And in the Handwriting-On-Wall Dept., the major digital camera review site Imaging-Resource has published a review of—yup—the Apple iPhone 4.
Cue Prince
Mike
(Thanks to Michael S.)
Send this post to a friend
Please help support TOP by patronizing our sponsors B&H Photo and Amazon
Note: Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. More...
Original contents copyright 2011 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.
Featured Comment by Brad Nichol: "I am really pleased to see this. Most camera review sites along with their traditional forum bases have treated the iPhone and mobile phone imaging as a nasty little disease that degrades the whole photography world...meanwhile the 'great unwashed' have embraced the devices with pure passion and produced some of the most compelling photography in history.
"If the information I have seen is correct over half of all the images taken each day are taken on a smart phone, with the iPhone top of the heap.
"Parallel to the traditional photography websites have been the development of 'mobile photography' sites, which seem to concentrate on apps, images, videos, photographer bios and much more. Many traditional photographers wouldn't dream of visiting these sites. It's their loss. These sites are fascinating, turbocharged with artistic sensibilities and a great insight into the future of photography.
"It's not so much writing on the wall as it is graffiti writ large in technicolor, monochrome and apped till it floats.
"I must add I do have a bias. I run workshops on iPhoneography and was an early adopter, but it truly has been one of the most exciting things I have been involved in photographically."
Featured Comment by Bob Rosinsky: "The Instamatic of our era. Kodak R.I.P. Half of my retouching work from consumers originates from iPhones."
I love my iPhone 4 camera! One of the great things is how you can press it up against glass to capture interior spaces - all without a hint of distortion :)
Here's a cover story I did for the paper I work for that was shot entirely on my iPhone...
http://www.newtimesslo.com/cover/6148/empty-visions/
Posted by: Steve E Miller | Tuesday, 13 September 2011 at 01:05 PM
You still can't get something as good as, say, a Canon S95 (minus the optical zoom, perhaps) embedded in a...device yet. One wonders if this is the result of some deliberate restraint.
Posted by: Paul De Zan | Tuesday, 13 September 2011 at 01:07 PM
Some of these photos have a unique quality in them. In time we will wax nostalgic on iPhone photos as we do now on Polaroids
Posted by: Animesh Ray | Tuesday, 13 September 2011 at 01:37 PM
Hi Mike,
You might be interested in this link; http://www.pixiq.com/article/amazing-iphone-photos
Goes to show it's the vision rather than the equipment. Stand-out pictures to me are those by; Bananajode(1st of their entries)and Jonas.
Probably an earlier version of the iphone, but still valid, I reckon.
I liked this quote from Tyler Olson "...I think taking the picture through an iPhone is a great break from the DSLR and 21MP. Perhaps that same refreshing feeling that comes from camping instead of sleeping in a proper bed at home :)".
best wishes phil
Posted by: phil | Tuesday, 13 September 2011 at 01:40 PM
Now if they could just make the device a wee bit larger so my massive hands
and fingers could hit an icon without
splattering and striking three icons.
Then again the purchase price here in Ontario Canada is just frigging stupid if and when. $600.00 plus and a three contract for a bloody portable telephone?
No phone is worth that especially at a high user fee cost.
Ah, the privilege of being Canadian!
Posted by: Bryce Lee | Tuesday, 13 September 2011 at 01:46 PM
A bit late, considering the imminent release of the iPhone 5.
Posted by: Carsten Bockermann | Tuesday, 13 September 2011 at 02:17 PM
To paraphrase a successful political slogan of the ancient world "It's the Apps stupid"
If one of the camera makers were to encourage developers to write apps for their cameras , they would have a huge leg up on the competition. There is a thriving project to reverse engineer Canon cameras with CHDK and Sony could easily open their high end cameras up, most of them seem to be running Linux already. You can get the source code , but not the tool chain to compile it ( which is probably in violation of the GPL ) They are nothing like what Apple lets developers do however.
Posted by: hugh crawford | Tuesday, 13 September 2011 at 02:26 PM
Similarly, I just posted my first ever camera review... Which is actually for a camera app on Android.
http://benzcooper.com/retro-camera-roundup/
Posted by: Ben Z Cooper | Tuesday, 13 September 2011 at 02:40 PM
Wait, the most popular camera in the world can also be used as a phone? I thought the only App it had was instagram.
Posted by: yunfat | Tuesday, 13 September 2011 at 04:08 PM
I've been banging on about the iPhone ever since i had one. it gives me a different perspective to my DSLR and also allows me to post instant edited (in a different way) photographs in a "live gallery" situation.
Posted by: davie hudson | Tuesday, 13 September 2011 at 04:58 PM
Timely article (!). Finally broke down and ordered an iPhone 4 and it came today, but no one was home to accept it so I pick it up at the courier depot tomorrow. At the fire-sale prices and plans my local cell carrier has right now, it was a no brainer to get one. Really looking forward to taking some pics and playing around with some app's like the mentioned Hipstamatic, amongst other iPhone goodies.
Cheers!
Posted by: Karl | Tuesday, 13 September 2011 at 05:38 PM
But have you seen this: http://photojojo.com/store/awesomeness/iphone-slr-mount/ ?
Adam
Posted by: Adam Isler | Tuesday, 13 September 2011 at 06:17 PM
It's the camera I almost always have with me.
I don't carry my S90 as much as I should and my DSLR even less, so why am I trying to decide between ebay listings of Mamiya 645, Hasselblad 5XX etc?? I still haven't had my Rolleiflex serviced and theres a few ore of them and the c330 on sale.
Posted by: Bill Hughes | Tuesday, 13 September 2011 at 06:52 PM
Holy moly!
Posted by: Siegfried | Tuesday, 13 September 2011 at 07:19 PM
Can we say "Johnny Come lately?"
Posted by: mark | Tuesday, 13 September 2011 at 07:52 PM
OK, that is just terrifyingly good.
pax / impressed Ctein
Posted by: ctein | Tuesday, 13 September 2011 at 07:53 PM
Good on them. It's bringing photography to the masses in the same way the Box Brownie did last century. Wealthy large format photographers probably sneered at the Brownie back then too.
Posted by: Kelvin | Tuesday, 13 September 2011 at 08:21 PM
And you re-published it. Sorry, just crabby.
Posted by: Christopher Lane | Tuesday, 13 September 2011 at 10:52 PM
Wait till you try autostitch.Take eight or nine photos,the app stitches and crops them.Fun inside or out.
Posted by: David Robinson | Wednesday, 14 September 2011 at 01:20 AM
I used to worry about not "always having a camera with me"; the DSLR is too big to carry around. With the iPhone I do indeed have one.
Posted by: Tom Burke | Wednesday, 14 September 2011 at 02:31 AM
There's tons of photographing apps for smart phones. And most of them I've seen boil down to what Olympus calls Art Filters.
BTW, smart phones can be very useful accessory tools for photographing. I did two lists - one for iPhone, one for Android - here in Croatia: GPS logs and maps; geotagging; shooting "caddies" with exposure calculators, hyperfocal calculators etc; sun position and location "simulators"; there's even a darkroom calculator for Android.
Posted by: erlik | Wednesday, 14 September 2011 at 03:05 AM
I love my new Samsung camera, and have shot a boatload more photos since getting it. I understand I can also call people with it, but I haven't really needed that functionality yet. I don't know why camera makers always have to gild the lily with the extra features.
Posted by: Ade | Wednesday, 14 September 2011 at 05:54 AM
Two things:
Steve E Miller, the article/slideshow you linked to is in Flash, and not viewable on an iphone.
Re:Apps
Even non-iphone owners might be interested in The Photographer's Ephemeris which runs on Windows, Mac, and i-devices. It combines a google maps view with sunrise/set angles with elevation taken into account. Free for everything but the i-app.
Posted by: Will Frostmill | Wednesday, 14 September 2011 at 07:58 AM
I don't understand paying the money we do for (real) cameras with creative flexibility and photo quality and then leaving them at home in lieu of an iphone. I will happily take those bulky, inconvenient and very expensive cameras off your hands for you, I will even pay the shipping and handling. So box up your DSLRs and high quality point and shoots and rid yourself of all that excess!
Posted by: Dave | Wednesday, 14 September 2011 at 08:37 AM
"...the most compelling photography in history." Really?
Posted by: Bob Cook | Wednesday, 14 September 2011 at 10:25 AM
Regarding the future, recent rumours suggest that Apple has chosen an 8 megapixels camera to be used in the forthcoming iPhone 5. I don't know about others, but my current compact camera is a Fuji Finepix F30 of 6 megapixels, which is more than enough for 99% of my pictures. If the iPhone 5 gets a reasonable price, and if its camera is good enough, maybe it might become my next compact camera as well.
Posted by: Cateto/Jose | Wednesday, 14 September 2011 at 10:40 AM
I am a 60 year old snapper who started out in the late 60s using a pentax SLR, kodachrome and tri-x film, half frame to 5x4 equipment, polaroid etc. and then enthusiastically embraced the digital era about 10 years ago. I was very skeptical about the camera part of my recently acquired iphone4. I am pleased to say it has opened a whole new aspect of photography for me. Once you ditch the idea of using it like a traditional camera, where once you fired the shutter and the image was "taken" apart from what you could do in the darkroom (if BW photography), taking a photo on the iphone is just the start of the picture making process (very much more so than "normal" digital photography). It is photography but not as I knew it, and I love it!
Posted by: geoff belfer | Wednesday, 14 September 2011 at 12:42 PM
@Paul De Zan: Nokia has put a digicam sized sensor into their N8 phone, coupled with an AF Zeiss 8 megapixel sensor. It is generally considered the best camera in a phone. It was not offered by any carriers in the US, however it does have proper support to work on 3G GSM on any carrier in the world. Those so inclined can purchase them pretty easily (try ebaY), get a SIM and snap away!
Patrick
Posted by: Patrick Perez | Wednesday, 14 September 2011 at 03:20 PM
FWIW re: camera phone sensors, I wish someone would step up and offer a 2MP sensor and market it as HD Resolution. I imagine by dropping resolution down to 1920x1080, aka 1080P, a backlit cmos sensor would offer demonstrably better IQ than the 8MP+ sensor monstrosities for screen use, and frankly a decent 5x7 could be made, maybe 8x10. The key would be the marketing, and not referring to it as 2MP. Check my math, but the pixels would be twice the size, no? (for a given area sensor)
Patrick
Posted by: Patrick Perez | Wednesday, 14 September 2011 at 03:24 PM
Rather than write a long comment... apologies for linking to my own site.
http://tleaves.com/2011/06/23/the-walking-dead/
Posted by: psu | Thursday, 15 September 2011 at 08:03 AM