Sign of the Times: iPhone 4 Reviewed as a Digital Camera

We all knew it wasn’t a question of if, but of when: a major camera review site (Imaging Resource) has published a review of a cell phone (Apple’s iPhone 4) as a digital camera. The review’s conclusion is positive news for camera-makers though:

If you stack them head-to-head, the iPhone 4 is not going to give a good, entry-level point-and-shoot digital camera a run for its money. The 5MP 1/3.2-inch backside-illuminated (BSI) sensor in Apple’s iPhone 4 may be one of the best on the smart phone market right now but it’s simply too small in size to compete with what’s in a dedicated digital camera. Furthermore, while the iPhone’s miniscule 3.85mm lens produced far sharper results than we expected, it’s rudimentary, at best, when compared to most cameras.

Apple is now listed on the site’s camera manufacturers page.