Pictures taken with the HTC Magic

déjà vu \ˌdā-ˌzhä-ˈvü, -ˈvue\ noun: a feeling that one has seen or heard something before

The HTC Magic camera is identical to the T-Mobile G1 camera, and similar to the HTC Touch Pro camera – if you’ve read my review of the G1 camera, you’ve read my review of the Magic camera :)

The good – decent low-light performance. The bad – occasional color balance problems, despite an iteration in firmware (Android 1.5)…

Like the Touch Pro, there’s no dedicated 2-stage shutter button. The trackball is also the shutter button. Pressing it focuses the camera and releasing it takes the picture. This is manageable, but far from ideal!

The resulting pictures are reasonably nice, and the addition of CIF video recording (352×288 pixels) and Qik support are welcome. Here’s a sample video: