If you have an iPhone4, you’ve probably noticed the great quality of the iPhone’s 5 megapixel camera, 720p HD video recording, with its great detail and color, along with the HD Retina display. Photos looks great on it! Though there will always be that photo that never looked great because of shaky hands, low-lighting, etc. The good news is there are huge amounts of apps on photo editing that I have used to drastically improve those photos, and share them between friends. My favorite app and one of the most popular called “Camera +” ($0.99) can show you how far the iPhone camera potential can go. You can use “anti-shake”, separate exposure and focus, along with being able to upload to: Facebook, Twitter, Picasa, Flickr, and of course, send through email. You can also edit the pictures for quick color temperature control, cropping, rotating, dramatic color effects, making your photos look very artistic.
If you want to go even further, try using apps like “Filterstorm” ($3.99), which is definitely a more advanced photo editing app. You can use the same tools that are on Photoshop like: curves, exposure, sharpness, white balance, rotate, adding borders, and there are even more details into more filters that are available.
These and many more apps really show the potential of photography on the iPhone4, where it becomes more of basic digital camera than a simple phone camera. I, as a digital photographer, really notice the quality difference when editing photos on computer applications like Photoshop, and have tested to see what an iPhone image zoomed in at 100% on Photoshop looks like, and well, the quality is exceptional for such a small device. You can’t compare it to a real professional camera such as ones by Nikon and Canon DSLRs, but if you’re really going for the photography aspect of a phone, the iPhone4 really has its potential!
When you get into the HD Video recording on the iPhone4, the story changes, the quality is much less. If you have recorded a well-lit outside video with an iPhone4 and have only viewed it on your phone’s screen, it’s deceiving. Thinking that this would keep me away from buying a separate video camera was wrong. When you view any of the videos on a computer screen or TV, the quality is very disappointing – grainy, loss of quality and sharpness, VERY shaky, audio is “okay”. So, while it says 720p HD, it’s true with the pixel amount, but the quality is just lame. If you’re outside on a sunny day and using a tripod, it will be good, but anything less than that is unexceptional to be called HD. One thing though, is that if you just keep the videos to be viewed on your phone, then it is perfectly fine, but I would recommend if you want a real HD camera, you can purchase a “Flip” cam, or a Sony “Bloggie”, which are inexpensive, portable, and produce great quality videos.
One thing that is a major PRO for the iPhone’s video camera is that you can upload, edit, and share the video almost anywhere! You can edit the video as a quick trim in the camera app, or for free can get this app called “Splice”, which allows you to upload separate music tracks from your music library, add transitions, text, add effects like slow-motion, speed-up, crop, and trim. Then export in HD still. You can also, after video is finished, upload right from the phone to YouTube or send through email. You can only upload to YouTube in HD on wi-fi only, if your on 3G it will only allow you to upload in standard quality. But the upload is simple and fast. If you have the FaceBook app, you can upload HD video on Wi-Fi or 3G, but if on 3G it will take an extended period of time, drain more battery, and eat-up your data plan. If you purchases Apple’s own “iMovie” app, the editing goes even further with more options like adding photos, video, music, sounds, transitions, animations, and pre-made animated graphics. You will also be able to upload to YouTube, Facebook, vimeo, CNNiReport, or save to iTunes to edit later in the Mac’s “iMovie” computer application when you next sync your phone!
So while the iPhone4′s HD video camera isn’t the greatest, it’s extremely handy, and the pictures look amazing! Here are some sample photos that I took on the iPhone and edited only on the iPhone!
