I've always found my Nokia Lumia 900 to be handy under most circumstances, but sometimes, I just need the performance during night-time shots without spending a lot of a new phone - and less noise in most shots, too.

Now, that makes me wonder whether I should start saving up for a new camera: even a cheap point-and-shoot will do, as long as it does one thing well - take photos.

Or should I just do software magic?

Every time I look at the photos taken with my phone, somtimes things get a bit... underwhelming. It's either the noise or the detail, Anything less than perfect sunlight, and things go awry. Sometimes I get the dreaded pink blob; other times, the green blob; and finally, my videos always have a bad "Instagram effect".

Get a camera. Phone cameras are nice for convenience, but they can't replace a full camera (and you know I like multiple devices that do one purpose well then one device that does everything mediocre.). Like you mentioned, even a simple point and shoot camera would be a better option over a phone camera.

*starts to wonder what to get without breaking the budget*

A dedicated device will almost always be better than a device that does many things. This includes cameras.

As for budget, depending on how many megapixels you want in a picture, you can find a relatively low cost camera that takes smaller photos.

Best Budget Cameras - Updated January 22, 2013

OK, let's see my options here:

• A $150 or less digicam will probably give me something better than my smartphone and will fit in my pocket along with my smartphone, wallet, and keys without carrying any bags
• I can also take an older Olympus from my old home, though it's kinda bulky, and doesn't tolerate shake at all, and it uses xD for the cards instead of SD or internal flash - very impractical. I will need a bag for this.
• Or I can get an old film Canon (better get used to NOT impulse-shotting) that is really, really good, but also inconvenient. I'll need a bag AND materials.

In these circumstances, option 1 seems the most viable. If you take a lot of photos, but not necessarily in the best quality, then there is no point of walking around with heavy equipments. The more comfortable, the better.

As with eveyone else I do agree that getting an actually camerea is much better then just using phone app or program trickery for getting your shots to look better.

One sugestion though, find one that you like the the feel of, this is a great help when it comes to cameras. I have an old one I keep around just because off this, sadly the only real one that does it and allowed me to take some pretty neat shots Also, get one with the stuff you need no reason to buy a new cameara with a ton of features you never gonna have a use for.