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iPhone 3.0 Firmware to Take Better Photos?

They either have a faulty lens or intentionally screwed with the camera because there is no way a fully functioning iPhone would take pictures that look like those 2 "bad" examples.

I've owned 2 iPhones and they would definitely take pics of the quality of the other 2 photos consistently.
 
Case/Control

Big long post about type I errors and case/control, large sample sizes and crossover trials...but I wasn't logged in and lost it. So, in summary...

If this was done with two different cameras, I suspect the UV-coating-unevely-worn problem. Without a large sample size of both fw2 and fw3 iphones taking pictures showing EACH AND EVERY fw3 pic being better than EACH AND EVERY fw2 pic, you cannot reject the null hypothesis that there is, in fact, no difference between camera output between iPhone cameras using the different firmware revisions.

If it was done with the same camera (doubtful due to the apparent setup and lack of foresight of a need to perform such a test by the testers before upgrading), then it has a little more credibility but could still be influenced by outside factors (oil on lens being one option).


blah blah blah. Shoddy research on Giz's part. Unfortunately I can't get the russian link to work and probably couldn't discern their setup for the "series of tests" if I could. Anyone else care to comment?

Thanks for the link to the thread about the UV coating, I now know why my iphone pics have all that bloom in them now. In fact, I could replace the labels on the side-by-side comparisons with "July 2007" and "May 2009) and it would look the same as what they currently display.
 
mrkgoo said:
The picture of the vending machine looks bunk. It looks like there's oil or something on the lens in the right picture.
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All my iPhone 2G photos have that fuzzy effect. If this improvement is real I'm looking forward to it.
 
norbertcala said:
Please see this:
http://www.ipod.info.pl/index.php/lepsze-zdjecia-z-iphone-os-30-niz-iphone-2x/
User from Poland have other results.
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Indoors, with a lot of glare from the TV/iPod screen. Of the two sets of pictures,
If you look at the Bose dock in the left hand pair, you can see it's better focused with 3.0
For the other pair, it looks like they're both pretty well stabilised when the shots were taken, and it's more the issue of glare and lack of light.


So I decided to do the same test images and show you the full resolution. You can see the superiority may be a small firmware 3.0 but it is not so obvious as in the pictures www.iphones.ru. Photos I did well over 10 and I never managed to obtain a result significantly better on sofcie 3.o.
Watching and evaluating themselves.
Photos were taken with the iPhone 3G soft 2.2.1 once again with the 3.0 beta 4.
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They're saying they didn't get significantly better, that's all.
 
wow those are some HORRIBLE photos. keep the lens clean and heres a tip... don't move while taking the picture hah
 
I would love it if 3.0's firmware somehow brought better picture-taking (I agree with someone else who said that other iPhone programs sometimes take better pictures. I've been using the built-in camera in apps like CameraBag, for instance, to get more clearer photos lately). However, the "bad" examples given here in this article MUST have been intentionally messed with -- or there's something seriously wrong with that specific phone that has the 2.2.1 firmware. None of my iPhone pics EVER look that bad, unless my hand is shaking or the subject's moving too fast.

I've actually been quite pleased with the iPhone camera so far. I have an account on Flickr of mostly iPhone pics, and most people can't believe the shots are taken with a camera phone (some examples here, here, here, here, here, and even an action shot here). But I will still welcome a better camera for the iPhone -- I just think it's going to come from the hardware, and not the firmware...
 
iPhone DOES Have a Flash

Someone complained about the iPhone not having a flash. It's there. You just have to know how to do it.

1. Run myLite. Set it to continuous full white.
2. Point the screen at your subject.
3. Run the camera app. It is important that you do this step quickly. Very quickly.
4. Take the picture of your subject at the same time the light from your screen reaches the subject.

Presto. Instant flash.
 
nagromme said:
I care: when your phone is all you have with you (I don't carry a camera ALL the time) every bit of quality is nice to have.

And I can confirm this rumor. Here's how it works: the 3.0 firmware generates an ultrasonic sound from the speaker, which causes cats to sit still.
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Haha. That was hilarious. :D
 
My phone doesn't give off that fuzzy effect unless I'm moving. In any event a better camera would be a plus not a minus so hey. .
 
Wingsy said:
Someone complained about the iPhone not having a flash. It's there. You just have to know how to do it.

1. Run myLite. Set it to continuous full white.
2. Point the screen at your subject.
3. Run the camera app. It is important that you do this step quickly. Very quickly.
4. Take the picture of your subject at the same time the light from your screen reaches the subject.

Presto. Instant flash.
Click to expand...

I'm never fast enough...:D

(lets assume that the subject of the photo is 1m away. This gives me roughly 3.3•10^-29 s , or 0.000000000000000000000000000033 seconds to turn the camera, close myLite, open the camera app and press the button. This is of course approximating that light is traveling at 3.0•10^28m/s in air, which is actually it's vacuum speed)
 
how interesting. as for the people asking for a flash. no. cam phone flashes are useless. they wash out pictures so much. make you look dead.
 
Its always possible

Beamengine said:
ALL phone cameras are utter rubbish. Who cares if the next one is 1% less hopeless.
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Have you never used an N95 or Sony-Ericsson? Pretty damn good if you ask me.

Having a real shutter and autofocus really makes a difference. On my N95 I can even adjust EV, Flash, focus, red eye etc. Only 5mp but outstanding for a phone
 
jared_kipe said:
Am I the only one who doesn't buy it??
The lens flare in the second image is so vastly different. This could have been achieved by taking your very own hot air (breath) and blowing it onto the camera lens. (or finger print smudge whatever you want)

Behold, how blowing and cleaning my lens has improved my 2.1fw iphones pictures dramatically!!
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erm.. and why exactly the source should fake the comparison?:confused:
 
Beamengine said:
ALL phone cameras are utter rubbish. Who cares if the next one is 1% less hopeless.
Click to expand...

Wilbur: "Hey Orville! I flew! We did it! We invented the manned, steerable airplane!"
Orville: "Now to work on it's lift capacity. So we can carry more than one person."
Beamengine: "But can it fly to the moon? No? Then who cares?"
Everyone (except Beamengine): :confused: ... *Facepalm* ... **** TROLL!
 
Well yes, besides the obvious gunky lens coating (my 2G has the same thing), it does look like they're doing some sharpening in software, if you look closely at the larger images.
 
to people saying "iPhone pictures don't come out that badly." ... i can only guess that you haven't taken many pictures with the iPhone. the iPhone REGULARLY spits out photos of EXTREMELY low quality. that cat is NOT "too" blurry. that's pretty darn typical, in my experience.

someone take a picture inside at night, and tell me the iPhone doesn't take pictures that bad.

on the better pictures in 3.0 ... it's not a joke, it's not a fake. i noticed immediately that the pictures in 3.0 take more quickly and look slightly better. this isn't an illusion. they HAVE messed with the photo taking in 3.0.

and again, i'll throw in my standard bitch... WHY does the phone show you a still shot of a photo you will NEVER actually capture? why does it even bother to tease you with a non-photo screen shot?
 
muskratboy said:
to people saying "iPhone pictures don't come out that badly." ... i can only guess that you haven't taken many pictures with the iPhone. the iPhone REGULARLY spits out photos of EXTREMELY low quality. that cat is NOT "too" blurry. that's pretty darn typical, in my experience.

someone take a picture inside at night, and tell me the iPhone doesn't take pictures that bad.

on the better pictures in 3.0 ... it's not a joke, it's not a fake. i noticed immediately that the pictures in 3.0 take more quickly and look slightly better. this isn't an illusion. they HAVE messed with the photo taking in 3.0.

and again, i'll throw in my standard bitch... WHY does the phone show you a still shot of a photo you will NEVER actually capture? why does it even bother to tease you with a non-photo screen shot?
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I'm not saying that an iPhone is a great camera, nor that Apple aren't improving shutterlag. I'm just saying that the pictures shown on the right are indicative of a dirty lens.
 
Even fixing the app to remove the half-second delay between pressing the button & the actual pic-grab would be an improvement.
It's a pain in the ass to have to anticipate moving objects (kids, pets, life etc) when trying to take a pic with the iPhone.

Line up shot,
hold camera still (no motion blur),
shade back of phone to get rid of camera-flare,
press button,
...hold for a second to watch shutter animation and listen to shutter-noise
...watch pet move, nephew look away, bird move etc...
...THEN the pic is taken. :mad:
hopefully :apple:'s next version will focus less on cute noises & animations and actually do what it's supposed to (which is take the pic when I press the button... not sometime later).
 
Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5H11 Safari/525.20)

It is food to see some improvements like this in the update. I hope it is true.
 
Habakuk said:
For all who believe that the iPhone camera is weak please have a look at my photo stream at flickr.
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um.. wow. photos taken outside in full sunlight.

my cardboard box pinhole camera ALSO takes good photos in those conditions.

in fact, EVERY camera takes their best pics in those conditions. all this proves is the iPhone camera can take a decent picture in the most forgiving conditions possible.

not really that impressive. or impressive at all. it's still a crap camera.
 
iTone said:
how interesting. as for the people asking for a flash. no. cam phone flashes are useless. they wash out pictures so much. make you look dead.
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You should look at the Sony Ericsson C905 - Has an amazing flash and camera. If it's whiting out the picture, you need to change the intensity/auto-intensity.
 
muskratboy said:
um.. wow. photos taken outside in full sunlight.
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There are some taken in the dark woods, at back-light and inside as well. But you are right, I'll add some night shots. For night shots you need a tripod as with any other camera.

my cardboard box pinhole camera ALSO takes good photos in those conditions.
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Please show me some of them.

in fact, EVERY camera takes their best pics in those conditions. all this proves is the iPhone camera can take a decent picture in the most forgiving conditions possible.
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I've never said that it's the best camera. And there are disadvantages especially with fast moving objects (or fast moving camera) but it's related to CMOS sensor -- almost each mobile phone camera has CMOS sensor.

With each device you have to know where are the advantages, what can I do with it and what not.

not really that impressive. or impressive at all. it's still a crap camera.
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No. The geo tagging features are superb, very usable and no other camera has them. It's by far not so bad as it sounds by some people.
 
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