Review: BlackBerry Storm
Camera
The Storm has a 3.2 megapixel camera. The software controlling it isn't changed all that much compared to other BlackBerries. Launching the camera (with the dedicated button or via the menu) takes about 3 seconds.
The screen shows you your subject and there is a bar along the bottom that shows you what the camera's settings are at a glance. The volume toggle lets you zoom in and out, and you can also use pinching — yes, that means "multi-touch" — gestures on the screen itself to zoom the camera in and out. It doesn't work great, though, and I found it to be somewhat awkward.
I dislike that you can't change any of the settings (except zoom) directly from the viewfinder view. You have to press the BlackBerry key to open up the options list. You can only alter the basics: resolution, quality, the flash and white balance settings. No fancy-schmancy editing functions or other controls.
The flash is insanely bright. You could strap it to the front of a car if you wanted to and use it as a headlight (OK, not really, but almost). The flash fires to help the camera focus. Don't be surprised if your friends complain about being blinded. The camera takes up to two seconds to focus, and then another two seconds to take the picture and bring you to the review screen.
You can take pictures in either landscape or portrait mode. The phone takes the picture in whichever mode you're holding the phone, so if you shoot the phone holding it in landscape mode, it will take a landscape picture.
After you take a picture and it is saved, you have 5 immediate options to choose from. The default is to take another picture, but you can also choose to send the image (as an email or MMS), rename it, set as desktop/caller ID, or trash it.
Gallery
The gallery app is accessible from the Media icon or from the camera application. In the gallery, if you hit the BB key you get a long list of options. With this list, you can basically take any action imaginable, including setting the selected image as your home screen, emailing it, renaming it, moving it and many more. After you have a picture open, hitting the BB key brings up another list of actions, including zooming in and out and some of the options of the aforementioned menu. There may not be advanced editing capabilities, but you can send picture files just about anywhere via multiple methods.
You can view the gallery in a grid or a list. With pictures open, you can swipe from side to side to scroll through the image library.
One thing to note, the Storm has the slowest galley application ever. Loading images takes literally 30 seconds each. It was absolutely painful to use the gallery application. Swiping form side-to-side was an exercise in futility. The Storm barely responded and the picture would often "freeze" with half of one picture and half of another on the screen. Really, really, annoying.
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