iPhone's Camera Upgrade

[LouieSamman]

I have started to use my iPhone 4 as a stand alone camera and has been so great do to the fact I can edit and upload the photos right from the device.

Most pocket cameras don't have this. If they did you have to be constraint to a wifi area. I, with my iPhone 4, like to edit and upload a photo right away and most of the time I would be on 3g which is sufficient enough to upload.

But there are many improvements apple needs to do to make more people switch to the iPhone's camera as a standalone one, discluding the DLSR people.

Here is what apple needs to hit the sweet spot to users who want a phone and a camera in one package.

-A physical camera Button (Hard to take self photos when you can't see the onscreen button).

-Bigger Lens (brings in more light and reduces more noise, better in low light situations)

-Picture organization (being able to put photos in folders such like the apps to better organize your photos)

-Better flash integration (I believe Apple is working on this)

-8MP (perfect amount of MP to compete with pocket cameras)

-Optical Zoom ( I understand that with the size of the iPhone and of it getting slimmer and slimmer every year that this might me tough to do but I believe apple will find a way once the hardware inside the iPhone gets smaller which can introduce into more room for the camera which would lead to Optical zoom)

-Physical Shutter (covering the camera would be nice to keep it away from dust and finger prints)

-Faster startup time

-Antishake

-Allow the original EXIF data and GPS location to third party apps to copy when making the final edited photo.

This will truly have me stick with the iPhone 4 as a stand alone camera if most of these are done and will truly take the iPhones camera to the next level.

 

[robbieduncan]

-Allow the original EXIF data and GPS location to third party apps to copy when making the final edited photo.

This is possible in iOS 4.1.

 

[LouieSamman]

This is possible in iOS 4.1.

Well the photo editing apps I have haven't updated to doing so. GRRR. Time to email those developers.

This is a must for me. I have to upload the original and edited photo to Flickr just so I can copy the date/time and GPS location of the original photo to the edited photo on Flickr, then delete the original photo.

Too much work.

 

[robbieduncan]

Well the photo editing apps I have haven't updated to doing so. GRRR. Time to email those developers.

This is a must for me. I have to upload the original and edited photo to Flickr just so I can copy the date/time and GPS location of the original photo to the edited photo on Flickr, then delete the original photo.

Too much work.

It requires the use of some pretty low-level APIs. It would need some fairly heavy re-working of apps in some cases.

 

[sapporobaby]

I have started to use my iPhone 4 as a stand alone camera and has been so great do to the fact I can edit and upload the photos right from the device.

Most pocket cameras don't have this. If they did you have to be constraint to a wifi area. I, with my iPhone 4, like to edit and upload a photo right away and most of the time I would be on 3g which is sufficient enough to upload.

But there are many improvements apple needs to do to make more people switch to the iPhone's camera as a standalone one, discluding the DLSR people.

Here is what apple needs to hit the sweet spot to users who want a phone and a camera in one package.

-A physical camera Button (Hard to take self photos when you can't see the onscreen button).

-Bigger Lens (brings in more like and reduces more noise, better in low light situations)

-Picture organization (being able to put photos in folders such like the apps to better organize your photos)

-Better flash integration (I believe Apple is working on this)

-8MP (perfect amount of MP to compete with pocket cameras)

-Optical Zoom ( I understand that with the size of the iPhone and of it getting slimmer and slimmer every year that this might me tough to do but I believe apple will find a way once the hardware inside the iPhone gets smaller which can introduce into more room for the camera which would lead to Optical zoom)

-Physical Shutter (covering the camera would be nice to keep it away from dust and finger prints)

-Faster startup time

-Antishake

-Allow the original EXIF data and GPS location to third party apps to copy when making the final edited photo.

This will truly have me stick with the iPhone 4 as a stand alone camera if most of these are done and will truly take the iPhones camera to the next level.

While I have an iPhone 4, you obviously missed the news about the N8 from Nokia which right now happens to have the best camera in any phone on the market and it pretty much kills the iPhone camera. The N8 has pretty much all if not most of these features.

 

[LouieSamman]

While I have an iPhone 4, you obviously missed the news about the N8 from Nokia which right now happens to have the best camera in any phone on the market and it pretty much kills the iPhone camera. The N8 has pretty much all if not most of these features.

I heard about it but in no way reviewed it whatsoever. Even if it has a better camera, that's not going to take me away from the iPhone.

Thats just one thing that the N8 does better only because they focused on it more which could result in a crappy OS and crappy integration/phone.

Apple keeps everything at an even line when developing things.

 

[MrMinor]

-8MP (perfect amount of MP to compete with pocket cameras)

I think 5MP is much better than 8MP for a camera phone. People get too hung up on the number of MP. I have sold photos shot with a 3MP and blown up to 13x19 for quite a lot of money. 8MP would not have made a visual difference to 99.99% of the population. I am more than happy with the 5MP on the iPhone. All an 8MP would do is eat up more space and more processing power with no added benefit.

 

[Mr Kram]

while i'd love to see all those features in a new iphone camera, i really don't want to $800 for the device.

 

[jmmtn4aj]

I think 5MP is much better than 8MP for a camera phone. People get too hung up on the number of MP. I have sold photos shot with a 3MP and blown up to 13x19 for quite a lot of money. 8MP would not have made a visual difference to 99.99% of the population. I am more than happy with the 5MP on the iPhone. All an 8MP would do is eat up more space and more processing power with no added benefit.

Most importantly more pixels on a sensor of the same size will increase the amount of electrical noise. The ISO ceiling and low-light quality of the iPhone 4's camera is already pretty terrible, adding more pixels would be a horrendous idea with current technology. I'd love to see them take, say the D300/D3's sensor cut down to size for the iPhone. Even if it only leaves us with like 2MP, it would be worth it.

 

[samcraig]

Nice list.

personally - I'd be happy with the following two..

1. to be able to send pictures using their actual filenames instead of all of them being called photo.jpg or image.jpg. iOS has this function - it was removed in 4.0 and beyond. Why?! I have no idea...

2. some basic tools within the photo app like - brightness/saturation, cropping and resizing.

 

[UCLAKoolman]

The camera+ lets you snap photos with the physical volume buttons... but unfortunately that app was pulled from the app store for hiding this feature.

If you're jailbroken there are a couple apps that let you use the volume buttons to snap photos in the native camera app.

I absolutely love having a physical camera button on my iphone 4 btw

 

[phreebsd]

I think 5MP is much better than 8MP for a camera phone. People get too hung up on the number of MP. I have sold photos shot with a 3MP and blown up to 13x19 for quite a lot of money. 8MP would not have made a visual difference to 99.99% of the population. I am more than happy with the 5MP on the iPhone. All an 8MP would do is eat up more space and more processing power with no added benefit.

are you matt minor

 

[MrMinor]

Nope, sorry.

 

[sapporobaby]

Most importantly more pixels on a sensor of the same size will increase the amount of electrical noise. The ISO ceiling and low-light quality of the iPhone 4's camera is already pretty terrible, adding more pixels would be a horrendous idea with current technology. I'd love to see them take, say the D300/D3's sensor cut down to size for the iPhone. Even if it only leaves us with like 2MP, it would be worth it.

I agree. I have a D3s and it is incredible in low, or no light.

 

[Olivia23]

I would be happy if they would just fix the yellow issue with the camera. I'm tired of people in my close up pictures looking like they have jaundice.

 

[Jessica Lares]

I too have sold pictures taken with 1.3 and 3 MP. You can get some add-on lenses for the iPhone which is better than nothing.

Please stop worrying about the iPhone's camera being as it is. We don't want to get in the territory where we can't tell the different between a mobile and point-and-shoot camera. You're better off getting a nice DSLR with an Eye-Fi card so you can pair it up with the iPhone.

 

[LouieSamman]

Please stop worrying about the iPhone's camera being as it is. We don't want to get in the territory where we can't tell the different between a mobile and point-and-shoot camera. You're better off getting a nice DSLR with an Eye-Fi card so you can pair it up with the iPhone.

But that's having two devices, I want one device to do many things. Apple is the closet company at doing so.

This is why I love the iPhone and use the camera as a stand alone one, knowing that later in the years Apple will continue to improve it making the camera a better camera for me to use.

 

[garybUK]

I heard about it but in no way reviewed it whatsoever. Even if it has a better camera, that's not going to take me away from the iPhone.

Thats just one thing that the N8 does better only because they focused on it more which could result in a crappy OS and crappy integration/phone.

Apple keeps everything at an even line when developing things.

Hummm have you even used one or just being a total fanboy?

Let's see Apple's great integration, Proximity sensor issues dropping calls and Antennagate dropping calls... hmmm GREAT integration what about that green blob in a lot of iPhone 4's eh?

Nokia's have some of the best call quality of any phone, because first and foremost that's what it is .... a phone!!!! Crappy OS? have you even seen Symbian^3, then again these Android/iOS fanboys feel threatened by a OS that has vastly superior multitasking and features, just because it wasn't (Before ^3) desgined for touch.

 

[LouieSamman]

Hummm have you even used one or just being a total fanboy?

Let's see Apple's great integration, Proximity sensor issues dropping calls and Antennagate dropping calls... hmmm GREAT integration what about that green blob in a lot of iPhone 4's eh?

Nokia's have some of the best call quality of any phone, because first and foremost that's what it is .... a phone!!!! Crappy OS? have you even seen Symbian^3, then again these Android/iOS fanboys feel threatened by a OS that has vastly superior multitasking and features, just because it wasn't (Before ^3) desgined for touch.

Theres the apps, retina display, Facetime..ect

I can't make a switch to Nokia because soon I will find myself getting bored of it, even if it does some things better.

The app store on the iPhone keeps it alive and fun. More apps to choose. and new ones everyday.

 

[sapporobaby]

Hummm have you even used one or just being a total fanboy?

Let's see Apple's great integration, Proximity sensor issues dropping calls and Antennagate dropping calls... hmmm GREAT integration what about that green blob in a lot of iPhone 4's eh?

Nokia's have some of the best call quality of any phone, because first and foremost that's what it is .... a phone!!!! Crappy OS? have you even seen Symbian^3, then again these Android/iOS fanboys feel threatened by a OS that has vastly superior multitasking and features, just because it wasn't (Before ^3) desgined for touch.

Must be a slow day in trolls-ville. Back under the bridge with you already.

 

[NathanCH]

Personally I think faster start up time would be the most useful feature there.

 

[err404]

I've seen a few apps trickle in with geotagging enabled. It's just a matter of time before this is common in third party apps.

A bigger lens and higher MP are intertwined. There is no point in doing one without the other. The potential downside is size. The n8 is almost 40% thicker but that may result more from the sliding kbd.

If you are willing to JB, there is an app that will make the built in camera app use the volume buttons.

 

[Jimmy James]

But there are many improvements apple needs to do to make more people switch to the iPhone's camera as a standalone one, discluding the DLSR people.

-8MP (perfect amount of MP to compete with pocket cameras)

Focal Length.

The prominent reason that pictures from a DSLR are so much better than pictures from a point and shoot camera is focal length (which allows for a bigger sensor). This dictates why a DSLR needs to be so much larger. This is the same reason that a device as thin as the iPhone will not truly rival a good point & shoot (much longer focal length with the lens extended).

So I have some questions for you:
1. Are you asking for a significantly thicker device to accommodate a larger sensor? Or a much larger one to allow for a retractable lens?
2. What will you do with 8 MP that is currently failing you with 5 MP? How large do you print your pics?

 

[Minimoose 360]

Thing most plausible in your list:

Folders in the camera roll. How is this not a feature yet?

 

[samcraig]

Thing most plausible in your list:

Folders in the camera roll. How is this not a feature yet?

And I think my request is plausible since they ALREADY had it LOL -- I want to be able to email, copy/paste photos and RETAIN their filename so they aren't all named the same thing!