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iPhone 4 camera is a step down
- Thread starter Darkfox3889
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It wouldn't matter if the Phone was 4million mega pixel it wouldn't be great quality.
You see it's because of the size of it, why do you think photographers have such big lenses? Bigger the aperture the better shots you can get (ovbiously among other factors)
ovbiously mega pixels help, but they will hit a wall sometime.
Sorry if I have offended someone by not going into super detail on cameras work (I know how you lot are
), look it up, I'm not in the mood for all that typing.
I make my full time living off of photography, editorial, advertising and fine art. In short, the images I make with the iPhone 4 could easily be moved to my agency for breaking news, they are that good. Also, I am glad there is a bit of noise (read: grain) since acuteness often renders sharp edges of detail lost in noise reduction. As for all the other complaints, I still shoot a lot of film in my work, so I have no problem with warm tungsten or other color casts when shooting indoors.
Posted from my iPhone at a magazine assignment.
Posted from my iPhone at a magazine assignment.
Or he has given up on us.
Fear not, I just had a busy day today
Sorry for my late re-entry into this debate, of which I am clearly losing.
Starting off let me revise my position a bit.
I will agree, the higher resolution and increased preservation of detail in some situations is a nice improvement over the 3GS.
As some of you have posted the slightly more noticeable noise is a good trade off for greater information retention in the images.
My main issue remains the over-saturation and almost un-avoidable clipping of areas featuring rich color. This leads to a large amount of detail to be lost outright, something I think we can all agree is bad.
Now let me post two pictures that I think illustrate well my issue with the current set-up of the iPhone 4's camera.
The first photo is completely unedited from my iPhone.
The second photo from the concert has been "de-noised" in iPhoto, but saturation is left as it was taken.
In the first photo you can see that the lighting conditions were optimal. The iPhone did a pretty good job of exposing the shot and the detail of the leaves and vine are sharp and well resolved. However, look at the red flower, you will notice that the over-saturation of the iPhone 4's camera has blown out any detail within the color. All that remains is a flat, red blob that outlines the flowers shape. At this point almost any color correction would only further expose the lost information in this area.
The second image is one from the show I took some pics at. The iPhone actually did a fairly good job in terms of exposure despite the dark lighting conditions. Once again, look at the areas of color, especially on the players skin. Over-saturation once again has blown out all the areas of color, reducing the detail to a point of "comic book" look, as I previously described
.In all honesty, a software update that simply reduced the saturation setting of the camera software, even slightly, would make this camera much more usable.
Thanks for all the great participation in this thread so far.
You guys have already convinced me otherwise on the issue of grain.
With the examples I have provided, what are you thoughts?
The first shot is oversaturated. Hopefully an app with some control can and will help with that. But the second shot is honestly what I see a lot of digital cameras do with concert lighting, color blooming. Heck, I get that with deep blue skies with my D700 or D3x at times, really annoying.
Maybe the next Nikon body will have a cell phone on it...;-)
Maybe the next Nikon body will have a cell phone on it...;-)
The iPhone 4 has the best camera of any phone period! No if's and's or but's about it. If you're not happy with it then buy a $500 camera and stop complaining I'm getting sick of you people. The whining going on is crazy, it makes me wonder if these people even own an iphone or are just trolling losers.
They are good for a phone, but the saturation is way over done. Why can't they give at least some basic controls for exposure, saturation and sharpening?
I would guess the average person would pick an oversaturated pic over a more accurate one. Not to mention most people probaly have no interest in post processing photos, especially from a phone.
I would guess the average person would pick an oversaturated pic over a more accurate one. Not to mention most people probaly have no interest in post processing photos, especially from a phone.
I can't comment on the 3GS camera, but just wanted to chirp in with a professional opinion.
The iPhone camera is the best I've seen on any phone, I agree with the poster that saturation is an "issue" from a pro POV, but if I was calibrating the Color correction for the mass market I'd use apple's approach of the slightly comic book, high contrast, medium-high saturation, this is the "look" that appeals to the mass majority in the digital age. I do however applaud the handling of noise, to me it's a very good attempt at film grain.
I personally love the ip4 camera, when taking a picture on a phone, you want something that involves the least amount of effort, and ideally something that doesn't need any post work on it, and can be emailed to your mum or your mate, get the point across and look good at the same time.
The 3GS may be more pro friendly in terms of it's image decoding, but the iPhone 4 is definitely more user friendly and more appealing to the general public.
My only complaint is the jelly vision on the video, which may I also say from a cinematographers opinion, is pretty darn amazing for a phone!!
Fact is, this is the first phone that makes me feel I don't need to carry around a lumix when going on a night out/travelling etc.. Freaking love the lens on this phone!!
The iPhone camera is the best I've seen on any phone, I agree with the poster that saturation is an "issue" from a pro POV, but if I was calibrating the Color correction for the mass market I'd use apple's approach of the slightly comic book, high contrast, medium-high saturation, this is the "look" that appeals to the mass majority in the digital age. I do however applaud the handling of noise, to me it's a very good attempt at film grain.
I personally love the ip4 camera, when taking a picture on a phone, you want something that involves the least amount of effort, and ideally something that doesn't need any post work on it, and can be emailed to your mum or your mate, get the point across and look good at the same time.
The 3GS may be more pro friendly in terms of it's image decoding, but the iPhone 4 is definitely more user friendly and more appealing to the general public.
My only complaint is the jelly vision on the video, which may I also say from a cinematographers opinion, is pretty darn amazing for a phone!!
Fact is, this is the first phone that makes me feel I don't need to carry around a lumix when going on a night out/travelling etc.. Freaking love the lens on this phone!!
If it's a problem for you, just download the free Photoshop app, desaturate a bit, and you're done.
I see what you mean about the color saturation.
Does that need a firmware fix or would that be a hardware fix?
Does that need a firmware fix or would that be a hardware fix?
Yeah, it's just terrible that people actually have their own opinions on these things. They just have to be trolling if they don't think the iPhone 4 is a perfectly created piece of electronics.
Try an Evo 4G 8M camera...
and then reconsider your statement again...
Iphone 4 camera is great and I did enjoy the 3gs camera as well.
and then reconsider your statement again...
Iphone 4 camera is great and I did enjoy the 3gs camera as well.
I have and I do, but there is a limit to it. I am not saying the camera is awful. I would just like some basic controls.
Finally someone gets it... who do they think they are to speak negatively against the iphone 4
odklizec - thank you. The point you make about noise is absolutely correct. The iP4 camera, in almost all shots I've seen, is noisy, but it's luminance noise ("grain" effect) rather than chroma (coloured patches) as seen in the iP3 shots. That's no contest - look at how Nikon SLRs default their noise control and they make the same choice: control the colour noise but play looser with lumi noise (which is less destructive of detail and easier to post-process on your computer).
Then have a look at a picture of low contrast detail, such as foliage, on most smartphone cameras - it is reduced to mush by overdone noise suppression (look at the lawns in most phone camera shots). Given the limits of the iPhone 4 camera (lens and sensor are tiny compared to my SLR, though number of pixels quite similar) it looks like they've generally made good choices. I just wish that their desire that everything should be a trivial product that a semi-conscious two-year-old can operate didn't lead them to exclude useful controls, such as exposure compensation or white balance (which you can get on the HTC androids, but unfortunately not a "bypass that dreadful jpeg engine" option). If you had the option of controlling these things (because automatics will *not* always get it right) then the camera would be good enough to be a major selling point. But maybe they assume the target audience only know phone cameras, and so it's good enough?
Then have a look at a picture of low contrast detail, such as foliage, on most smartphone cameras - it is reduced to mush by overdone noise suppression (look at the lawns in most phone camera shots). Given the limits of the iPhone 4 camera (lens and sensor are tiny compared to my SLR, though number of pixels quite similar) it looks like they've generally made good choices. I just wish that their desire that everything should be a trivial product that a semi-conscious two-year-old can operate didn't lead them to exclude useful controls, such as exposure compensation or white balance (which you can get on the HTC androids, but unfortunately not a "bypass that dreadful jpeg engine" option). If you had the option of controlling these things (because automatics will *not* always get it right) then the camera would be good enough to be a major selling point. But maybe they assume the target audience only know phone cameras, and so it's good enough?
While I feel the camera in my iPhone 4 is a huge improvement over my old 3G, I see what he's saying about the color saturation. It's not horrible by any means but does seem set up to make vibrantly colored photos. Sort of like a digital Fuji Velvia.
I'm a GRD user myself. I've got the original and love it. My friends laughed at it the first time I brought it out with me. They said it looks like a little toy camera. I actually like that people think that. It certainly doesn't draw much attention.
The GRD III looks awesome. If I had extra camera money laying around I'd get one.
it's called Macworld. Of course it won't share his opinion.