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New iphone: would you want a physical camera button?

would you want a physical camera button?

  • physical button

    Votes: 118 48.4%

  • on screen button

    Votes: 126 51.6%
  • Total voters
    244
Cander said:
I fail to see how a physical button is going to reduce shaking. :confused:

Slow shutter with a bad sensor is going to pick up blur no matter what type of button or where you place it.
Click to expand...

Maybe they feel more stable with a giant button to press. :D
 
No physical button, good grief, this not a Nokia hunkajunk.

A better lense and/or auto focus button in the software is all thats needed.

I have no comment on "But what about taking pictures of myself!!!111"

In 3.0 you set the Camera to the double-click home button icon and this is FAST. Its now my permanent setting. IMO its the answer to a physical button to launch the camera, for sure. As far controlling it, of course that will and should remain software only.
 
Need I remind everyone that when Apple announced the iPhone, Steve Jobs said that they tried to put as few of buttons on the phone as possible and that resulted in 2 real buttons, the Home Button and the Power Button. I guess he didn't consider the Ringer adjustment button a "real" button. If they are still trying to keep as few buttons as possible, I assume so, I think that a software button would be the way to go.

David
 
MistaBungle said:
If you want a camera then buy a camera. I'm interested in a MOBILE PHONE. And oddly enough, that is exactly what the iPhone is.
Click to expand...

That comment i keep hearing is so old and lame... "It's only a phone, not a calendar, not an mp3 player, not a web browser..." i'm interested in a MAC for browsing. My RECORD PLAYER for music, etc etc.

We've come a long way in convergence just like millions of other devices. I can use a spreadsheet on my computer so it's two things. I can listen to the radio on my tv, etc.

The iphone will get a camera update in the future. Flicker states the iphone has the most user images uploaded or something along those lines i read, so more people are using phones to take pictures...the big question is, would you like a button man!
 
lftrghtparadigm said:
No physical button, good grief, this not a Nokia hunkajunk.

A better lense and/or auto focus button in the software is all thats needed.

I have no comment on "But what about taking pictures of myself!!!111"

In 3.0 you set the Camera to the double-click home button icon and this is FAST. Its now my permanent setting. IMO its the answer to a physical button to launch the camera, for sure. As far controlling it, of course that will and should remain software only.
Click to expand...

Agreed.
But! The problem still remains of holding the phone properly when taking photos. A simple solution to all this is 'tap anywhere on the screen to take a picture when the camera app is active!'
 
MistaBungle said:
If you want a camera then buy a camera. I'm interested in a MOBILE PHONE. And oddly enough, that is exactly what the iPhone is.
Click to expand...
Why do I have to have two devices when other cell phone makers are implementing pretty decent cameras.

Should they take out the iPod part of the iPhone too?

I mean, if you want an iPod, then buy an iPod, right?

Please. :rolleyes:
 
MistaBungle said:
If you want a camera then buy a camera. I'm interested in a MOBILE PHONE. And oddly enough, that is exactly what the iPhone is.
Click to expand...

It's not a very good mobile phone - bad reception, poor call quality, rubbish battery time - so it's a good job that the iPhone isn't just a mobile phone at all, otherwise nobody would have bought one...

Phazer
 
179202 said:
Agreed.
But! The problem still remains of holding the phone properly when taking photos. A simple solution to all this is 'tap anywhere on the screen to take a picture when the camera app is active!'
Click to expand...


There are dozens of Apps that resolve this. Unfortunately the biggest weakness is saving to the Camera Roll takes 5x longer than the built-in App.

ProCamera and Real Cam SP
 
179202 said:
Agreed.
But! The problem still remains of holding the phone properly when taking photos. A simple solution to all this is 'tap anywhere on the screen to take a picture when the camera app is active!'
Click to expand...

Thats due to the crap camera lens. Everyone thinks they have shaky hands because of how unstable the iPhone camera is.

The camera itself needs a major update. the 3rd Gen iPhone this summer should take care of that.
 
179202 said:
Agreed.
But! The problem still remains of holding the phone properly when taking photos. A simple solution to all this is 'tap anywhere on the screen to take a picture when the camera app is active!'
Click to expand...

ntrigue said:
There are dozens of Apps that resolve this. Unfortunately the biggest weakness is saving to the Camera Roll takes 5x longer than the built-in App.

ProCamera and Real Cam SP
Click to expand...

Night Camera was great at first, it would take a picture automatically once your hands were steady (accelerometer). They've since updated it 10 times and it now doesn't work worth a dam.
 
I can't see Apple putting another button on the iPhone. Knowing them, they'd stay with the current design unless it was something substantial. A camera button doesn't seem to be that feature. I've gotten used to the onscreen button anyways although it is a pain sometimes when taking those arm length shots.
 
How would the home button solve the shake issue? The problem is the location of the button, not whether it is physical or on the screen, so using the home button would be in an even worse position than how it is now.
 
jessica. said:
Along with the fact that Apple is probably not going to add additional buttons .. a certainly not a hardware or physical button.
Click to expand...

Apple added buttons to the new Touch. (volume)

There are times that a commonly used function should have a dedicated physical button, instead of overloading a single button with multiple clicks and so forth.

But I agree, a new button seems unlikely in this case, mostly because it would make the original decision look incorrect.
 
I voted for the virtual button. Here's why-pick up your iPhone and take the time to note where every item is placed: volume control, silencer, power, sim card, etc.
Keeping in mind that you want to keep your phone looking beautiful, where would you place the camera button? While I don't have the design genius of Ive or anybody else on the iPhone team, I'm sure someone out there does.
I'd be willing to reconsider the physical camera button if someone could figure out the best placement for it.
 
Holding then releasing es no bueno.. point and tap es no bueno tambien...

Small White Car said:
Uh, yeah. That doesn't help.

If I'm holding the phone with one hand I can tap the button gently, but I can't release it without shaking the phone.

This setup actually makes my one-handed photos MORE shakey.

In dark areas you just have to use 2 hands, end of story.




Both at the same time? That implies you're using 2 hands. If you're doing that, the on-screen button isn't a problem. The reason to have a physical button is to aid one-handed shots. Pushing 2 buttons at once won't work in that situation.
Click to expand...

Exactly. I tried doing the press and hold then release method with one hand and it ended terribly. Using two hands it still ends terribly. Honestly it would be really awesome to have a good lens on the iPhone so that when you go out at night you don't have to have a camera bulging from your jeans pocket but what can we do... the iPhone is still an amazing device.
 
kdarling said:
There are times that a commonly used function should have a dedicated physical button, instead of overloading a single button with multiple clicks and so forth.

But I agree, a new button seems unlikely in this case, mostly because it would make the original decision look incorrect.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately this is the vibe I get from Apple: they are unlikely to add a function that would make the device more user-friendly if it contradicts their original concept. Look how in 3.0 they added options for double-clicking the home button - but you still can only set it to launch one particular application, and not any third-party ones at that.

I've always thought the iPhone would be improved with two additional physical buttons. You may think "Well what would they be used for", but really, what' couldn't they be used for. Dedicated shutter button, app launcher, activate voice dialing, toggle airplane mode/3G/Wifi, contextual menus, show keypad, redial, launch SMS... The possibilities are endless. Plus, all the thoughts about turning the volume buttons or lock button into a shutter just sounds really dumb to me.

Here's a mockup (I am not very good at image editing but it gets the idea across):
photocrop.jpg
 
they NEED another button on that phone. maybe on the side. it could be assigned or set to "intuitive" mode where it gets used as a feature on whatever app is open. so if the camera is open it will be used to take pictures. if the ipod is open it could be used as a next song button or pause or similar to the new shuffle. Every single program could have a use for it that would probably make that program better. when the phone is locked it could be used to answer calls. It would not be a gimmick. it just makes sense. one small button wont kill anyone. GIVE ME THE BUTTON.
 
Nah, once you start adding one button for this you'll go down the road that most mobile manufacturers are stuck on, which is having over half your device made up of buttons.

The beauty of the software interface is that any dev can design whatever interface they want, ok it lacks a little feedback but with software that can be compensated.
 
A button would be nice. When taking some photos i feel my hand is at an unnatural position. If a button was there then this would be gone!
 
Guys, they don't need to add a button ad i've said. They just need to add a 2 step push to the sleep/wake button so it doubles up as camera button
 
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