The iPhone has evolved in leaps and bounds since the smartphone first burst onto the scene in 2007, and one of the most impressive ways it has evolved is in its capability to take pictures. In the original iPhone, a camera was something of an afterthought; the current model has entire commercials dedicated to the camera.
But knowing intuitively that the camera has improved exponentially is a far sight from seeing it with your own eyes. And so, just like they did in 2011, the folks behind the popular iPhone app Camera+ got every model of the iPhone together took a set of comparison shots for your perusing pleasure. Read more…
Apple is on stage right now announcing its new iPhone 5, and has just revealed the details of the smartphone’s camera. It’s pretty much the same camera as the one found inside the iPhone 4S, except they made the whole thing “thinner” (the iPhone 5 is 18% thinner than its predecessor). You’ll find a slightly improved backside-illuminated sensor that shoots the same 8-megapixel photos at 3264×2448 resolution, and the same 5-element lens with a f/2.4 aperture.
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Published earlier today and already discovered by AppleInsider, a new patent from Apple seems to show that the Cupertino company would like to put swappable lenses in future iPhones. The camera in the iPhone 4S is already great — it was even used all by itself for an editorial fashion shoot — but there is always room to improve in creative ways and swappable lenses are certainly uncharted territory for a camera phone. 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…
The 1-bit camera app is definitely not for people who love to mess around with filters and tweak high-quality images on their iPhone, there are plenty of other apps for that. Instead, the 1-bit camera is for those of us who remember using the old Nintendo Gameboy Camera; for those of us who don’t mind paying $0.99 for a dose of good ol’ fashioned nostalgia. Read more…
If you’ve ever found yourself wishing you could take an iPhone picture of the night sky — or a cool slide under the microscope for that matter — than your wish could soon become a reality. The startup Arcturus Labs are in the process of funding a new product called Magnifi, an iPhone case/adapter that allows you to attach your phone to a microscope, telescope, binoculars, or any other optical instrument. Read more…
About a week ago rumors of an iPhone app that could shoot in RAW format raged across the Internet. The app in question, the 645 PRO by developer Jag.gr, was to be the first camera app for the iPhone to achieve this feat. And although by all accounts the app is a very impressive and useful app, it turns out that shooting in true RAW isn’t among its features.
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One of the main reasons Apple has been so successful as a tech company is its focus on usability. Even as competitors’ smartphones screens are approaching tablet screen sizes, Apple has stuck with 3.5-inches — an optimal size for operating the phone with one hand. John Gruber of Daring Fireball just published his review of the iPhone 4S today, and writes that Apple focused on speed as one of the main improvements featured in the iPhone 4S camera:
The most profound difference between the 4S and 4 cameras has nothing to do with image quality. It’s that you don’t have to wait nearly as long. That closed iris comes up for a moment and then it’s gone, and you’re ready to shoot. And after you shoot, the camera is ready to snap additional photos almost instantly. The difference is huge, and it’s especially nice in conjunction with iOS 5’s new lock screen shortcut to jump right into the Camera app.
I spoke to some friends familiar with the development of iOS 5 and the 4S, and word on the Cupertino street is that camera speed — time from launch to being able to snap a photo, as well as the time between subsequent photos — received an enormous amount of engineering attention during development. The stopwatches were out, and every single tenth of a second that could be shaved was shaved.
I wonder whether compact camera manufacturers spend as much effort shaving tenths of a second off their cameras’ startup and in-between-shot times. They’ll want to now.
The iPhone 4S [Daring Fireball]
Image credit: speedometer mileometer 88088 by osde8info
Apple has just announced its new iPhone 4S, and the new camera found on the phone is pretty impressive. It packs an 8MP (3264×2448) CMOS sensor that’s backside-illuminated, allowing it to gather 73% more light and capture images 33% faster. The lens is now an f/2.4 lens that contains 5 separate elements, which provide 30% more sharpness. Snapping a first shot now takes 1.1 seconds, and subsequent shots require only an addition .5 seconds each.
In terms of video, the iPhone 4S records 1080p HD video with image stabilization and noise reduction. The company is saying that the phone will be the best still and video camera many customers have ever owned.
(via Engadget)
Slit-Scan Camera is a new app for the iPhone that lets you shoot trippy slit-scan photographs. Rather than capture a whole image at once, the slit-scan app exposes each scene through a “sliding slit”, giving anything moving within the frame a strange, warped look.
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