Pictures taken with the HTC Aria
Sure, the HTC Aria is incredibly cute, but it’s also eminently capable, and this extends to imaging…
It features a camera similar (if not identical) to the HTC Hero, US version, with an 5 megapixel sensor, an auto-focus lens with macro, and no flash – read on for more!
The Aria takes pretty good pictures (slide show). Shots are a little overexposed in daylight, and colors are a bit muted, but there’s a reasonable amount of detail and low-light performance is decent. The macro works extremely well, and requires no user intervention.
Like with other HTC devices running Sense UI on top of Android 2.1, the camera interface is quite nice. There’s a plethora of useful settings and touch to focus, but no dedicated shutter key.
Despite recording 640×480 (VGA) video at 30 fps with initial auto-focus, quality is disappointing. The Aria uses low bitrate codecs (like AMR), which result in visible compression artifacts and poor audio.
Here is a sample video (download original, VGA, 640×480 @ 30 fps):
tnkgrl Mobile: Tech that Matters 
I’m really impressed with these pictures.
You’re able to get a lot more out of the Aria than I’m able to with the G2. My pictures seem to come out very compressed even with the highest settings.
I get even better pictures out of the G2 (and the Nexus One). Both share basically the same camera, and it’s better than the Aria.
WOW thats an awsome picture taken with the aria. You really know how to master this camera phones. The thing I notice on alot of your pictures you don’t use the xenon flash on the N8 or Sammy Memoir how come?
I much prefer relying on natural light than using the flash – most photographers feel the same way, and rarely use the flash.
The flash is only useful to fill subjects in daylight or capture moving subjects in very low light.
That’s very true about photographers. I didn’t catch the whole engadget podcast today but I heard you talk about the dell venue pro. How good is it? I’m really tempted about trying windows 7.
Hey Tnkgrl,
Is this the same camera as in the Eris? I have my Eris rooted and am running 2.2.1 and its awesome how the capabilities improved with the froyo release. I like the Aria but seems very been there done that.
Great read as always.
btw please try to access your blog (this one) with one of your Android test phones(Aria) please. i want to know if I am the only one having issues commenting (weird keyboard errors) and getting your podcasts.
Thx,
Twist
I will agree with Alan. Beautiful photos!
Abruptly will be, when on phones will do small lenses with manual focusing. I would like to look at it!
I also have an aria but my photos and videos look nothing like the ones you show. Did you change your photo settings? If you did, what did you change?
No, I didn’t tweak the settings.