Posted on 01/13/2015 11:09:05 PM PST by Swordmaker
Speed kills, and the iPhone goes from 0 to a good picture faster than anything else
I was at Intel’s CES booth, composing a photo with my Android smartphone, when a pair of anonymous hands thrust a shining iPhone 6 Plus into my line of vision. A nonchalant tap of the camera shutter button later, the hands were pulling back, having captured a stupendously clear and sharp picture on the first attempt. By the time I’d completed my routine of setting proper focus and steadying myself, the dude who’d beaten me to a better shot with none of the effort was already walking away. It was enough to make anyone sink into a deep state of gadget envy.
For a show overrun with various visions of smart drones and smarter homes for the future, the present of CES was remarkably uniform. I saw more iPhones in the hands of CES attendees than I did Android phones across the countless exhibitor booths. From the biggest keynote event to the smallest stall on the show floor, everything was being documented with Apple’s latest smartphone, and it all looked so irritatingly easy. I don’t want an iPhone, but dammit, I want the effortlessness of the iPhone’s camera.
I DON’T WANT AN IPHONE, BUT DAMMIT, I WANT THE EFFORTLESSNESS OF THE IPHONE’S CAMERA
The iPhone’s lead as the smartphone to beat has rarely been defined by just one thing. At one point, the biggest advantage was the simplicity and speed of its interface; at another, it was down to the diversity and quality of available apps; and most recently, the iPhone has distinguished itself with the quality of its 8-megapixel camera. Today, the combination of all these things — simple and fast operation, strong optics and image processing, and a wide app ecosystem — is helping people create the best possible images with the least possible hassle.
The effortlessness of taking good pictures with the iPhone is probably that phone’s most underrated quality. And yet, its importance grows with every passing day. Consider how vital the camera in any modern smartphone is. Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Twitter are the most popular communication platforms, and they’re all either image-centric or moving toward a greater reliance on visuals. To get the most out of Pinterest, Tumblr, Foursquare check-ins, or Yelp restaurant reviews, you’ll want to be able to take quick and easy mobile pictures. The standard that must be reached isn’t so much about image quality as it is about quickness, predictability, and reliability — and nobody does those things better than Apple.
SNAPCHAT, INSTAGRAM, FACEBOOK... THE APPS YOU USE MOST ALL NEED A GOOD CAMERA
In all the years of Android’s existence, in spite of huge investments of time and money, there’s never been a standout Android cameraphone. Some have cameras that are better in low light than the iPhone’s, many have higher resolution, and a number claim to be faster at focusing — but none pull it all together into the same comprehensive package that the iPhone can offer. Samsung and LG give you a pared-down "just shoot" experience, but they lack software polish and speed; Motorola’s camera launches and shoots quickly, but the quality is mediocre; and Sony manages to combine an excellent image sensor with terrible autofocus. Microsoft’s PureView cameras fare better, but the Windows Phone camera app is comparatively slow and unintuitive, and there’s a reason why former Lumia chief Ari Partinen is now tagging his photos with #iPhone6Plus instead of #Lumia1520.
As 2015 gets going in earnest and phone makers resume their annual quest to oust the iPhone from its dominant position, I offer this advice: don’t worry about the phone, focus on beating the camera. This is a familiar refrain, as true today as it was three years ago, and it’s frankly embarrassing for the mobile industry to lag so badly for so long on such a fundamental aspect of the modern user experience. The pursuit of gimmicks like UltraPixels and laser autofocus goes some way to explaining this conundrum, but I’d rather we just fix it.
The most critical component to Apple’s current mobile dominance lies behind that sapphire crystal lens. In today’s commoditized smartphone market, even great design and spectacular thinness are becoming commonplace. Powerful processors and large batteries are expected rather than exceptional. To win over new customers (and to keep existing ones), smartphone makers will have to act like what they are selling is actually a smart camera first and everything else second.
So it is no talent then.
A pro camera has sophisticated focusing capabilities, with several selectable points throughout the field of view which can be manually selected using a joystick while composing the shot. This is essential for proper focus while tracking a sports player on a crowded field, or an animal in the brush.
A pro camera has dual sets of controls for shooting in portrait or landscape mode. You can adjust key settings like aperture, shutter speed, etc. while composing using the knobs/dials.
A pro camera has the battery life to shoot a couple thousand shots (even allowing for some review from time to time).
A pro camera can write to two memory cards simultaneously for protection. Sometimes cards go bad, and that's your only backup in the field until you can get the images copied. You need to be able to pull out the full cards quickly and put new ones in as needed.
A pro camera can take different lenses.... telephoto, wide angle, macro... and depending on the quality (and cost) of the lens, you're going to get different results. More expensive lenses are "faster", have image stabilization, have pleasant bokeh and better edge-to-edge characteristics (distortion, etc.).
An 8MP iPhone 5 image is only so big... you're not going to get the same quality LARGE prints with that as you would with an 18MP or larger image.
Those are just a few points which an amateur might be able to understand... I could go on, but even you should get the point.
Like my Galaxy S III ... from 2 1/2 years ago.
I recently had an iPhone 5 for a couple of months ... nice piece of hardware ... apps work well ... iTunes is a pain in the rump ... people who rant and rave and get personally emotional about the supposed superiority of one platform over the other have their heads up their butts.
You could always do that on an iPhone. . . but nowhere near as fast as a 64bit processor iPhone 6 can do it. . . and your Galaxy SIII can not do it anywhere nearly as fast or as well. Read the contemporaneous reviews of that phone from 2 1/2 years ago. . . and read the reviews of its decedents now and see how slow they are to focus and take a picture compared to any iPhone. Sorry. . . that was the point of this article.
Did you not read it when I pointed out the iPhones allow multi-focus point merely by clicking on the points you want to select? No need for a "'oy-stick' interface. Use your finger on the screen image and select while composing the shot. I don't think you are paying attention.
A pro camera has dual sets of controls for shooting in portrait or landscape mode. You can adjust key settings like aperture, shutter speed, etc. while composing using the knobs/dials.
The iPhone has these controls RIGHT on the screen. . . in either portrait or landscape mode. . . there for the photographer to use while composing the shot. No need for antiquated "knobs and dials" when you have digital controls.
An iPhone has the battery life to shoot hours of video. . . or thousands of photographs. They really don't take much battery power. Again, you are not paying attention.
Who needs multiple memory cards when every photograph taken is instantly saved to MULTIPLE devices and to the iCloud? It cannot be lost. (Frankly, sometimes with a few I've taken, I wish they would!) Within seconds any photograph I take is also on my iMac, in my iCloud account, on my iPad, and on my MacBook Air. Who gives a rap if known to be flaky SD cards crap out on you? Come into modern times. The ONLY places you have an argument is in interchangeable lenses. . . and even there there are lenses that can be added to iPhones. I do wish for a good portrait lens. . . and in the ability to blow up the photographs into super-huge detailed prints.
I keep pointing you to professionals who are using the iPhone in professional settings. . . and you keep arguing it cannot be used in a professional setting. They are DOING it. That says a lot more about you and your mindset than the equipment.
Trust me, I DO get your point. . . but you are failing to get the point as well.
So what am I to believe ... a bunch of “reviews” or my lyin’ eyes? You seem to have missed that I actually had an iPhone 5 in my hands for a couple of months. I KNOW how it works, and how fast it focuses. Not from a review, but from actual use and experience.
No thanks, buddy. I try to be objective. This article ... and fanboys of any sort ... not so much.
OBTW, my Galaxy S (no number) does the touch-and-focus thing, too.
Lowy shows the cropped photo among the photos on his webpage. . . So I think he may have done the cropping himself. I find it the ultimate of ironies that we have people on here arguing that iPhone images are not suitable for blowing up and cropping . . . yet here we have an iPhone image blown up and cropped to be used for a major magazine's cover image. Kind of disproves their argument.
Reviewers are far more objective than your lying' eyes, NorthMountain. ;^) They compare the devices side-by-side, not later. They have no reason to lie about it. There reputation for objectivity is on the line. Especially ones from websites that are Android centric. This is NOT hard to do. . . measure how long it takes before the camera is ready to actually take the photo. This article is not about an iPhone 5, it's about the speed of the new iPhone 6, but the 64 bit iPhone 5s, not the 32 bit iPhone 5, was, according to the reviews exceedingly fast at getting focused.
BWAHAHAHAHAHahahahahahahaha!
Predictable, but not very intelligent.
Cell phones will do fine to get snaps of grandma blowing out the birthday candles, or selfies on vacation... but they have a very long way to go to be any threat to the professional camera/lens market.
SHEESH! CementJungle. . . You literally are not paying attention! Who do you think these photographers that I have been posting LINKS to are?
Apparently, you jumped to the conclusion that just because the photographers I linked to before were using their iPhones to take photographs, they must not be professionals. . . just people making money taking pictures. Obviously, you reasoned, they could not be "professional"; they aren't using "professional equipment." I said then that I could keep posting links. I was not lying.
Against all these professional photographers who are actually doing what you say is not possible, and showing their published work done with iPhones, we have YOU, Cementjungle, denying it is possible or reasonable based on what? Your unsupported opinion. Sorry, I have posted link, after link, after link to articles and websites of actual professional, published photographers using iPhones for their work refuting your unsupported assertion. . . and on your side just you, repeating the same old, same old. You are completely outweighed by the evidence.
Back again to this quote you highlighted from Lowy.
What's important is the fact that any carefully chosen hign-end phone is now capable of taking "professional" quality pictures. You are absolutely right-this is a revolutionary development. Are phone cameras right for every situation? Of course not. Are they better for some situations? Absolutely.
Interesting thread, though, minus the usual dross.
Far more intelligent than the typical devolvement to ad hominem attack. . . the last refuge of the debater without a facts or evidence. Reviewers have examples in front of them to compare in real time. . . but you do not. Reviewers have a reputation to protect so that readers of future reviews will give them some credibility, but you do not. Reviewers need the manufacturers to believe they will receive fairness in the reviews so that the manufacturers will continue sending them their products for review in the future, you don't. Sorry. There are a host of reasons why reviewers are far more objective than you are.
As you may remember from our previous discussions I have never owned an iPhone, but I have learned a lot about them from your frequent comments to others on these threads. It may not be pleasant for you, but the confrontational nature of many of the discussions makes the subject more enjoyable to read. If your goal is to educate people about Apple products who normally wouldn’t be interested... I believe you actually are succeeding with many of us. I hope that you won’t mind this somewhat rambling post.
I have an interest in 3-D photography and have a dedicated Fuji 3-D camera, a pair of Canons that use software known as SDM (Stereo Data Maker), and also an EVO 3D cell phone with a 3D Camera. I also take 3-D pictures of “static” scenes using a DSLR type camera by taking one exposure then shifting the camera sideways and taking another exposure and using software to get the two photos adjusted to work well as a 3-D pair.
Surprisingly, I have gotten some really good 3-D pairs with the EVO 3D cell phone for the reason you stated in one of your posts, “The best camera is the one you have with you.” The EVO 3D was released in 2011... for its time the EVO 3D had a surprisingly good camera; it is still superior to almost all of the cheap 3-D cameras that are currently found on Amazon and eBay.
The other point that you might make in future discussions is that in most situations... lighting is often a more important element in a good exposure than the equipment used. Good lighting is far more complex than most people realize and is more often the result of proper planning than dumb luck.
In 2014 Google released an update to their camera app that was intended to mimic the narrow field of focus that can normally is difficult achieved without a large sensor. It works by prompting you to slowly move the camera after you first take your exposure. From this movement the app creates a “depth map” which the software can use to blur the parts of the picture that are either nearer or closer to the subject that the subject the photographer wants to direct the viewers attention on.
Masuji SUTO, AKA Muttyan is the Japanese prodigy who has released and is constantly upgrading Stereo Photo Maker, the most important 3-D software package currently available. He immediately recognized that the depth map incorporated into the new Google Camera App could also be used to create 3-D images. He released an update to Stereo Photo Maker shortly after the Camera App was released which allows anyone taking pictures with the Google Camera App to easily convert them to impressive 3-D stereo pairs.
I should mention that the best way my wife and I have to view 3-D photos is on our 3-D television, but in December Google released an App platform called Google Cardboard. This app uses an inexpensive (around $10 for the ones we bought) cardboard mount for your Android cell phone which has a couple of powerful magnifying lenses, you strap it on your head and it creates a Virtual Reality experience. As your head around the motion sensors in the phone change your view. Some of the Apps are very fun; we especially like the roller coaster apps, but it also turns a phone with a high resolution display into a great 3-D photo or movie viewer. Because of the magnification... it actually it actually makes very good use of phones with very high resolution displays.
There are actually are 3-D apps for iPhones. I even bought a Hasbro viewer designed for an iPhone that I adapted for my Android devices. None of the iPhone 3-D photography Apps that I am currently aware of can compare to the Google Camera App when using depth map integration with Stereo Photo Maker. If Apple finds a way to incorporate a depth map into their camera app I think that a lot of 3-D photo enthusiasts would take a serious look at the iPhone.
Thanks for reading my long post.
Sorry for all of the typos... I should have proof read.
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