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The enV's 2-megapixel camera is only the second one Phone Scoop has reviewed to score a 20/30 on the vision test. Somewhat surprisingly, it takes very good photos. Color in controlled lighting situations was almost always accurate, with most of the real-life richness there, though the auto white balancing feature didn't always make the right choice.

Pictures taken under harsh fluorescent lighting showed the most accuracy. All the pictures we took indoors under fluorescent lights were dead-on with respect to color, white balance, tone and contrast. They were also relatively free of any graininess at the higher resolutions and looked good blown up on a 17-inch monitor.

Shots taken at night without the flash were not nearly as good. Colors become muted and the camera had a hard time focusing, leading to blurry shots. With the flash, colors were a bit more accurate, but the flash was only good at illuminating subjects less than about 4 or 5 feet away. With or without the flash, night-time shooting, even in "night mode" led to grainier shots.

The camera was also good at taking extreme close-up macro shots. We were able to put the camera a few inches away from some subjects and get good focus, color and tone.

While the enV's camera is not going to replace your digital point-and-shoot, it comes closer to doing that than many other camera-equipped phones do. If LG sped up the UI a little bit and cleared up a few of the quirks we mentioned in the camera section, it would be a real winner.

NYC Library

Videos:

Videos we shot were fairly grainy and the action wasn't as smooth as we would have liked, especially given the quality of the camera. Even with the video set to the higher 320x240 resolution, video was a bit choppy and fast motion produced a lot of noise on the screen. Colors tended to get washed out in high contrast situations, with detail in the lightest and darkest regions of the frame almost non-existent. The lower resolution setting led to smoother motion, but grainer appearance.

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