Sharp releases 5 megapixel camera for cellphones, is this what the Nokia N95 uses?

Sharp has just announced the availability of a 5.0-megapixel camera for cell phones. It’s also “the first cameraphone module to feature the world’s first 3X optical linear zoom with auto focus — measuring just under an inch in length.” Pricing has been set at $172.

Source: TechEBlog

Once the Nokia (NYSE: NOK) N95 comes out I can’t wait until sites like Mobile Burn or Mobile Review post their reviews, frankly they are the best, hands down. The image quality is obviously the most important thing, not megapixels. I have a Canon Powershot A510 that is just 3 megapixels, but it will whip the pants off anything Nokia makes right now in terms of color reproduction and sharpness. I do admit however, Nokia is getting a lot better.

One thing however s certain, I rarely take pictures because I don’t want to carry that thing in my pocket. Then whenever I do take pictures I put off taking them off my SD card since I don’t really care about them. Maybe a cameraphone is for me, but the quality needs to go up, way up, and a QWERTY keyboard has to be involved as well. If the E61 was made twice as thick just to throw in a really really high quality, image stabilization, optical zoom, minimum 2 megapixel camera, then I’d be tempted to upgrade.

Until then however, I’ll stick with Canon, who makes better optics hands down.