I just got my Iphone 4 but I noticed when taking video the camera tend to zoom in more by default versus the camera default. Is this normal? ON my 3GS the video and camcorder zoom are at the same level. Thanks
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Does the Iphone 4 Camcorder zoom in more then the Camera?
- Thread starter thenewguy1979
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Rotate the phone to landscape and double tap. You are shooting 16x9 720p. If you don't rotate the cam and double tap it shows a zoomed in (cropped) version of the 16x9 frame.
Also, the video cam 'crops' the frame to 16x9 so yes switching back and forth between still and video, you will notice the 'video' looks zoomed in, it's not, the sensor just switches to a 16x9 frame for the video mode.
I have the same issue. When I switch from still to video camera, I found that the view angle is smaller compared to still images. Hopefully it is not a hardware issue and will be fixed in a firmware update. Just wondering if there is anybody does not experienced this issue.
I also got confused by this, I thought the video camera was zooming in, but thanks to the tip in post 2, double-tapping zooms back out and shows the full size of the video.
When you double tap it zooms out but still not showing the full view angle of still camera, it is really odd.
This IS an issue, I just think you don't understand what people are saying here.
Please see the attached composite picture I made showing the problem:
The colour coding is as follows:
Purple iP4 Still image
Red 3GS Still image
Green 3GS video
Yellow iP4 video
Although as you correctly point out, the YELLOW iP4 border is a 16:9 format, the frame is still horizontally narrower than its PURPLE still image frame.
Ideally, the width should stay the same and the top and bottom areas are cropped away to give the correct 16:9 ratio. (see second image)
As it is, Apple have cropped all four sides so this IS an issue
On the Apple forums, the reason somebody came up with was that the resolutions for the iP4 video and still recordings were different.
This is not a reason because the resolutions are different in the 3GS but the horizontal field of view remained the same in both video and still image modes.
I started to think that maybe the sensor area was chosen so that as little processing as possible was needed in order to get the exposed pixels into a 1280x720 video stream, but that doesn't work out either:
1280 x 2 = 2560 and the full width of a still image is 2592 so Apple would have been better off using almost the entire width of the sensor (less 16 pixels each side) to gather the light and then mapping every two pixels to a single pixel for the video frame.
It definitely isn't just a 1280x720 crop as you can see from the green border in the second image.
Maybe a software fix is imminent for this as well as the white balance?
Attachments
The iPhone display is not a 16x9 widescreen display. Think of it like this, you watch a widescreen 16x9 movie on a 4x3 display. Do you notice the black bars at the top and bottom? Okay so zoom in, removing the black bars. The bars are removed but everyone is zoomed in. That's exactly what's happening here.
Oh and by the way you don't need to turn it landscape to double click. It works fine in portrait.
Oh and by the way you don't need to turn it landscape to double click. It works fine in portrait.
Wow. A lot of you must not have iP4s. You're all very much misunderstanding what the OP is saying.
This has NOTHING to do with the screen or how many times you've double-tapped it.
The video camera firmware simply has a narrower field than the still camera does. That's just the way it is. Compare the edges of these two photos. The first is a still photo and the second is a still-frame from a video. The phone is in the exact same location for each:
You can see all 3 'boxes' on the wall in the still photo. In the video you can not. That's normal and it doesn't have anything to do with the aspect ratios. It's just the way the camera software uses the pixels.
This has NOTHING to do with the screen or how many times you've double-tapped it.
The video camera firmware simply has a narrower field than the still camera does. That's just the way it is. Compare the edges of these two photos. The first is a still photo and the second is a still-frame from a video. The phone is in the exact same location for each:
You can see all 3 'boxes' on the wall in the still photo. In the video you can not. That's normal and it doesn't have anything to do with the aspect ratios. It's just the way the camera software uses the pixels.
I concur... this is not about zooming to fill the screen, it's the fact that the 5mp camera is of much higher resolution then the 1280 x 720 used for video. Taking photos uses the entire chip in the camera to capture an image and taking videos only uses the center area - so yes. It's "zoomed" in because the camera just takes a wider shot then the video does and no, there's no way to zoom out any further in video.
I'm honestly confused about why they let you zoom in at all.
For playing BACK videos? Sure. But while recording them? It makes no sense.
It still records the full frame. All is does is make it so you can't see everything you're recording. What's the point of that? I wouldn't be surprised if that "feature" goes away in 4.0.1.
EDIT: And in case I'm not clear by that, I mean that bibbz's photo #1 and #3 would still look exactly the same. It's just #2 that would go away.
EDIT 2: - Change 'way' to 'away'
For playing BACK videos? Sure. But while recording them? It makes no sense.
It still records the full frame. All is does is make it so you can't see everything you're recording. What's the point of that? I wouldn't be surprised if that "feature" goes away in 4.0.1.
EDIT: And in case I'm not clear by that, I mean that bibbz's photo #1 and #3 would still look exactly the same. It's just #2 that would go away.
EDIT 2: - Change 'way' to 'away'
No1 and no3 do not look the same.
The cushions are at the edge of the screen in no 3. In no1, the cushions are a good 8" from the edge of the screen.
Apple lets you record "zoomed in" top take full advantage of the screen, and not have black bars on the top and bottom, but gives us the option to double tap to see the true ratio. I think we all agree on that. The issue is that even when you "zoom out" you still dont have as big of a ratio as a still image.
keep in mind that still images use DPI, and video does not. Which may account for visual differences as well
http://generalspecialist.com/2007/08/dpi-in-video-totally-useless.asp
http://generalspecialist.com/2007/08/dpi-in-video-totally-useless.asp
Not the same as each other. The same as before a change to the software.
I'm saying that if they made that change to the software then New #1 would look the same as Old #1 and New #3 would look the same as Old #3.
Yes, I know they're 2 different issues. That's why I made 2 different posts, so they wouldn't get confused with each other.
That's actually a really good idea. It sounds like it would improve the video quality even more.
I hope Apple finds a way to do that and implements that fix (along with a proximity sensor fix) in the next patch.
I care about that way more than I do about free bumper cases.
I hope someone makes a petition asking for that.
That's actually a really good idea. It sounds like it would improve the video quality even more.
It actually makes the video worse. It leads to visual glitches and distortions and is one of the reasons why SLRs have only now started to produce decent video despite the fact that they've had better resolution chips than video cameras for many, many years. They've had to overcome the fact that their chips were better than video cameras. The iPhone seems to solve it by just avoiding the issue in the first place and just taking what it needs from the center of the chip.
From: http://www.anandtech.com/show/3794/the-iphone-4-review/8
"What's interesting is that the iPhone 4 appears to crop the sensor down for video recording, taking the center most 1280x720 pixels instead of scaling down the entire image size. The result is that the focal length for video recording is notably longer than when taking photos." "...Perhaps the A4 SoC lacks the compute power to apply a scale and encode at the same time, necessitating this crop."
"What's interesting is that the iPhone 4 appears to crop the sensor down for video recording, taking the center most 1280x720 pixels instead of scaling down the entire image size. The result is that the focal length for video recording is notably longer than when taking photos." "...Perhaps the A4 SoC lacks the compute power to apply a scale and encode at the same time, necessitating this crop."