Comments on: How to Take Halfway Decent Photos with an iPhone

By: Hans Flagon

Hans Flagon — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 23:09:37 +0000

Haven’t some of the rumors about the first fixes they will apply to the iPhone via software updates, will be the iphone cameras shutter, or perhaps some image stabilization?

I say, make those weird slit shutter smears while you still can, and use them as iPhone wallpaper.

By: Fred Hamranhansenhansen

Fred Hamranhansenhansen — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 23:47:20 +0000

For the price of the N95 you are better with an iPhone and a separate camera. Personally I like phones to have crappy cameras that make everything look like a still frame of amateur porno.

By: Evan Donn

Evan Donn — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 22:24:48 +0000

The ‘strange motion blur’ is in fact a rolling shutter artifact and indicates the iPhone has a CMOS instead of a CCD sensor. CMOS sensors are read line by line (unlike CCDs which read out all lines at once), so the delay between reading the first line and the last line introduces the ‘wobbly’ effect when the camera is moved. Sony’s CMOS-based HDV cameras exhibit this same effect but to a lesser degree – the faster the image processing chip the less delay between the first and last lines.

On the iPhone the effect is far more noticeable in very low light – Apple seems to have made the choice to go with a slower ‘shutter speed’ rather than boosting the gain very much, which essentially means light is being sampled at each point on the chip for a longer period of time. This increases the distortion because it increases the delay between the first sample and the last – but it also produces images that are less noisy than if they’d gone with the higher gain.

If they ever enable video recording on the iPhone my guess is they’ll have to go the other route (high gain instead of slow shutter speed) because the distortion in very low light is some of the worst I’ve ever seen from a CMOS.

By: Joshua Blankenship

Joshua Blankenship — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 19:39:41 +0000

re: strange motion blur

My Treo 650 does this as well, though not consistently, which is baffling.

By: nebtron

nebtron — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 19:33:07 +0000

i think that “strange” motion blur is as a result of the lens being comprised of water not glass. i noticed it from day one. you can easily see it by viewing the camera’s image, before actually taking a shot, and quickly moving the phone. with a twist of your wrist you should see this weird distortion. i immediately thought it looked like an effect created by water distorting light. i don’t know how to confirm this but a Google search will at least prove that such a thing exists. it has obvious beneficial ramifications when used for mobile devices. still not a desirable “feature” in any case.

By: Gerald

Gerald — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 15:10:01 +0000

I’m not thrilled at the iPhone’s ability to white balance either. I think that if you’re shooting something in the shade, and if there’s any bright sunlight at all in the picture, the phone will get fooled into balancing for the bright sunlight.
I do wish the metering was more heavily center-weighted.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/geraldoh/

By: jay

jay — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 12:36:21 +0000

My iPhone also has the odd color shift from center to edge. After some of the craziness dies down at the Apple Store, I plan to take mine in to see if it’s a defect that can be fixed.

I know cam-phone aren’t pro-quality devices but this is really bad.

By: blurb

blurb — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 22:29:32 +0000

On my Samsung D807, the camera would do the same thing if there was a bump or any tracking of a subject. Kind of fun to play with, but maddening when trying to capture a moment.

This is a great and useful post. I kind of like the yellow/green cast the iPhone has, but that’s because I’m going through a phase.

By: kristyk

kristyk — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 00:37:17 +0000

Thanks for this! My first question about the iPhone was re: the camera quality. I’m happy with my Sidekick3 and I know I won’t be getting a new phone anytime soon, but I’m still curious [and after seeing the two screens compared, a little jealous].

I’ve noticed with my phone the color cast issue works itself out if you give the camera an extra moment or two to adjust to the light. Is that true with this one as well?

By: Jen

Jen — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 23:15:10 +0000

Re: the color cast – have you heard/seen this issue on other iPhone photos? After doing a quick search on Flickr, the outdoor shots I saw didn’t seem to have that strong blue cast.