire country armed with the S700i, Sony Ericsson’s 1.3-megapixel camera phone equipped with still and video recording, 8x digital zoom and photo light.

Key features of the S700i also include night mode, automatic white balance and automatic exposure control to adjust for different light conditions.

Its quality level, coupled with its dual-front design, makes the S700i an excellent imaging device that is used just like a conventional camera.

"The camera phone is a 1.3-megapixel CCD camera that is operated horizontally with two hands, just like a conventional camera. I simply open the ‘active’ lens cover to operate," said Ledesma.

"Take the phone in your hand, turn it on its side and you are holding a digital camera with the lens on one side and a large high-definition viewfinder on the other. Turn the phone back to its vertical position and the ‘viewfinder’ becomes a large color screen with soft keys," he added.

The 2.3-inch 262K TFT color screen and soft keys allow the user to browse the Internet, view messages and access a wide variety of multimedia and entertainment applications such as the media player, 3D games, MusicDJ and FM radio.

Ledesma stored the photos he took via a Memory Stick Duo, a miniature version of memory stick which is just one-third the size. He then uploaded them to the Smart network via GPRS (General Packet Radio Service), which is supported by the phone.

The results: astounding photos comparable to those taken with a high-resolution digital camera.

"A good camera phone can be a photographic tool. It’s really up to the photographer to make stunning images out of it," Ledesma said.