iPhone 4 Review: 3 - Camera Photos & Videos - Page 2

Agreed. I use browsing, IM, and apps far more than just picking it up and calling someone. The phone functionality is secondary for me.

Why is there a pigeon in exactly the same place — bottom left — in the images titled "iPhone 3GS video" and "IPhone 4 video"?

Is this also an iPhone feature?

Pigeon? Can you link to the images or video you're referring to?

I'd like to see some image stabilization in future updates. The video looks great but holding that little phone makes for some seriously wobbly shots at times. The gyroscope could probably be used to smooth things out quite nicely.

in the story to which these comments refer, page 3

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles...os.html&page=3

I am intrigued how stills from two separate videos from two separate devices can show a pigeon in exactly the same place.

Probably shot within a few seconds of each other. The pidgin could be feasting on some dead carcass, some food left by a picnic, or it's just lazy.

The photo's also appear to be cropped, probably to make them look as close as possible to each other. Basically they sampled the same 'spot' in each photo for the comparison.

2/10 is when I can upgrade so I hope that the next one has optical zoom, optical stabilization, and record 2 channel stereo sound (2 mics). Then I can sell my point and shoot camera that also records 720p.

2 mic's are pretty much irrelevant given they would be only a few inches apart at most. I'm surprised there are no after market addons though for video hobbyists.

Image stabilization can also be had via software although it would depend on how rapidly the sensor could sample. Do-able, and if they dropped the framerate to 23.976 FPS, they would gain quite a bit more throw-away frames. There are already a few apps in the store that claim to offer it. I haven't tried any of them though.

I'm not so sure!

Look at the end of the path in the "iPhone 4 video" still, under the palms. There are two figures, a tall figure to the right with perhaps a backpack, and a shorter figure to his/her left. These two figures can also be made out (a little blurry) in exactly the same place in the "iPhone 3GS video" still.

It is hard to believe that a pigeon and two walking figures would be in pretty much the same place in two different videos if, as the text above the images says, the videos were each 13 seconds long.

It would be interesting to hear from the person who took these videos.... were the two iPhones taking the videos at the same time?

Very intriguing. I wonder if the famed "Reality Distortion Field" also affects time and space when shooting video?

If you're going to be that specific and that demanding, why not use an SLR camera?


They might have had it on a stand, side-by-side, and recorded at the same time.

Or perhaps they just held the two phones up at the same time? You do realize you can hold a phone in each hand?

Yes, that would be a reasonable explanation. Perhaps then we should get a 3D pigeon?

I am just intrigued.

Initially you sounded intrigued. After your 'reality distortion field' comment, and considering your low number of posts, it's far more likely you're just trolling.

So much for a decent discussion thread...

No, I am not trolling. That is an unnecessary accusation. I am a devoted Apple user of many years and have been a reader of this site for many years. I am also a University Professor and am genuine in my communication. It cannot be inferred from my number of posts whether am a troll, and whether I join now, tomorrow or next year and make my first post is meaningless.

I simply wished to have a light-hearted discussion about something that I noticed about the images.

Have a nice day!

Agreed on all points, however your 'distortion' comment tends to toss all of that out with a choice of a few poor words.

I would suggest if you want to appear genuine to other folks in the forum, you keep the unnecessary comments such as that to yourself. They are inflammatory and they don't add to any discussion.

o boy yes mixed with some whole wheat and some milk eggs butter
pancake heaven

It is surely a truism of the internet that an ironic sense of humour is lost on some.

Good day!

If your intent was irony, rather than trolling, then please accept my apology.

look what does apple want from me
tell me and i will do it
i want the iphone today
but i want it to last 3 yrs like my 160g ipod classic or longer
should i buy another camera ??
another cam corder ??
or is this phone good enough
or maybe ITS a great back up to my other camera, 9 yrs old sony macro >>
and or my high camcoder/ mini dv tapes that ten yrs old

does this phone do too much ???

i want to make video calls
i want to watch some tv shows
i want to watch some home movies and home photos
maybe i will get some silly 5 dollar games
i want to check email
i may want to make some voice calls
alas some .. maybe 3 out of 10 will drop
thats ok
still apple what do you want from me ??
after 12 months is this phone old hat ??
apple is known for long lasting products
maybe i will give my kids the old while i get iphone 5
or maybe htc will top apple .

i dunno
apple has changed
the throw away mode is on at apple today
and that is sad

Cool apology accepted.

I still think it's weird the video stills are the same image for the 2 different cameras.

In any case, distortion field aside, on all counts the iPhone 4 looks so much better.

I actually thought that the 3GS looked far worse than any outside video's that I've done. I dont know why those all have that odd blue cast to them and also much softer than my own. possibly just variance between handsets I suppose. Mine actually took very good photo's and video's outside.

Ah well. I do like the quality on the 4G, although I wish they had used a warmer LED for the flash. The built in one tends to be a little too blue.

The very day the Beta with orientation lock and iPod controls appeared.



For those unsure what we're discussing...

Here is how the double-click of the Home Button works on the lock screen of any iPhone with any iOS...

Here is how it looks on the iPhone 4 and 3GS running iOS 4.0 if you are in the phone in any way. First you need to bring up the Fast App Switcher, then you need to swipe to the right. As you can see it's more cumbersome in several ways...

There is one caveat that makes the new setup desirable, though I think there are way too many cons to offset this one pro. The iPod icon will change to whatever audio streaming app you are using and the controls will work for it as if you were in that app. However, the audio controls for Pandora and other streaming apps also work when access the "iPod controls" from the lock screen.

Thanks for clarifying solipsism. Since my phone doesn't ship 'til the 15th, I had no clue what you guys were talking about. 3G here. I don't think the lock screen implementation is inconsistent...just simplified since the phone is locked.

Off topic: Is your phone jailbroken? I see a percentage by the battery meter.

1) Yeah, I thought that was likely getting confusing. And I'm sorry for jacking this thread, but note my original comment on this was just a post script.

2) I agree that the Lock Screen iPod controller is consistent and the most useful when holding in your hand. It's the new option when not in the Lock Screen that is inconsistent, and harder to use.

3) No, it's not jailbroken. Those pics are note from my phone. However, the percentage sign for the battery was a new software feature introduced with the 3GS.

If you have a 3GS or an iPhone 4 you should see the option for percentages under Settings --> General --> Usage.

Funny, I'm in a very similar situation. I primarily shoot with a 5D Mark II, and while I think it's the greatest thing ever invented, it's obviously not a camera you'll always have with you. So I keep a Canon G10 with me and it serves me nicely when portability is needed. However, it's video while good for it's resolution, isn't HD which is a real let down.

Enter the iPhone 4. By no means do its photos equal or surpass the G10's, especially since it doesn't shoot RAW, but they are actually darn good shots. Add to this the fact that the iPhone's HD video is vastly superior to the G10, and I find myself leaving the G10 behind more and more. It's simply not worth the extra bulk and baggage when I can get such decent shots with the iPhone. I honestly never thought I'd see the day I'd use a cell phone camera over my beloved G10.

From this photographer, a sincere thank you to Apple for focusing on pixel quality, rather than just playing the Android marketing game with megapixels.

One thing that is omitted in these reviews is battery life. I took the iPhone 4 with me to a local amusement park this week in lieu of lugging my other cameras...

THe photos it takes are remarkable, especially in bright sun. It even freezes movement well and the colors are amazing.

But taking 20 photos ran the battery from 97% to 53% with no use of phone, text, e-mail etc. Unless you can keep plugging your iPhone 4 in all day long, it's not going to be usable for anything but on-the-fly photo taking.

I did not test the video, because frankly I don't care about it. Maybe someone else an comment on the battery life if you use the video capture.

This seems odd. How long was it in the camera mode? I would think that sucking down half the power would mean that it was constantly in camera mode for several hours.

I agree. I've taken upwards of 60 pictures and 6 or 7 movies without any unexpected drop in battery life. Are you leaving the camera on the whole time with the video preview screen on? Battery performance has been nothing short of steller. It was one of the most pleasant surprises in the new phone.

If what subsequent posters have said doesn't help, one word: Mophy.

I concur, that is unusual. You either have a bad battery or something else causing the battery to drain too quickly. Was Push email on, was it in Airplane Mode, was there a signal issue causing your phone to constantly poll for a better signal? How long of a time frame were these 20 photos? 8 hours?

It behoove you try to isolate the camera to see how much 20 photos and, say, 10 minutes of continuous video, actually affect your device. They compare to reviews and see if you are within the norm. It is possible to have an HW problem, after all.

I'm a photo editor, and it looks to me like these are two different cameras held right next to each other and one shot was taken literally a second or half-second after the other one. The pigeon's head is at a slightly different angle (pitched slightly lower on the 720p version) and its legs appear to be in different positions, and the cropping is different on the tree trunks & shadows on the lower right side. Since these are presented as video stills, the scenario probably was that they started both cameras recording at roughly the same time, then moved them to be held flush next to each other and shot the same scene, then lifted stills from both clips that were nearly, but not exactly, the same moment.

I'm regretting upgrading my 3G to iOS4 - just about every app, especially ones that load data off the internet, has become unstable (crashing at least once on startup before launching) and and the built-in apps are all sluggish. The folders are nice, but not worth this sluggishness. Having purchased this phone only 15 months ago (yes, from Apple), I'm not planning to get an iPhone 4 until next Spring and it seems unconscionable of Apple not to make sure a product it sold so recently isn't _degraded_ by software upgrades to accommodate the newest product. I don't mind missing out on the new features for a while, as long as existing functionality is maintained, as it should be. If a de-upgrading process becomes available, I will opt for that...

I think it's a mistake for Apple to release 4.0 for the 3G with such a dramatic performance issues, without first letting the user know that it might not suit them and way, AND without an Apple created method to downgrade if you don't like it.

Here is one solution you can try: http://dushmis.wordpress.com/2010/06...-1-3-or-lower/

Crap, it looks like my old backup was replaced, so I can't go back without going without all my data. Oh well, only a week and my 3G will be a standby unit at best.

You don't have Time Machine or some other backup system? They would be located under...

»

~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup

» C\Documents and Settings\\%USERNAME%\\Application Data\\Apple Computer\\MobileSync\\Backup

I have a backup system, but it refreshes the backup of my system drive (and currently, some user data) every day to a second, immediately bootable drive. My more important data goes back a week with daily incremental backups. I'll have to make my backups more rigorous, but it's too late for my old iPhone data.

Great article as usual. However you missed an important detail about the iPhone 4's camera, which Apple also fails to mention on their website. The new iPhone's camera sports an f2.4 lens, while the 3Gs only had an f2.8 lens. You can verify this by examining the EXIF data on photos taken with both phones' cameras.

While a 0.4 f-stop difference in lens aperture might not seem like much, bear in mind that this can easily translate into hundreds of dollars of difference in the price of professional camera lenses. Just compare the prices of Canon's 50mm f1.8, f1.4 and f1.2 lenses. Faster lenses are highly coveted by experienced photographers.

The iPhone 4's faster lens give it a noticeable advantage in low light photography, allowing lower light shots with faster shutter speeds and lower ISO settings. These translate into less motion blur and less noise (aka graininess.) An additional benefit is that the wider aperture yields slightly narrower depth of field allowing for a slightly more out of focus background when focusing on a close-in subject. This helps isolate the subject from its background. On this latter point, I haven't done any testing so I'm not sure if the difference is noticeable.

Another undocumented difference I've noticed is that in low light photos, the iPhone 4's camera increases its sensitivity setting to as high as ISO 2000, whereas the 3Gs seems to have a limit of ISO 1000. Once again, this greater latitude translates into the ability to preserve faster shutter speeds, allowing for less motion blur and more usable shots in low light.

Additionally, Apple have allowed the higher ISO setting while resisting the temptation to overdo things with noise reduction, which can obliterate image detail. Low light images appear grainy naturally, but with surprisingly good color accuracy and detail.

Bottom line: larger sensor + wider aperture +higher ISO +conservative noise reduction = remarkable quality low light photos for a phone camera.

Great post, freediverx. This is why I love this forum.

If the iPhone is locked at the time, double clicking the home button still brings up the iPod controls.