<P> Over the years there have been many videophones and cameras that have included communication capability . Some devices experimented with integration of the device to communicate wirelessly with Internet, which would allow instant media sharing with anyone anywhere . For example, in 1995 Apple experimented with the Apple Videophone / PDA . There were several digital cameras with cellular phone transmission capability shown by companies such as Kodak, Olympus in the early 1990s . There was also a digital camera with cellular phone designed by Shosaku Kawashima of Canon in Japan in May 1997 . In Japan, two competing projects were run by Sharp and Kyocera in 1997 . Both had cell phones with integrated cameras . However, the Kyocera system was designed as a peer - to - peer video - phone as opposed to the Sharp project which was initially focused on sharing instant pictures . That was made possible when the Sharp devices was coupled to the Sha - mail infrastructure designed in collaboration with American technologist Kahn . The Kyocera team was led by Kazumi Saburi . In 1995, work by James Greenwold of Bureau Of Technical Services, in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, was developing a pocket video camera for surveillance purposes . By 1999, the Tardis recorder was in prototype and being used by the government . Bureau Of Technical Services advanced further by the patent No . 6,845,215, B1 on "Body - Carryable, digital Storage medium, Audio / Video recording Assembly". </P> <P> On June 11, 1997, Philippe Kahn instantly shared the first pictures from the maternity ward where his daughter Sophie was born . He wirelessly transmitted his cell phone pictures to more than 2,000 family, friends and associates around the world . Kahn's wireless sharing software and camera integrated into his cell phone augured the birth of instant visual communications . Kahn's cell phone transmission is the first known publicly shared picture via a cell phone . </P> <P> Cameras on cell phones proved popular right from the start, as indicated by the J - Phone in Japan having had more than half of its subscribers using cell phone cameras in two years . The world soon followed . By 2003, more camera phones were sold worldwide than stand - alone digital cameras . In 2005, Nokia became the world's most sold digital camera brand . In 2006, half of the world's mobile phones had a built - in camera . In 2006, Thuraya released the first satellite phone with an integrated camera . The Thuraya SG - 2520 was manufactured by Korean company APSI and ran Windows CE . In 2008, Nokia sold more camera phones than Kodak sold film - based simple cameras, thus becoming the biggest manufacturer of any kind of camera . In 2010, the worldwide number of camera phones totaled more than a billion . Since 2010, most mobile phones, even cheapest ones, are being sold with a camera . High - end camera phones usually had a relatively good lens and high resolution . </P> <P> Higher resolution camera phones started to appear in 2010s. 12 - megapixel camera phones have been produced by at least two companies . To highlight the capabilities of the Nokia N8 (Big CMOS Sensor) camera, Nokia created a short film, The Commuter, in October 2010 . The seven - minute film was shot entirely on the phone's 720p camera . A 14 - megapixel smartphone with 3 × optical zoom was announced in late 2010 . Apple's iPhone started including a 12 - megapixel camera with the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus in 2015 (it had been 8 - megapixel on models released in previous years), and continues to do so with iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, that were introduced in 2016, while the latter includes a dual - lens camera and includes a 2 × optical zoom . In 2012, Nokia announced Nokia 808 PureView . It features a 41 - megapixel 1 / 1.2 - inch sensor and a high - resolution f / 2.4 Zeiss all - aspherical one - group lens . It also features Nokia's PureView Pro technology, a pixel oversampling technique that reduces an image taken at full resolution into a lower resolution picture, thus achieving higher definition and light sensitivity, and enables lossless zoom . In mid-2013, Nokia announced the Nokia Lumia 1020 . It had an improved version of the 41 - megapixel sensor . </P>

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