I was watching the Apple WWDC '09 keynote over the weekend and I must say, I'm very impressed with the new iPhone 3G S. Since this site is about photography, I'm not going into the features of the new phone and OS. Although I just upgraded the OS on my iPod touch and I love the new features. What I want to talk about is the camera that comes with the iPhone 3G S.
The previous iPhone 3G came with a 2 megapixel camera. I personally don't have an iPhone, but I have used several camera phones and a friend of mine has an iPhone that I have borrowed and played around with the camera.
I've used a Nokia and a Sony Ericsson mobile phone and to date, I haven't seen one with a decent camera. I have used a Nokia cellphone with a 5 megapixel camera. But they always seem to come out bluish and the lens and shutter is pretty slow.
Granted, you can't expect much from a camera phone, but it still doesn't come out very clear in my opinion.
Then I borrowed my friend's iPhone 3G and tested the camera. The first time I took the shot I was immediately impressed. It was a very clear photo! I was indoors, under fluorescent light and the photo looks very natural.
Since then, I have seen several photos taken with the iPhone 3G on flickr and from other professional photographers like Chase Jarvis.
I have read a lot of complaints about the iPhone camera in several forums about how it sucks because it's only 2 megapixels when other phones already have 5 megapixels. Or how it doesn't have video.
All I can say is, if megapixel is your only basis on whether a camera is good or not, you're probably not taking a good picture anyway even if you have a $5,000 DSLR.
You see, you may have a 21 megapixel camera like the Canon 5D Mark II or the 24 megapixel Nikon D3X, but if you don't have it with you, it's useless. The problem with these cameras is that they're very heavy. It's not practical to bring them with you all the time, but your camera phone or iPhone is with you all the time.
Sometimes you just have to know what the limitations are on your camera. Obviously, the iPhone camera is not meant to take magazine quality photos.
The nice thing about the new iPhone 3G S is that it features a 3 megapixel compared to a 2 megapixel camera with the iPhone 3G. It now has autofocus, auto white balance, auto exposure, macro detection, better low light capability and it shoots faster so you can take a sequence of photos.
The great thing about the iPhone 3G S camera is that it now features a tap to focus feature. So if you have two subjects, say one is 10 feet away and another 20 feet away. You can tap either one of the subjects to be the main focus and the other one is out of focus. Similar to how it works with a regular camera. Just imagine how much more creative your shots will be when you get to play around with something as simple as focus.
Another feature of the camera is that it now includes video. Yes, it's nothing new since pretty much 99% of camera phones out there has video. What's nice about the video feature of the iPhone 3Gs is that you can actually edit the video on the iPhone. You can select the start and end the footage then send it through e-mail, YouTube, MMS or MobileMe. I can't wait to see how people are going to make use of these features and I look forward to see more photos and videos on flickr and YouTube using the iPhone 3G S.
Coincidentally, Chase Jarvis just got his new iPhone 3G Ss and is giving away his old iPhone 3G. Check out his blog for details on how to win it. You got until June 23rd, 2009 to win it.
The previous iPhone 3G came with a 2 megapixel camera. I personally don't have an iPhone, but I have used several camera phones and a friend of mine has an iPhone that I have borrowed and played around with the camera.
I've used a Nokia and a Sony Ericsson mobile phone and to date, I haven't seen one with a decent camera. I have used a Nokia cellphone with a 5 megapixel camera. But they always seem to come out bluish and the lens and shutter is pretty slow.
Granted, you can't expect much from a camera phone, but it still doesn't come out very clear in my opinion.
Then I borrowed my friend's iPhone 3G and tested the camera. The first time I took the shot I was immediately impressed. It was a very clear photo! I was indoors, under fluorescent light and the photo looks very natural.
Since then, I have seen several photos taken with the iPhone 3G on flickr and from other professional photographers like Chase Jarvis.
I have read a lot of complaints about the iPhone camera in several forums about how it sucks because it's only 2 megapixels when other phones already have 5 megapixels. Or how it doesn't have video.
All I can say is, if megapixel is your only basis on whether a camera is good or not, you're probably not taking a good picture anyway even if you have a $5,000 DSLR.
You see, you may have a 21 megapixel camera like the Canon 5D Mark II or the 24 megapixel Nikon D3X, but if you don't have it with you, it's useless. The problem with these cameras is that they're very heavy. It's not practical to bring them with you all the time, but your camera phone or iPhone is with you all the time.
Sometimes you just have to know what the limitations are on your camera. Obviously, the iPhone camera is not meant to take magazine quality photos.
The nice thing about the new iPhone 3G S is that it features a 3 megapixel compared to a 2 megapixel camera with the iPhone 3G. It now has autofocus, auto white balance, auto exposure, macro detection, better low light capability and it shoots faster so you can take a sequence of photos.
The great thing about the iPhone 3G S camera is that it now features a tap to focus feature. So if you have two subjects, say one is 10 feet away and another 20 feet away. You can tap either one of the subjects to be the main focus and the other one is out of focus. Similar to how it works with a regular camera. Just imagine how much more creative your shots will be when you get to play around with something as simple as focus.
Another feature of the camera is that it now includes video. Yes, it's nothing new since pretty much 99% of camera phones out there has video. What's nice about the video feature of the iPhone 3Gs is that you can actually edit the video on the iPhone. You can select the start and end the footage then send it through e-mail, YouTube, MMS or MobileMe. I can't wait to see how people are going to make use of these features and I look forward to see more photos and videos on flickr and YouTube using the iPhone 3G S.
Coincidentally, Chase Jarvis just got his new iPhone 3G Ss and is giving away his old iPhone 3G. Check out his blog for details on how to win it. You got until June 23rd, 2009 to win it.
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