DISQUS

Raoul · 2 years ago

Let's see them fix this with a software upgrade... ;-) Still waiting for iPhone 2.0.

PatrickN · 2 months ago

Well, I have bought my iPhone before the week. I am very pleased with it and I has not got any problems with this mobile. My iPhone is newer version than yours so the photo quality is really better. Despite of that all iPhone models are amazing I think, because they can do a lot of incredible thigs! Thanks a lot for interesting post and I willbe waiting for other great ones from you!

Best wishes,
Greg Bitson from iphone application development

jimgoldstein · 2 months ago

Be sure to check out my other review on the iPhone 3G S and thanks for the comment http://www.jmg-galleries.com/blog/2009/07/01/ap...

jim · 2 years ago

Raoul you're not going to go wrong with waiting. These gadgets only get better with each subsequent version. Most people aren't getting an iPhone to take pictures they're getting it to use as a phone, iPod and internet device. In all these areas the iPhone excels so the camera is understandably an afterthought. With an eye for photography it is tough to look past the camera short comings though.

jim · 2 years ago

On behalf of my friend who emailed me....
--

since i'm having a problem finding out exactly what kind of sensor the iphone uses (ccd or cmos), i can't be sure but i think that distortion you pointed out in your post about the iphone's
photographic abilities might be 'cuz of something i've seen called a "rolling shutter". . .

when i was looking at buying a new camcorder last month there was this one model in particular that stood out - the canon hv20 'cuz it had great low-light capabilities and the ability to shoot in 1080 24p. . . the main problem i saw people talking about was this weird distortion you'd get under certain circumstances. . .

ended up the distortion was 'cuz cmos sensors don't always capture the image all at once but instead sometimes capture by "rolling" down from the top of the sensor down to the bottom. . . it was real noticeable when this one dude uploaded some sample footage he took where he shot is door and a vertical halogen lamp while quickly panning back and forth. . .

up 'til you pointed it out with that one shot on your blog, however, i'd never seen that type of distortion anywhere else in any other
product. . .

oh, and as a side note, as someone else pointed out, yeah that rolling shutter would suck if your primary subjects were doors that you quickly panned back and forth in front of, but for most people it shouldn't be a big deal. . . he then linked to a handheld clip of a cyclist he shot while driving next to him and it was pretty obvious that, yeah, the rolling shutter wasn't really that big of a deal. . . especially when you consider how well the camcorder shone in all other respects. . .

after a while people started pointing out that the rolling shutter wasn't a problem with just the hv20 but with pretty much all relatively cheap cmos camcorders. . . the thing i wasn't totally clear about was if it really did happen to only cheap camcorders. . . like i'd never heard of canon's digital slr cameras having that problem with individual shots, but then again maybe most people don't shoot doorways while quickly panning left or right using the 30d. . .

Matteo · 2 years ago

Thanks for your review.
I'm not a professional photographer, but still very fond of photography.
I'm european, still waiting for iPhone to be "legally" available, or to find a way to put my hands on one some other way :)
As you say camera features are hardly mentioned on apple sites.
Your review confirmed my "fear" that iPhone camera is just a poor appendix.
I have to say that i'm sorry for that and wonder why it is like that.
Macro function would be of big importance. I often would take pictures of visit cards, articles on magazines that i borrow... I cannot do it with my HTC windows based mobile phone, because it does not have macro. I could once do it with my palm.
I used to be a passinate photographer with old fashion film cameras. I printed black and white myself... I saluted digital photography and followed it's birth and growth. I was happy that photographs could be more spontaneous not having to worry for price and chemicals.
I imagined that a light digital camera to have in your pocket at all times could be seen as a human-visual-memory-extension. Just take a picture whenever you want/need. Quick response and macro in this sense are necessary.
On the other hand I'm not surprised that Apple does not push for a good camera. Photography has had an incredible growth among users. Anyone spends a lot of money for a digital camera nowdays. Few years ago only few people invested similar amounts to buy a camera.
I think there is great ignorance about photography. The market (what people want) is not always going in the "right" direction. I wonder why people, when buying a small digital camera and comparing different models they think for example that zoom-power is important... my zoom is 12x... and nobody cares about a decent wide angle. I had to wait years to fit a 24mm in my pocket.

Anyway

Thanks again
Regards

Matteo

Bethan · 12 months ago

Hi!

Erm.. I am NOT much of a computer or ohone wiz at all so i am hardly able to translate all of this jargon :) Well, all i'm wondering is:: Can you take videos from the camera?

Hehe, Valid question I lknow.

Thankss for any help,
Regards,
Bethan

Mike O'Regan · 6 months ago

The iPhone camera output can be considerably enhanced with a few Apps - notably Photogene, which allows (among other goodies) Sharpening. I have taken some decent portraits - some in poor light - and they are good enough to print and certainly good enough for Web use. BTW, my regular digicam is a Panasonic.
Mike O'R

Jim Goldstein · 6 months ago

Thanks for the comment Mike. I'll have to check out Photogene. I need to check out several of the new iPhone photo apps to be honest. At the time this review was written the app store did not exist.