Apple New iPhone 4 Sports a New and Cutting Edge Camera
Apple has been all the hype within the technology sector for quite some time now, due in recent part to its announcement and release of the new iPhone 4. Not only does the new iPhone 4 have a new, sleeker design than its predecessor, the iPhone 3GS, it is also equipped with an improved digital camera over the iPhone 3GS. The camera on the iPhone 4 is perhaps one of its most impressive features. Apple always takes the long view on product development, and the camera improvements indicate that they now see the iPhone camera as far more than just a spec sheet comparison feature. Apple is targeting their iPhone vision towards much more than the occasional snapshot. It’s simple, you never leave your phone at home, and now you always have a pretty decent camera as well! If you are wondering what makes this new camera subsystem so different, let’s look at some of the features that separate the iPhone 4 camera from the competition.
5 Megapixels
After many complaints about the 3GS camera system, the camera on the iPhone 4 now uses a new 5 megapixel sensor. While that’s still significantly less resolution than most standalone, dedicated point and shoot digital cameras, Apple has clearly joined the it’s not just pixels, it’s better pixels team. Increased resolution is beneficial to iPhone 4 users because it significantly increases the quality of both still pictures and video clips as well. This increased resolution is important when users crop and enlarge pictures taken with the iPhone 4. Pictures taken on the old 3GS were noisy (grainy) and pixilated when viewed on larger displays, or God forbid, actually printed to paper!
Improved Sensor Technology and a Flash
Big Performance in a Small Package!
One of the biggest consumer complaints about the iPhone 3GS camera system was the lack of a flash. Research shows that more than half of pictures taken with a SmartPhone occur in low-light situations. As the old line goes, nothing helps an existing light picture more than…a little light! Understanding this, Apple equipped the new iPhone 4 with not only an LED flash, but has also opted for significantly improved sensor technology (like using faster film.) For those of you not familiar with camera technology, the sensor is the element of the camera that actually “captures” and converts the light that comes through the lens into electrical signals. Most sensors require that light from the lens pass through a lot of non imaging circuitry before finally being “captured” as image. The new iPhone4 sensor avoids these problems by capturing light through the back of the chip, resulting in more light, higher electrical signals and as a result, much less noise, even in very challenging lighting situations. In addition, even though they crammed 66% more pixels on the sensor, they resisted squeezing them smaller, and kept them the same size as the 3GS. Bigger pixels capture more light. More light means less noise. Bottom line…iPhone4 has “better” pixels, 66% more of them and an integral LED flash to boot! All of these new features result in surprising quality for a phone, or even a dedicated camera.
Auto Focus
While auto focus was featured on the previous iPhone, it has been significantly improved since its debut. The iPhone has always had a focus enhancing feature, but, in addition, you can actually tap the screen to further focus the camera.
A Really Nice Package
With all of its advanced photographic features, it seems that Apple left nothing untouched from the camera on its 3GS predecessor. They have made smart and very significant progress with iPhone4 and I’ll take its 5 million quality pixels over other phones offering significantly better numerical specs. The imaging professionals at Apple are definitely on the right track. Can’t wait to see what comes next! Bottom line on the iPhone4 camera system…overall, it is probably the very best point and shoot cell phone camera on the market. It’s results will make it a popular choice among camera phone consumers. The camera you have with you is the best camera you have…and this one is quite good!
