Yesterday was my last day at work. My (ex)co-workers are the best! I got cake, a signed copy of the Polar Bear IA book, my first taste of White Castle miniature burgers and breakfast sandwiches, and a very bizarre poncho-sash.

I took the picture above with my new toy, a used Nokia N82 camera phone that I got cheap (= massive scratches all over the screen) on eBay. I think the pictures are pretty good all things considered, although if you view at full resolution you can see some nasty compression artifacts — it’s not hip like the low-res grainy compression my flip phone photos have.

The N82′s camera functionality isn’t as good as a standalone point and shoot camera. It takes a long time to “process” images right after you take photos (although maybe this will be improved when I get a microSD card so it doesn’t have to right to the phone’s built in memory). It also doesn’t remember your settings (ISO, white balance, flash, etc) when you exit camera mode.

I also don’t like the phone functionality as much as my little flip phone. Sure, the N82 has GPS, FM radio, WiFi, Bluetooth etc., but it has crappy enough buttons that I don’t feel like using any of the extra features besides the camera. Text messaging, on the rice-grain buttons is painful compared to sliding over the flat buttons on the flip phone. Also, sometimes it is nearly impossible to press the power button with my finger.

Despite all of this, I’m still glad I got the phone because it was cheap, and it’s already achieved the purpose I wanted it to search: a snapshot camera that will encourage me to take more photos because it is compact, discreet and attached to a cell phone. I’m definitely still hanging on to my old phone. When camera phone interfaces and compression quality improve in the future, I think I’ll revisit whether I’d ever completely switch other to using a camera phone for all my cell phone and snapshot camera needs.