MacMost Now 416: iPhone 4 Cameras

Take a look at the two cameras of the iPhone 4. The main camera is a 5-megapixel camera with an LED flash and can shoot 720p HD video. The front-facing camera is a 1-megapixel model that can also take stills and video.

Video Transcript: Hi This is Gary with MacMost Now. 
On today's episode lets look at the cameras on the iPhone 4.
There are two cameras on the iPhone 4.The front facing one and the main one in the rear.
Now am using the mainone in the rear right now to shoot this episode.
You can shoot video at 720p HD which means its 1280 by 720 and not only can i shoot the video in hidef but you can also use the microphone attached to the earbuds which is the one am using as a level ear mike.
Infact you can also use some third party mike that works with the earbud system as a microphone.
So thats really handy and puts it above all the hidef cameras at this price level.
Now ,the main one is the 5 mega pixel camera and you can take still photos and high definition video.
It also has a small LED device and its surpisingly bright and you can use it both taking pictures and also in video.You can turn on manually and use it as light for your videos.
It also does the red eye reduction thing which means ,it flashes once first to dilate the pupils in the eye so that you don't have the red eye and flash brightly for the mainflash it takes for the picture.
I know there is a few things about it.One is when you dont use the flash when you turn it off or turn auto and there is enough light then you can take pictures very quickly ,lot quickly, quicker than some digital cameras on a lot of phones that have secondary to the light.
Now if you do use a flash and there is some discoloration,here are some two photos,one taken of some flowers with natural light and the one where i forced the flash on and you can see how the light from the flash seems to have discoloured it.Am not a photo expert,so am not sure how common this is with flashes.
Now the front facing camera is of a completely different type.Its similar to the one on iPod Nano and then its a 644x480.
And you can take a video at that resolution and also take still photos at that resolution.
And the still photos are not good for much more than say may be a Facebook or Twitter icon but it is handy to be able to see yourself in the screen and take picture of yourself at the same time.Because the main reason for the front facing camera is what is really the facetime video chat not really take pictures.
But its nice that Apple allows you to go and switch between two cameras in both still photo and video mode.
Now lets take a look at still picture quality ,now i think its pretty good.I don't know am not a photo expert but i doesn't seem to rival a expensive camera but its certainly usedgood for a cellphone camera.Now ofcourse there are phones that have 8 mega pixel camera but it doesn't seem like much but its enough for really good prints and ofcourse the light that was really good just like the previous iPhones you can take pictures in really low light levels and it would come out pretty decently.Now for the video quality its also pretty good comparable to other small compact HD cameras that use 720P.And you can see some outdoor footage here.Its certainly good for capturing family memories.And remember about 10 years ago this kind of thing was impossible on any type of digital camera.So its kind of nice to have it just in your pocket.
So the zoom feature makes a lot more sense now the way by 5 mega pixel camera so because you can still get pretty decent resolution enough to get regular size prints even when zoomed in a little bit using the digital zoom.
So in this picture we can zoom in and see the pixels here and you can see that the quality is pretty comparable to some of the low cost 5 mega pixel cameras taht you can find out there .So you certainly don't need to carry bot the iPhone and a consumer level camera with you anymore.
So its going to be really exciting.Lets look into the future and the third party apps.
For instance i could see a third party app that perhaps uses both cameras and allows you to capture whats in the front and behind the iPhone,perhaps will allow me to do a interview somebody and have both of us in the camera.And also ofcourse the LED light will probably mean a whole new round of flash light apps where they use the LED light rather than the screen to light things.
Am sure there will be a lot of different creative things between the front and back cameras and combine them.
So thats a look at the cameras on the iPhone 4 .
Let me know what do you think of the cameras if you have got one.
Till then its Gary Rosenzweig with MacMost Now.

Comments: 2 Responses to “MacMost Now 416: iPhone 4 Cameras”

Vasily

14 years ago

Hi Gary. For cameras' reviews in general, I would suggest shooting people, especially their faces as 1) that what people usually are shooting and 2) the human eye is extremely sensitive to the proper reproduction of the skin color, so this would be an excellent test of photo and video capabilities of the camera. Indoor and outdoor shooting of everyday and common things, including colored ones (like red bell peppers, oranges) would also give a lot of information on how well a camera performs.
Best, Vas.

Gary Rosenzweig

Ah, yes. But what people? That's the problem. I would prefer to have done that, but short of hiring models for a photo shoot, or violating the privacy of friends and family, who do I photograph? That's the problem I always run into, and that's why I use flowers as tests.

Comments Closed.

MacMost Now 416: iPhone 4 Cameras

Comments: 2 Responses to “MacMost Now 416: iPhone 4 Cameras”

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