Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

I mean, how difficult is it to upgrade the camera??

Mad Mac Maniac

Mad Mac Maniac

macrumors 601
Original poster
Oct 4, 2007
4,808
2,110
A little bit of here and a little bit of there.
I mean really?

Am I missing something here? 2mp seems like the most basic thing possible, would it REALLY be so difficult to up it to at least 3.2 mp? I don't see what's the harm or cost in that.

Sorry, I know everyone has talked about the camera a lot on here, but I just really don't understand their reasoning for not upgrading it... did they really think 2mp was sufficient?
 
If they fixed everything now, no one would upgrade in a year when all the next gen iPhone has (it will be so complicated saying the 3rd gen came out after the 3G iPhone) is a thinner case and better battery life.
 
Nope, it's very puzzling.

If we look at the potential problems -

Are there chipset issues? Nope, the iPhone chipset accomodates 3.2 mp cameras quite easily (and indeed so did the 2G chipset).

Are there space considerations? Nope, you can easily get 3.2 mp CMOS chips the size of the iPhone's chip.

Are there cost considerations? Not really. I mean, there are always some cost considerations, but the reality is that so many phones use 3.2 mp CMOSes now that economies of scale mean their price is pretty much the same as 2mp versions, where production is dying off.

I'm rapidly beginning to wonder if the iPhone team is just so badly resourced they don't have time to fix these things.

Phazer
 
The next version better be ALL about the camera(s).

The three things I've been MOST waiting for are:
Higher megapixel camera.
Front-facing camera for videoconferencing.
Video-recording capabilities. (Should still be just a software upgrade, though).

This 3G phone is nice, but not enough there worth upgrading for (GPS is useless to me).
 
psychofreak said:
If they fixed everything now, no one would upgrade in a year when all the next gen iPhone has (it will be so complicated saying the 3rd gen came out after the 3G iPhone) is a thinner case and better battery life.
Click to expand...

Nail on head

It leaves us wanting more......

There is a limit to the technology they can put in it currently, and if they went to that limit now, they would have a hard job keeping the sales momentum up for the next version. As it stands they can now release another one next year with improved camera, more storage, proper bluetooth etc and we will all want to upgrade again.
 
redrog said:
Nail on head

It leaves us wanting more......

There is a limit to the technology they can put in it currently, and if they went to that limit now, they would have a hard job keeping the sales momentum up for the next version. As it stands they can now release another one next year with improved camera, more storage, proper bluetooth etc and we will all want to upgrade again.
Click to expand...

That kinda goes against what Apple, to me, is about. Which is being the company that delivers THE best of everything at the time and just blows you over with what they've managed to do. Like the OP, I'm completely bewildered as to why they still have a lousy 2mp camera. It's almost embarassing. "Hey look at my whizz bang iPhone with blazing fast 3G, aGPS, unbeatable touch screen UI and looks, fantastic apps, widescreen video iPod, mobile internet....and here's the little prehistoric 2mp camera."
 
More megapixels don't make a better picture. If your crap at photography even photos taken with a 10MP camera will look crap.

I only ever use 2MP on my K800i when it can do 3MP. I know the 2MP camera on the iPhone can take better pics that 3MP on my K800i.

The thing to add is a good Xenon flash.
 
thefunkymunky said:
More megapixels don't make a better picture. If your crap at photography even photos taken with a 10MP camera will look crap.
Click to expand...

And dont forget the light sensor. The phone can have all the megapixels in the world. Does no good with such a small and limited light sensor.
 
for the vast majority of people who own or will buy a iphone, the camera is just fine.

This allusion apple really does just want to make the best product out there and is not souly driven by dollar sign is foolish. Like the poster above said. They hold back software / hardware upgrades to create a product roadmap they retains interest and sales throughout its life cycle.

You can grip all you want, they still are going to sell millions, and then in 6 months they'll release a new one with 32 gb, upgraded camera and a few other goodies, and boom million more, so on and so on.

Its business and they are doing a hella good job at it
 
More important than pixel resolution is image compression. iPhone pictures have too much compression artifacts. Since there is no flash, indoor images are rarely lit well. The lens is too tiny to prevent distortion. There are no user-definable camera settings, no image stabilizer, no zoom, no macro...

Well, apparently, it would be difficult to upgrade the camera in it's current form factor. For good pictures, get a real camera. Use the iPhone to snap a picture after a fender bender. It's a phone for crying out loud.
 
thefunkymunky said:
More megapixels don't make a better picture.
Click to expand...

Precisely.

Image quality is determined by the size of the image sensor in the camera and lens quality, and that's why all cell phone pics suck.

More megapixels are better only in terms of print size. A 2MP image will print fine at 4x6, but you need at least 6MP to print an 8x10. I can't imagine why anyone would want to print a cell phone pic.
 
Is this a bad picture? No.

Give it light and it's bloody fantastic.

This picture has since been compressed to go on the iPhone again into a gallery and then emailed - the larger pic looks even better.
 

Attachments

  • photo.jpg
    photo.jpg
    102.2 KB · Views: 328
Leemo said:
Is this a bad picture? No.

Give it light and it's bloody fantastic.

This picture has since been compressed to go on the iPhone again into a gallery and then emailed - the larger pic looks even better.
Click to expand...

how the heck did you gain entry to my back yard mate? ;)

i agree, the iphone takes decent(ish) pics outside in bright light.. indoor or shady places.. def need to ramp it up.. but i also agree they could of bumped the camera resolution a bit as 2MP camera phones are about 5+ years old right?
 
I mean who cares about more megapixels for the Camera when the Iphone 3G now comes equipped with the new super 'Sim Ejector'. Im sure loads of people will have loads of fun playing with this new addition :D
 
If this is a deal breaker to get the 3G iPhone, then too bad.



Like all of you, i would love to have a 3.2MP camera or even 5. But we can't change that, and if pictures are important to you, buy some kodak camera that is tiny that gets 7.2MP.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A102 Safari/419.3)

lots of good responses here. 2 MP is not the problem - the poor performance in low light is the problem, and adding MP wouldn't do a damn thing about that.

That said, I agree with the posters who said it's a phone, for crying out loud. If you want a camera that actually takes quality pictures, buy a camera, not a phone.
 
Leemo said:
Give it light and it's bloody fantastic.
Click to expand...

It's not really - it's notable you've picked an image without many straight lines, so the curvature of the lens (which is bad, even by camera phone standards) doesn't stand out as much.

But anyway, more or less any camera works fine when there's lots of light. The issue is what happens when there isn't much light. And the iPhone camera performs very poorly there.

I'd agree a flash would help more than more megapixels, but either would help, as would image stablisation or better low light performance, and we got none of them.

Phazer
 
Well you know, next year they do need new features that are worth upgrading.

If they went all out next year, what will they have next year?
 
nwlondonlad said:
I mean who cares about more megapixels for the Camera when the Iphone 3G now comes equipped with the new super 'Sim Ejector'. Im sure loads of people will have loads of fun playing with this new addition :D
Click to expand...

Isn't that SIM Ejector just a white paper clip with an Apple logo on it.:p
 
the camera is hit or miss. sometimes i get great shots out of it, other times (low light) it looks retarded. 2MP isn't bad, but some control settings would be nice. just something to change a few major settings would be nice for apple to integrate into the phone. i too have the k800i and at 2MP, it takes great pictures, but the biggest difference is the chip, the lens and the flash. the k800i is basically a camera with phone functionality. the iphone is just that, a phone with a camera on it. it works for now, and it's nice being able to snap a shot and immediately send send it over email.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back