Ahmedabad, April 27: At the Kingfisher calendar’s launch pool party, fashion photographer Darren Centofanti resorted to his camera phone to click his wife, model Vidisha Pavate, amidst the fashionable crowd. Members enclosures at almost every Pakistani stadium had nattily dressed socialites pulling out their cellphones and snapping their favourite cricketers. And more recently, Spanish football team Real Madrid may have lost to Monaco, but the cam-phones went frenetic every time pin-up boy David Beckham was around the fence.

All of the above are defining trend moments in the history of human technology. Camera phones are the latest must-have gizmos. And like any revolution, it hasn’t come into our lives gradually, but taken it over in one large overlap. They don’t belong to a smattering of celebrity or socialites, but they’re being sold in large numbers to the man on the street. ‘‘Almost every phone that is being sold now is a camera phone,’’ says Atul Zaveri, proprietor of The Phone Shop, a renowned mobile phone retailer. Bollywood brats Shah Rukh Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Fardeen Khan, Suniel Shetty, Manish Malhotra and Rajkumar Santoshi, among many others, are sporting theirs. ‘‘Priced as low as Rs 12,000, an amazing number of teenagers are buying as well,’’ says Zaveri.

Every cellphone company has brought out its range—Nokia leads the pack as 80 per cent of cam-phones sold belong to the Finnish company. Nokia 7200 (launched this week) is their most expensive model at Rs 27,000. Its truly affordable entry level phone, the Nokia 3200 comes for Rs 13,000. The Nokia 6600 (Rs 26,000) is the most sold phone, while the Nokia 7600 (also Rs 27,000) is the latest available, a unique square silhouette with an MP3 for music lovers.

Other players include Sony Ericsson’s T610 (Rs 15,500, with Blue Tooth), T630 (Rs 18,000), Samsung CDMA (Rs 20,000), Motorola’s C550 (Rs 9,500) and E365 (Rs 12,500) and mid-market phones such as BenQ (around Rs 10,000) and Pantech’s G500 (around Rs 15,000).

Mumbai’s rich kids can barely keep their cam-phones in their pockets. ‘‘I don’t think anyone can refuse a camera phone,’’ says 21-year-old Neeraj Sharma, who bought his Nokia 7650 last September. ‘‘It’s a really cool gadget and it’s always with me. It’s great for blackmailing friends after a night of drunken partying,’’ laughs Sharma, adding that his favourite photo is of “two Dutch dancers doing some rather naughty things on New Year’s eve.’’

Upcoming fashion designer Rustom Mehta, 23, says his Nokia 6600, that his dad bought him in February, is really useful. ‘‘I can shoot a tree, if I like its texture and want to replicate it on fabric,’’ he drawls. ‘‘But it’s really a fun phone,’’ he laughingly adds.

But what do photographers feel about their newly lost status? ‘‘Camera phones are a fabulous invention,’’ says Centofanti, adding both he and his wife carry a Nokia 8210 each.

‘‘I can’t wait until they bring out a phone with a flash camera. After all, it isn’t possible to carry a camera everywhere—even for a photographer like me.

And life presents you with some wonderful spontaneous opportunities that you can capture immediately,’’ he adds. ‘‘Camera sales have dipped immensely,’’ reveals Zaveri, ‘‘But the good thing is that photography has entered our daily lives.’’ There is, of course, the privacy factor, but we don’t hear anyone complaining. Save for consulate employees, say retailers, no one else seems to have a problem.

The only hitch so far is that cam-phones don’t present you with the finesse of a regular camera or a digi-cam, but like any new invention, the best is yet to come. ‘‘It’s a great start,’’ adds Centofanti.
Until then shoot what you love.