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Apple iPhone Imaging Review
Beyond the performance boost, the iPhone 3GS features a notably improved imaging experience that ranks high among the hardware upgrades built into the iPhone 3GS handset. The camera jumps from 2 to 3 megapixels, a welcome if moderate increase that makes the phone's camera somewhat more viable for on-the-go snaps. And the camera now includes a video mode--finally.
In my hands-on use, I found the iPhone 3GS camera surprised in some situations, and disappointed in others. The camera app opened and was ready to shoot with just a 3-second delay. I was pleased by the autofocus and tap-to-focus features; my images were reasonably sharp, and I found that by selecting different focus points, I could change the image's exposure as well as composition.
In some shots, the focus select had minimal impact on what area of the image appeared sharp. But other shots seemed to benefit greatly, even though when the feature brightened the dark areas, it completely blew out the light areas. The macro mode works invisibly and without intervention. Still, I was annoyed that the autofocus box didn't confirm sharpness for me by turning green, as happens on many point-and-shoot cameras; sharpness was often impossible to tell on the iPhone's screen.
Though Apple boasts of improved low-light handling with the iPhone 3GS camera, I had mixed results with indoor andlow-light shots. A low-light dusk shot ended up being very grainy, with degenerating building details when viewed at full resolution. Some indoor shots looked decent, but others were barely passable and would have clearly benefitted from a flash, had Apple included one. Maybe we'll see Apple catch up to its competition by adding a flash in its next version of the iPhone handset.
Also on the wish list: software-based image stabilization. I have often found that even images shot in daylight were not sharp at full resolution, especially images I tried to shoot one-handed. With its on-screen shutter button, the iPhone's camera just doesn't lend itself to one-handed photography. And while on the topic of what's missing, the Camera Roll app still lacks integration with Web services; sure, Flickr has its own app, but that's not the same as viewing a pic and deciding to post directly from the camera roll.
The bigger news is the inclusion of video capture and editing. The iPhone 3GS camera app has a slider switch to activate the video camera, which records 30 frames per second video at 640-by-480 resolution. In video mode, the camera shutter turns into a red record button you press once to start recording, and again to end recording.
Sending video is very easy: The phone has integrated hooks into YouTube, MobileMe (Apple's $99-a-year service), and e-mail. Just select the service, and proceed from there; for YouTube, the iPhone 3GS will automatically compress the file in preparation for upload to your YouTube account. Want to trim your video before sending? No problem: The in-player iMovie-like frame editor makes snipping the beginning or end of a clip a breeze.
The videos I captured looked better than many typical camera phone images at the same resolution, and I found the inclusion of a video camera handy in a pinch when I was caught off-guard with a video opportunity and had no other camera on hand. But the iPhone 3GS can't replace the video you can capture in 720p high-definition with many digital cameras and compact video recorders like the Flip Mino HD. And like-resolution dedicated camera and camcorder devices generally have a few advantages, such as greater stability for hand-held shots, and a tripod shoe if you want to steady the image.
The video feature has a few other rough spots. You can't easily find the videos you capture: They're lumped in with the rest of the images in your Camera Roll, with the video camera icon and length running along the bottom of the thumbnail. You also can't access your videos from within the iPod music and video player. And, unfortunately, the much-ballyhooed editing feature is rather limited: Once you make an edit, it's done. You can't undo them, and you can't save a copy of the original video--annoying if you want to keep the longer video for yourself and send an excerpt to a friend, for example.
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