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A Look at iPhone 4's Camera Quality

Finally - hope for a real flashlight app

Now that there's an actual LED light on iPhone 4, maybe there will be a new generation of flashlight apps. I deleted the last of those crappy "white screen" flashlight apps about a year ago. Useless. I just launch Notes now for a nice bright yellow glow, but that's still not really enough.
 
John Dillinger said:
Again, the Main point was, that these decisions are mainly driven by apple's bottom line. NOT what is 'best' for the consumer. Or driven by Apple's desire to wait until the tech can fit in their ever slimmer form factors.

The fact they make the software means they know they can compensate for the lesser specs with overall polish, but dont tell me its because they're doing what is 'best'for the experience. That is their succesfull marketing.
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John, I’m not denying that fact that Apple is a commercial business that is partly driven by the ‘bottom line’. Like I said, they have to make a decent profit for their shareholders or it’s all over. So of course, from that perspective, they have to weigh up their wish list against overall cost of production and the price they believe consumers are willing to pay, taking into consideration the ability to market certain features over others. But, unlike you, I don’t believe the ‘bottom line’ is what drives Steve to keep going in to work each day.

Look, I don’t know Steve or his team personally, so this is all conjecture based on what I’ve read and observed, but this is the way I see it. Steve wears two hats at Apple. Like any good CEO, he is a brilliant business man and knows how to turn a company around, from the brink of ruin to this incredible profitable machine. He’s proved that beyond argument I think. But I also believe he is genuinely passionate about the product, but not from a geeky spec-numbers perspective — I really think he just likes cool stuff — stuff that is fun and engaging to use. I remember some years ago Robert Cringely (who I believe has known these guys for many years) writing about this — he compared Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, and discussed what makes each guy tick. Does Steve have a ‘reality distortion field’ on stage? Yes. But when Steve talks about the reason they do this, and relates the buzz he gets out of an email from someone who just loves their iPad, I believe him.

If you’re interested, listen to this speech he gave 5 years ago at Stanford University, and tell me if you think he’s being insincere:

http://www.ted.com/talks/steve_jobs_how_to_live_before_you_die.html
 
I hope we can actually replicate the quality of these pictures. All of the pictures used in the keynote are obviously going to be the absolute best of the best.
 
JAT said:
How? Everyone wants phones thinner, not thick to have multiple pieces of glass for a zoom lens. And motors to move them. Get a real camera, save the phone for snapshots, as discussed above.
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A lot of people were disappointed in the 3GS camera. Given the constraints of a very thin cell phone, people are not looking for full-size DSLR quality, or even point-and-shoot quality. At least, what I was looking for was something better than my old cheapo Motorola camera. Didn't get it, though. The 3GS resolution is better, but, the images, as processed, are just too contrasty and lose all definition in shadows and in highlights. The cheap Motorola 2MP camera was better--or at least the image processing is better. I love the iPhone time/location tagging, though. Every camera should have a good GPS.

So anyway, the question with iPhone 4 is, how is it going to look when you have a high-contrast situation? Better than the 3GS I hope.
 
TuffLuffJimmy said:
You must not know much about SLRs if you're going to compare one to a camera phone.
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you must not know about cameras if you discount the fact that SLR users also like to keep a lightweight camera than can still deliver a decent shot without the need of carrying their SLR with them.
 
bluefox9er said:
you must not know about cameras if you discount the fact that SLR users also like to keep a lightweight camera than can still deliver a decent shot without the need of carrying their SLR with them.
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What does that have to do with anything? He said he would compare the two. What's comparable about an SLR and a camera phone?
 
TuffLuffJimmy said:
What does that have to do with anything? He said he would compare the two. What's comparable about an SLR and a camera phone?
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I agree that a camera phone won't come close to an SLR when it comes to image quality. However, perhaps the OP is using his SLR's image quality as a baseline to compare the iPhone4 to the 3GS and other camera phones.

So if his SLR is acceptable, the iPhone4 might be garbage, while the 3GS would be feces, and the Moto RAZR would be bilgewater ... ;)
 
TuffLuffJimmy said:
What does that have to do with anything? He said he would compare the two. What's comparable about an SLR and a camera phone?
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Wanting to compare 2 things doesn't make someone an idiot.

If he said "OMG I hope this will replace my DSLR", then you would have a point.

Why compare USB2 to FireWire 800? You must know nothing if you do that.

You must know nothing if you compare the speed of a car to that of an aeroplane.

You must know nothing if you compare the temperature of boiling water to the temperature of the sun.

If any 2 things are different, and one is superior, and you compare them out of interest's sake, you must know nothing. :rolleyes:
 
Jimmy James said:
14 MP pocket cams with 1/2.3 sensors are ridiculous. 12 MP phone cameras are even more ridiculous. At least with current sensor technology.
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The only 12MP phone camera I know of, the Nokia N8, has a larger sensor than your example 14MP pocket cam so it's not 'even more ridiculous'.

1/2.3" has an area of 28.5mm2. The N8 has a 1/1.83" sensor or an area of about 41mm2 by my calculation. That's about the same size as a Canon G9 or Ricoh GX100. Are you suggesting the Canon G9 sensor is ridiculous?

The old Nokia N95 5MP camera from 2007 used a 1/2.5" sensor but with larger pixels. That was roughly equivalent to a Canon S5 or Lumix FZ18 point-and-shoot.

The iPhone 4 has the same pixel size as the N8 but only 5MP. It's sensor would be about 1/4" which is better than most cameraphones but actually WORSE than the N95 or point-and-shoots from 3 years ago. It's less than a quarter of the size of the N8's sensor.

The trump card they have is the backlit sensor but we'll have to wait and see how that pans out.
 
steveLONDON said:
Impressive. I 'm certain this blows the iPhone 4 video away.
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The video does look pretty good, however, it's limited to 25fps; the iPhone4 does 30fps. So the iPhone's video is better. ;)

The one thing that I did notice in the Nokia video is that all of the footage was shot without using zoom. I'm guessing the Nokia (as well as the iPhone4) does not have zoom available for video shooting.

While HD video on cell phones is getting much much better, it still can't compete with dedicated HD video cams (either camcorder or flip type). Can you imagine trying to shoot video of a basketball game from the bleachers without any zoom?
 
3gs came through for me a few times in a pinch, I'm excited to see real world results. here are some 3gs shots, better than this is a +!! bear in mind these are downsized, crappier quality, hosted on facebook.

10861_1278165479287_1384508793_1766142_4380947_n.jpg


10861_1278166159304_1384508793_1766150_651503_n.jpg


10861_1278165599290_1384508793_1766143_197244_n.jpg


It's no dslr obviously.. or even close to a good bridge cam.. but for fixed focus cams out there, if they can come close - sign me up.
 
kalsta said:
LOL! Dude, you have no idea what you're talking about. Like others have said, the camera itself could have processed the colours automatically. Not only that, but I could show you that exact same photo with a different color profile (a different way of visually interpreting the RGB numbers) and it would look completely different. That is not the same as 'doctoring' an image.

The only way any of us can realistically review the photographic capabilities of this phone is to get our hands on one.
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It doesn't shoot raw, ergo the photos are manipulated in cam.. which is the same as doctored. You're both right - sorta.
 
GQB said:
And thereby missing 90% of the great pictures in your life because you won't have that 'top notch' camera with you.
People are SO hung up on the technology over the content.
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Or just buy a Leica x1, and miss shots due to how slow it is..

seriously thought, get mft and a 20mm pancake.. shove it in cargo pants or shorts, and enjoy.
 
aegisdesign said:
The only 12MP phone camera I know of, the Nokia N8, has a larger sensor than your example 14MP pocket cam so it's not 'even more ridiculous'.

1/2.3" has an area of 28.5mm2. The N8 has a 1/1.83" sensor or an area of about 41mm2 by my calculation. That's about the same size as a Canon G9 or Ricoh GX100. Are you suggesting the Canon G9 sensor is ridiculous?

The old Nokia N95 5MP camera from 2007 used a 1/2.5" sensor but with larger pixels. That was roughly equivalent to a Canon S5 or Lumix FZ18 point-and-shoot.

The iPhone 4 has the same pixel size as the N8 but only 5MP. It's sensor would be about 1/4" which is better than most cameraphones but actually WORSE than the N95 or point-and-shoots from 3 years ago. It's less than a quarter of the size of the N8's sensor.

The trump card they have is the backlit sensor but we'll have to wait and see how that pans out.
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I have been further educated. My knowledge of phone cams is admittedly limited.

Still, surely an iPhone 4 can't support the focal length of the Nokia(s) due to its thinness.
 
Motion Blur???

I have a iPhone 3G and the motion blur when taking pictures is awful. My kids never stay still and I am hoping the iPhone 4 has solved this issue. Anyone have hands on with iPhone 4 that can tell me if this issue has been fixed?
 
jmorgan76 said:
I have a iPhone 3G and the motion blur when taking pictures is awful. My kids never stay still and I am hoping the iPhone 4 has solved this issue. Anyone have hands on with iPhone 4 that can tell me if this issue has been fixed?
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Motion blur is caused by having too slow a shutter speed for a particular subject. In your case, your kid is moving too fast for the shutter ... and you get blur. You can get faster shutter speeds simply by providing more light on the subject. The easiest way is to go outside in the sunlight.

I'm guessing that the backlit sensor of the iPhone4 should allow for faster shutter speeds by indirectly lighting the subject. Also, the flash will help out immensely.

I would almost guarentee that the iPhone4 would handle motion blur much much better than the iPhone3gs.
 
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