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Why no ability to take video with iPhone camera?

M

ModernDayDruid

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 10, 2007
2
0
Does anyone have any insight as to why Apple would not have included the ability to take video via the iPhone camera? My RAZR can do this, so why not my iPhone? I was trying to think of a reason why my iPhone would not be able to do this. Hardware limitations? Shouldn't be.

Any chance this feature is coming via a future update?
 
I may be wrong, but I think the use of video would require some new hardware and not just a software update. If it can be done with a software update then there is a chance this could be updated in the future. As far as the reason Apple left it out, I think it is because the majority of video taken on cell phones is pretty bad. Apple and Jobs like to have things work how they want with good quality so they may have left it off simply because they couldn't find a camera that would give good quality video.
 
I don't have a factual answer...only the people that receive a check every week from Apple might.

But I'll take a guess and use the same excuse a lot of other people come up with when attempting to justify missing features on the iPhone such as no flash support in Safari.

Just remember these two words and repeat them every time you wonder why a feature isn't on the iPhone an then it will all make sense again :D

" Battery Life "
 
The iPhone software is not finished yet. Any iPhone user can give you a list of simple features that they would like, but it takes time to implement this stuff properly. It's way, way too early to speculate on the reasons for this or that feature being missing when there are so many.

I think we can expect a lot of things to show up (as video out, the iTunes wifi store, and other features have) but it's really hard to say when.
 
Battery life. I didn't think of that. Probably the culprit.

Either that or Steve is saving that feature for the iPhone v2... :)
 
Sobe said:
Probably because Apple wasn't trying to create a Swiss-Army phone.
Click to expand...

Wow, they could've fooled me with a device that has a phone/iPod/web browser/photo viewer/camera/YouTube/music store/stock and weather tracker, etc...
 
Have you actually seen what a picture taken on the iPhone looks like if the subject so much as blinks? Terrible. I can't see video looking good in any way, shape, or form.
 
Rooskibar03 said:
Have you actually seen what a picture taken on the iPhone looks like if the subject so much as blinks? Terrible. I can't see video looking good in any way, shape, or form.
Click to expand...

I'm no subject matter expert on hardware decoders used in digital cameras but you do have a good point there. It seems that whichever component Apple chose for the camera isn't really the greatest for pictures let alone motion video.
 
Video cameras and still cameras on phones are so vastly inferior to standalones that I don't see them being very useful until a really quality implementation can put them on par with, say, a good consumer-grade MiniDV camera (if there is such a thing... sure it's not DVCPro but it's many times better than a cameraphone).

I think this is the problem... if they tried to implement a video camera in that small a form factor, it would be mediocre at best and Apple, having a reputation for quality products, would catch more hell for having it than they are catching now for not having it.

I don't see Apple doing this until it can be done well... and frankly I'm just not impressed at all with any camera phone or video recorder phone.
 
It is possible. All ya need is software.. A video capturing software. If you turn your camera function on right now, you'll see that you have a live-view for taking pictures... this is basically the same thing as capturing video... you just need software that is able to capture multiple frames at a time... and maybe compress it to jpeg-movies or even quicktime.. Should be simple.
 
ModernDayDruid said:
Does anyone have any insight as to why Apple would not have included the ability to take video via the iPhone camera?
Click to expand...

Because Apple has not figgured out (yet) how to charge you .99 cents per minute of video shot with your iPhone. And Leopard will be a bit delayed while engineers are transfered over to help them perfect charging you another .99 cents to use a still from your video for a contact image.
 
Simple Answer: They don't have to

Not when you have an army of fanboys who will defend senseless ommissions at every turn.

Seriously its either battery life or something they can claim as an update when it should have been there already or a V2 feature
 
Listen, I'm not an Apple apologist, but I think it's pretty obvious that cell phone video recording is about the most useless thing ever right now. I don't understand why anybody cares. The only practical functionality I've ever seen in a phone-taken video is ruining about 1/5 of youtube.
 
Orwell1984 said:
Listen, I'm not an Apple apologist, but I think it's pretty obvious that cell phone video recording is about the most useless thing ever right now. I don't understand why anybody cares. The only practical functionality I've ever seen in a phone-taken video is ruining about 1/5 of youtube.
Click to expand...

well if what you mean by useless is that its probably one of yhe least used features on a phone and even amongst consumers that own phones with video recording then i might agree.

However, i would not say flat out useless. I dont have an exact number, but just through my own casual observance i have noyiced quite a few wrong doings brought to light because ofvideo camera phones. Abuse in schools, police abuse etc.

For this purpose camera phones dont need to compete or br compared to HD quality video cameras. They just need to be present, its nice to have around for those rare but important occassions when someone thinks, "damn i wish we had a video camera for that"
 
hi guys actually
You can make videos with cyrecorder but you need cydia...
BTW it makes great video ..
 
The battery life issue doesnt fly with me. Wouldnt it eat up battery only when in use? As per quality, I have cycorder and the qulity is great, even on my pc it has very little or no pixelation. Infact its the best ive seen on any mobile device. Cellphone video will never match dedicated video camera's, never, so that doesnt matter. Its a fun thing to have, to play around with, plus its standard on phones for so many years now.
 
people complaint the picture quality of iphone too much, i took 2 photos using iphone (top one using AirMe, bottom one using camera) i think it's good enough for me, i don't plan to make a poster out of it. walking around town snapping picture here and there using AirMe to post it on flickr. if you think camera is not good enough, learn how to take better picture don't blame the camera. as for why apple don't allow video, it's stupid.



 
Battery life is not the reason. Baring in mind that 2 megapixel cameras are technology of 3 years ago I think that the quality when shown against todays 8 megapixel offering would be an embarassment.

The camera just can't cope with the frames per second needed for smooth video recording. Just switch it on and move it about and you'll see. And its not even recording anything!

The fact is that the camera of the iPhone is bad. We're talking technology from 2005.
 
It's the hardware. It's not a normal camera sensor, due to the way it takes a photo. Jailbreak and use cycorder with sound if you really want.
Till then, await v3 which will very likely have decent video options.

Aurial - some of even the best new cameras out there, if you move them about can't do smooth video recording...

We might be talking about tech from 2005, but then don't forget 3G was tech from yesteryear too, and that (decent) 3G coverage hit the US shores recently...
 
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