Ask the expert: Camera phones and video

Q. I find myself taking loads of video on my two-year old phone which is a bit rubbish now. But I’m due an upgrade and want a handset that takes amazing footage. What are the best phones for video that I can play back on my telly or save off to burn onto DVD?

A. Top notch mobile phones might rival digital cameras and camcorders in the megapixel stakes, but choosing a model to take crystal clear video clips is still a tricky business. We’ve rounded up three of the best pocket-size filming machines, perfect for rivalling dedicated camcorders.

Solution 1: Intelligent shooting
Most phones will shoot basic video clips, but few can match the extra abilities of a proper camcorder. That’s not the case with LG’s Renoir. It’s an 8 megapixel camera phone that’ll take cracking quality photos, and also shoot clips in DVD quality. It comes packing autofocus, scene detection and even manual focusing for tons of flexibility. The phone allows clips to be recorded at 120 frames per second too, letting you play them back in super-slow motion. Best of all, it supports DivX and comes with tons of software in the box to help offload your videos to the computer, ready for burning to DVD.
Best option: LG Renoir KC910

Solution 2: Instant uploads
Sony Ericsson’s W595 isn’t just a musically-minded Walkman phone, it’s a decent camera phone too. Sure, it’s sensor isn’t the greatest around, but it’ll still shoot decent quality clips, and an instant-upload application means you can put them on YouTube with just a couple of button-pushes, rather than offloading to a computer and DVD whenever you want to share footage.
Best option: Sony Ericsson W595 – £187

Solution 3: Telly friendly phone
Samsung’s i8510 will shoot still photos in 8 megapixel clarity, and record videos at up to 120 frames per second, just like the LG Renoir. It also comes packing a TV-output cable, so it’ll hook up to a TV and show off pictures and video on the big screen. If you prefer to share clips online it’s simple to do so, thanks to the phone’s pre-installed ShoZu sharing software, making it easy to fling footage to any of the major sharing services, as well as social networking sites.
Best option: Samsung i8510 – £140

Get chatting about mobile phones over at the PriceRunner forum

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