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Iphone 4S camera could be better in my opinion

G

gadget123

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Apr 17, 2011
2,388
340
United Kingdom
I know there's many Apple fans and I really like my Apple products but I'm a major camera phone fan. Hate normal cameras and I'm going to make some points on my Iphone 4S:

*The Battery life is poor compared to the Iphone 4 so this is a problem especially when shooting video.

*No Panorama mode and self timer in the Iphone camera. Third party apps are shockingly bad I mean the interface is always unnavigable and tacky.

*This is a big one night shots very poor try taking it to a night club the results are not good unless you take a picture close up. There's no proper flash a flash light is hopeless in 2012. Next Iphone needs a xenon flash this is a MUST.

*The colours are too harm even compared to the last Iphone.

*Images are more blurry than the last Iphone.

*Facetime cameras are a little behind Skype.

I like my night shots so I'm tempted to buy an old C905. I mean compared to other camera phones like Samsung maybe the Iphone 4S is matchable but anybody who is use to Cybershot SE phones they were the best (if you don't count the video quality). C905 8MP is miles better than 4S get some comparison snaps and see.

So rather than a 10MP next Iphone or 12MP keep the 8Mp (we don't need more gain and blur) and get a wide angle lens, proper camera functionality in IOS6 and a proper flash camera. Then maybe we can talk about the Iphone being a good camera..as a day camera is not bad but we need something better. Roll on Iphone 5.
 
Of course the battery life when shooting video is going to be worse on the 4S then the 4. It has to save twice as much data with a battery that's almost the exact same size.

There is a panorama mode in iOS 5, but it is disabled because it is extremely buggy. This feature will likely be enabled in the future.

The iPhone 4 had good colour balance and saturation, but its whites always turned out yellow and green. I've found that the colours on the 4S are much better in comparison and up to par with my old 3Gs' colour abilities.

Turn off HDR and have a steady hand. The images will become less blurry.

FaceTime currently only uses 1/2 of the front camera's full VGA resolution and even less of the back camera's. When Apple enabled the full resolution, it will be better.

All in all, I'm very happy with my iPhone 5G's camera and will not upgrade to the iPhone 6G just for a "proper" camera.
 
I've been nothing but impressed with the camera. Best camera phone I've ever had.
 
Please take my responses with the understanding that I use Android pretty heavily alongside iOS, so this is not some "I need to defend Apple to the grave" response.

1. The battery life thing, IME, has been solved. I am not getting any more or less life out of the 4S than I did with the 4. I can easily fill up my remaining space (8 gigs or so) with video before the battery runs out. YMMV of course.

2. I have seen Panaorama mode on numerous phones, the most recent being the Galaxy Nexus on verizon's network. In short, it's terrible. It's so terrible that I wouldn't consider it a feature.

3. I agree with this. That said, it's up to snuff with most competitors out there in the night shots category. There has to be some give and take. Sony has some phones out there that take amazing night shots. Their "give" was the rest of the phone. By this I mean it's good for nothing EXCEPT taking photos.

4. I assume you meant "colors are too warm"? I guess to that I say I disagree. The colors seem spot on to me. I snap a pic and it looks exactly like what I am seeing with my naked eye. The only issue I have had is with blue light (saltwater tank). Those pics are abysmally off color. I haven't seen a point and shoot do better, though.

5. I also disagree about blurry images. Again, they seem spot on and crystal clear to me. I have seen many pictures others have taken both on their phones and online that pretty well back this up.

6. I am not sure what this means. How are they behind skype? Are you saying they are lower resolution than you'd like? That I can get on board with, but I am used to skyping with people on netbooks that have a worse camera than the FFC on the iPhone, so I guess it doesn't bother me much. This is something that i certainly do hope they will improve the next go around.
 
Yeah taking night shots is less than favorable with the iPhones.

When I had my Galaxy S II though, I could get some pretty good pictures. That camera was the best camera i'd ever used in a cell phone.
 
rumormonger33 said:
Is there a problem with the 4S iPhone camera?

After Apple said it was the best camera yet, I expected it to be flawless.
Instead, it does not seem to match up to the previous iPhone 4 camera.

See for yourself:

http://www.gsmarena.com/piccmp.php3?idType=3&idPhone1=4212&idPhone2=3275&idPhone3=3621

Compare the furthest focus point on the black and white picture for starters.
Click to expand...

Well 5 mega pixel for me is ideal for a camera phone I think we knew before hand once they go 8/12 then the quality drops due to the small sensor it's a phone after all.

If you ask me do I prefer my Iphone 4 shots then yes. I don't know why just colours and it doesn't seem to stretched and blurry.
 
rumormonger33 said:
Is there a problem with the 4S iPhone camera?

After Apple said it was the best camera yet, I expected it to be flawless.
Instead, it does not seem to match up to the previous iPhone 4 camera.

See for yourself:

http://www.gsmarena.com/piccmp.php3?idType=3&idPhone1=4212&idPhone2=3275&idPhone3=3621

Compare the furthest focus point on the black and white picture for starters.
Click to expand...

Odd how in all the images, the iPhone 4S has far less detail than the 4... even though EVERY other comparison I've read showed the complete opposite. I'd almost wager that someone screwed up and labeled the two cameras incorrectly.
 
cyks said:
Odd how in all the images, the iPhone 4S has far less detail than the 4... even though EVERY other comparison I've read showed the complete opposite. I'd almost wager that someone screwed up and labeled the two cameras incorrectly.
Click to expand...

I would agree with a mixup except for the fact that the iPhone 4 pictures have been on that website for some time and the 4S was just recently added! It is unlikely that a swap could have been done when adding a single cameras pictures.

Very perplexing indeed!:confused:
 
4s camera, my samples....

well I think it's a great camera for what it is and with the small optics. Remember the camera can't do anything on it's own, a person has to control it. There is a cool app called auto stitch, use it for panos like this:

smugshot4533100-XL.jpg


I think once you learn how to properly expose and focus the camera, it does a wonderful job. on the supplied camera on the iPhone you can touch the area you want it to focus on. If you hold your finger there for two seconds, you get a auto/exposure lock which is very helpful. I used this feature for the above pano so my exposures are consistent. Here are more samples using Pro HDR app:

These WERE taken with the iPhone and processed on the phone:

I hope these inspire you and others to use the iPhone more and get really great shots. It's a great camera, to me anyway.... enjoy!

Todd

smugshot4460746-XL.jpg


smugshot6547737-XL.jpg


smugshot8292779-XL.jpg


smugshot8285611-XL.jpg


smugshot9001084-XL.jpg
 
ToddH said:
well I think it's a great camera for what it is and with the small optics. Remember the camera can't do anything on it's own, a person has to control it. There is a cool app called auto stitch, use it for panos like this:

Image

I think once you learn how to properly expose and focus the camera, it does a wonderful job. on the supplied camera on the iPhone you can touch the area you want it to focus on. If you hold your finger there for two seconds, you get a auto/exposure lock which is very helpful. I used this feature for the above pano so my exposures are consistent. Here are more samples using Pro HDR app:

These WERE taken with the iPhone and processed on the phone:

I hope these inspire you and others to use the iPhone more and get really great shots. It's a great camera, to me anyway.... enjoy!

Todd

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image
Click to expand...

[/thread]
 
Those are some amazing photos, just like the ones on the Apple iPhone website. I certainly wouldn't complain if I could get shots like those on the 4S. Just like the ones taken with the iPhone4.
 
On the night shots issue: Actually it *can* take decent shots, but apple limit the exposure time to 1/15s. I wrote an app to "unlock" longer exposures (up to 1s), the results are pretty good if you have a steady hand/something to rest it on/tripod. It cuts noise down a lot too, because the camera can drop the ISO when it's using longer exposure times.

If you want to take any low light shots it's worth a look (it's called 'nightcap' on the store). (Oh, and please note that this is *not* the same as the various 'frame averaging' apps like slow shutter cam and average cam. Totally different technique, totally different results!)
 
I gotta say, the 4S is THE best phone camera I've used, good enough to eliminate any desire I had for a separate point & shoot. Still, there's room for improvement.

For one, I'd like to see it offer images in RAW.

Still, quite good for when something spontaneous is happening and I don't have my Canon dSLR with me.
 
I'm impressed with mine!
 

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Here are some pictures that were taken on my 4S and edited with Snapseed. I think decent lowlight results can be had even without a tripod or extra camera apps, I included a few of mine. In good light this camera can be incredible for it's size.
 

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beautiful....

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mattraehl said:
Here are some pictures that were taken on my 4S and edited with Snapseed. I think decent lowlight results can be had even without a tripod or extra camera apps, I included a few of mine. In good light this camera can be incredible for it's size.
Click to expand...



beautiful you guys make me wanna upgrade to iphone 4s. I love dope photography....
 
IMO the 4S camera has proven amazing... One thing however is that when you zoom the quality turns to crap. Can't expect it to be able to zoom though. I mean, its a phone camera, it can't physically move like a proper zoom.
 
mrsir2009 said:
IMO the 4S camera has proven amazing... One thing however is that when you zoom the quality turns to crap. Can't expect it to be able to zoom though. I mean, its a phone camera, it can't physically move like a proper zoom.
Click to expand...

Yeah, they should not allow the word zoom on devices unless it refers to optical zoom. Digital zoom is not zoom, it's enlarging.
 
Rocko1 said:
Yeah, they should not allow the word zoom on devices unless it refers to optical zoom. Digital zoom is not zoom, it's enlarging.
Click to expand...

Yes... We know not to use digital zoom because its crap, but others may not know, so they use the digital zoom when taking photos, then complain that their 4S's camera is crap..
 
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