We can no longer ignore smartphones as legitimate photography gear. As smartphone cameras have gotten better we’ve seen everything from hipstamatic war photography to iPhone fashion shoots, and here comes yet another first.
Of 5,700 entries, Laura Elliot of County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland won first place at a recent National Trust photography competition with her photo taken using only an iPhone 4 and (what else?) Instagram. Read more…
Here’s an interesting idea by Oregon-based engineering consultant Paul Anderson called The Daylight Viewfinder. The patent pending invention, which is in the process of raising $44,000 on Kickstarter, is a suction mountable, sun blocking viewfinder/app combo that allows you to take great pictures with your phone (currently iOS only) even in bright daylight. Read more…
SYNC is a creative short film that tells a love story with a “backward world” twist. It was filmed an original iPhone 4 (not the 4S), a Steadicam Smoothee, and a crew of 4 people.
If you thought our Leica iPhone skins are geeky, check out this new case made by the Japanese brand Gizmon. It gives your iPhone a fake rangefinder-style body that isn’t entirely useless: the case’s shutter button actually takes pictures and the optical viewfinder can be used to compose shots. Additional features include a lens mount, a tripod socket, and camera strap holes. Read more…
We’ve shared before that the Canon 5D Mark II was used for scenes in Captain America and Iron Man 2, but if you think that’s crazy, get this: the upcoming movie ‘The Avengers‘, which features an entire team of Marvel superheros, contains scenes shot with the iPhone 4. The movie’s cinematographer Seamus McGarvey tells IFTN,
The beauty of photography or cinema is that you make every choice based on the content at hand. On The Avengers, I did a couple of shots on the iPhone and they are in the movie. In fact, they are in the trailer! I understand that sometimes there is no choice and you have to go for the cheapest option, but if you are limited for choice, you can still make poignant decisions that will effect the look of the film.
Assuming he was using an iPhone 4 rather than the recently announced iPhone 4S, the scenes were captured at just 720p and 30fps. Read more…
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.
If for some reason you’ve always wanted pair up your SLR lenses with the tiny sensor found on the iPhone 4, Photojojo has a new mount that can make your dream come true. The package includes a special aluminum case for your phone, a UV filter attachment, and the lens adapter, and almost guarantees that you’ll be the strangest looking iPhone shooter on your street. Read more…
Wedding photographer Brian Adams and wedding videographer Rainer Flor claim to be the first to capture a wedding entirely using the iPhone 4. Flor volunteered his own wedding last November for the experiment, and a total of three iPhone 4s were used: two for the photos and one for the video.
“We proved that the iPhone technology is advanced enough to handle an event like a wedding, and simple enough that it doesn’t take a lot of experience or extra equipment to shoot high-quality video and pictures,” said Adams. “The user still has to have some creativity and a good eye, but this gives them a great tool.”
Would you rather have a great photographer shoot your wedding with an iPhone 4, or a mediocre photographer shoot using professional gear?
The iPhone 4 has become the primary camera for many of its owners, but it lacks many of the useful features found on actual compact cameras. iShuttr is a hard case that makes your iPhone operate more like a compact camera by adding a grip, a shutter button, zoom buttons, a larger flash, an external battery pack, and a tripod mount. The people behind the case are currently raising money for the project through Kickstarter: a $50 contribution will pre-order an iShuttr, which is set to retail for $70 when it’s actually released.
The Leica i9 is a concept camera case dreamed up by design firm BLACK Design Associates for the iPhone 4. Unlike the Slow Photography Camera we shared last week, the i9 is actually an independent camera that simply uses the iPhone as a giant touch screen and as a modem for the web. Read more…
