Matilda Tertius

My first satnav quickly acquired the name Matilda as it was apt to tell the most dreadful lies. Perhaps you know the poem that inspired it:

Matilda told such dreadful lies, 

it made one gasp and stretch one’s eyes. 

Her Aunt, who, from her earliest youth, 

had kept a strict regard for truth, 

attempted to believe Matilda; 

the effort very nearly killed her 

and would have done so, had not she

 discovered this infirmity...

After giving useful service (most of the time) Matilda was retired in favour of an app on my new Samsung smartphone, which henceforth became known as Matilda Secundus, or Matilda Too for short – not a spelling mistake; it means Matilda also. She gave fine service for two years, but just before Christmas began playing up — doubtless because I'd dropped it once or twice too often.

Last year my partner S- signed up for a Sony E5 smartphone from Virgin. It wouldn't have been my first choice but the deal was a good one, and since it mainly gets used for emails and Facebook, any old thing would surely do, so long as it was cheap. However, my opinion of the E5 quickly changed when, last summer, we climbed Pen-y-Fan and each recorded our exploits. The E5 photos from the summit were at least as good as the ones I took with my Canon SX500 bridge camera, and a couple of them were markedly better.

So last month I turned my back on Samsung and ordered a Sony E5 for myself from Talk Mobile. At £10 per month for 2 years, including more data, texts and phone minutes than I'll ever need, it was actually £2 a month cheaper than Matilda Secundus, so I'm not quite sure whether it qualifies as an 'upgrade'. Perhaps 'regrade'.

One feature of the Samsung that I miss is the 'home' button beneath the screen. To wake the E5 from its slumbers I have to briefly press a small, rather fiddly, power button on the side. I note, though, that Samsung have also dropped the home button on their new S8; a retrograde step in my view. Apart from that, there really is little to choose between the two phones... except for the camera. Samsung's offering had the same resolution (13 megapixels) as the Sony, but all reviews admit that the Sony produces better photos. The question uppermost in my mind, though, was whether it would be a suitable replacement on country walks for my rather bulky Canon SX500.

My first test was a nasty one – a view of Quainton Road station, taken from a distant bridge and looking into the sun. This showed all too clearly the deficiencies of smartphone cameras; they are not good in challenging lighting and they only have a digital zoom, so the more one zooms, the poorer the picture quality. I'm sure you'll agree that the Canon wins hands-down.

Sony E5

Canon SX500

In less challenging conditions Matilda Tertius performs very well, bearing out my earlier experience on Pen-y-Fan. Here are a couple of shots from a recent stroll in the Mendips. I should have taken more, but was still mostly placing my faith in my trusty Canon SX500.

Bluebells at Ebbor Gorge

My friend Lucy in Priddy

Look carefully at that last photo. Do you see a faint white blur in the bottom left corner? That's the smartphone case encroaching on the camera lens — definitely something to guard against in the future.

Of Matilda Tertius' two deficiencies – poor in challenging light and no optical zoom – the later would be the easiest to correct with a simple clip-on lens like this one from Amazon. It's small enough to fit in a handbag, or even a pocket, and at that price is surely worth a try... or is it just too cheap? I mean, what sort of lens do you get for £13.99?

Alternatively, there's this little monster, which doesn't use the smartphone lens at all, but connects via Bluetooth. There's just one tiny drawback – it costs £320, or £165 second-hand from Amazon. That's rather an expensive piece of hardware to clip onto a cheap smartphone, even one with the up-market name of Matilda Tertius.

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