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You're either blind or got a bad camera. Numerous tests have ranked the iPhone 4 above every other smartphone in picture and video
 
My wife literally took hundreds of photos every month (of the kids and such) with her 3GS and we loved them but the ones shes taken on her new iP4 look grainy and, in low light we've noticed that with the flash on, she's getting a bluish haze. Really disappointed with the iP4 camera. I think she's starting to wish she had sold her new iphone and kept the old one! Lol

had the same blueish problem.. do you still have the plastic on the back... or any kind of plastic covering the camera and flash..
 
The streetlights are incredible

The 3G pics by night are pale, the 4 I think gained a bit in colour, but overall I reckon is a great camera for a phone. I don't know about 3Gs.

If you want to argue on 3Gs vs 4 I may shoot a pic by night this evening with my friend's 3Gs and make the same comparison.
 
had the same blueish problem.. do you still have the plastic on the back... or any kind of plastic covering the camera and flash..

Actually you remind me something. I took the pic with iPhone 4 with the plastic on the lens. But I don't think it affected the pic as much. will get some without tonight.
 
The iP4 camera is as noisy as hell, but so was my Lumix. Fortunately it's noise that can be solved with noise ninja. Wish they'd dial down the saturation a bit though!

Otherwise, v impressive.
 
Here's a picture I took with my ip4 the other day. I think it's pretty damn good for a camera, let alone a camera phone.

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enlargement variation

When comparing cameras with different digital resolutions, it's important to make sure that you are enlarging the images to the same result size. This is more intuitive with film photography because the result will be a print, which has an inherent physical size (like 8x10), but a digital file does not have a physical size.

Many image editors and viewers will tend to display a digital image at the "native" size (aka 100%), which essentially means the maximum size which does not require interpolation. This is convenient when there is a reasonable resolution match between the camera and the display, but is inherently unfair to higher-resolution images. This effect can be so severe, some people have become convinced that higher-resolution images are inherently worse.

In other words, you either need to upscale your 3GS images, or downscale your iPhone 4 images, to the same size -- or display them at the same scale on your monitor.
 
As for me, iPhone 4 camera is a clear improvement over the 3Gs. Yes, there is more noise visible. But there is also a hell lot of details preserved! My personal opinion is that Apple did a very good thing leaving the luminance noise (grain) intact and only suppress the color noise. Because color noise and smeared details due to heavy noise reduction are the two things that really kills the joy from the photography.

I have no doubt that the iPhone 4 photos would look visibly better (more detailed) if printed and compared with 3Gs photos. I was never a big fan of the mobile phone photography. But I love some of the iPhone photo editors and the results I can extract with them even from the lousy iPhone 3G camera. The photos I saw so far from the iPhone 4 made me really excited. Of course, iPhone 4 cannot beat my trustworthy GRDIII. But I can imagine a lot of fun with iPhone 4 camera and some very good results with proper processing.

Here are some photos I took with 3G and edited straight in the phone. They are maybe not everyone's taste. But if I managed these with lousy 2MP 3G, what could I do with 5MP iPhone 4? ;)
 

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I had to reduce the quality of few megabyte for the iPhone 4 image - sorry - this is a comparison with 3G, no flash.

iPhone 3G camera (the one with the car, not retouched 700k)

iPhone 4 camera (originally 1.8MB decreased to 1.1MB)

Is it just me or is that car driving on the wrong side of the street? I hope you said something before that drive killed someone.
 
As for me, iPhone 4 camera is a clear improvement over the 3Gs. Yes, there is more noise visible. But there is also a hell lot of details preserved! My personal opinion is that Apple did a very good thing leaving the luminance noise (grain) intact and only suppress the color noise. Because color noise and smeared details due to heavy noise reduction are the two things that really kills the joy from the photography.

I have no doubt that the iPhone 4 photos would look visibly better (more detailed) if printed and compared with 3Gs photos. I was never a big fan of the mobile phone photography. But I love some of the iPhone photo editors and the results I can extract with them even from the lousy iPhone 3G camera. The photos I saw so far from the iPhone 4 made me really excited. Of course, iPhone 4 cannot beat my trustworthy GRDIII. But I can imagine a lot of fun with iPhone 4 camera and some very good results with proper processing.

Here are some photos I took with 3G and edited straight in the phone. They are maybe not everyone's taste. But if I managed these with lousy 2MP 3G, what could I do with 5MP iPhone 4? ;)

What iPhone photo editors do you recommend?
 
very interesting topic. I work as a director of photography and I've simply been loving the iPhone 4's photos. The low light is way above average and the ability to have shallow focus is fantastic. With that said, the video mode is a hit and a miss for me. What I noticed from a large number of my and user posted videos is they come out washed out and overexposed. That seems to be the automatic nature of the iPhone 4. I have to manually click on a hotspot to bring down the image to its ideal exposure. And that looks great till the iPhone does it's auto thing again.
 
unbelievable. its a phone for that happens to have a camera on it for crying out loud. its really nothing more than a novelty camera. it is good for taking quickie pics of things when you dont have a real camera nearby, but if you want better pics and more control invest in a point and shoot.

yeah and some of us like using it for photography it can take good pictures you know...

these were taken on a 3GS i can only imagine how a iphone 4 would look. The close up of the lilly pads and the duck photo i had to resize in photoshop because of the pictures being over 1.5 mb

More 3GS Photo's edited these pano shots on iphone itself
 

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I couldn't disagree with the OP more... the iP4 camera is a HUGE step up from the 3GS, it's plain to see!

This. I took thousands of photos with my 3GS and while I haven't had time to do the same yet with the iPhone 4, the improvement is remarkable. It's leaps and bounds ahead of what I was able to shoot with the 3GS (which wasn't awful, especially not for what it was--a cell phone camera.)
 
Not saying their test is wrong...but I am not suprised a Mac fanboy site ranked the iP4 the best...

I thought this whole discussion is about iPhone 4 vs. iPhone 3Gs photo quality? I believe nobody here claimed iPhone 4 is the best camera phone? Just that the iPhone4 is clearly better than 3Gs.
 
I'm satisfied with the resolution but quite disappointed with the color balance.

I had to reduce the quality of few megabyte for the iPhone 4 image - sorry - this is a comparison with 3G, no flash.

iPhone 3G camera (the one with the car, not retouched 700k)

iPhone 4 camera (originally 1.8MB decreased to 1.1MB)
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iPhone 4 seems to have "comic book" filter. :p
 

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