Great Photos Will Be a Snap With the iPhone 4

ByMike Moffit

One of most amazing features of the iPhone 4 is the new 5 megapixel camera. Though the camera doesn’t sport the highest megapixel count on the smartphone market, Steve Jobs emphasized that the sheer number of megapixels does not necessarily make or break a digital camera any longer. Other features such as a backside illumination sensor and built in LED flash work in unison with the imaging sensor to provide high quality photos in a variety of lighting conditions.

Apple’s simple to use camera app, in addition to features such as a 5x digital zoom and tap to focus, will undoubtably give the iPhone 4 an edge compared to higher MP smart phones such as the EVO. Coupled with the abundance of iPhone based post production photography apps such as Photoshop Mobile, Camera Bag and TiltShift Generator, “iPhotographers” will have a plethora options that will tempt them to leave their stand alone cameras at home.

Adopted from the iPhone 3Gs, the tap to focus system is great for adding depth of field to your photos and videos, and the new LED flash is even bright enough to illuminate nighttime scenes. Though not manually adjustable, the new sensor carries a higher ISO which aids to cut back grain and noise. The original iPhone as well as the 3G, had serious noise problems in any less than ideal lighting circumstances. All signs indicate that, while not perfect, the new features of the iPhone 4 will help to remedy the previous noise issues.

During the keynote, Steve showed off a series of unaltered images taken using the iPhone 4’s camera. While they looked great onstage, I was curious to take a closer look to see just how detailed they really were. Apple has released a gallery of the full resolution photos from the keynote here, and they look fantastic! When you consider that images of this quality were taken on a mobile phone, you’ll be convinced to leave your point and shoot at home, and only haul the DSLR around on photo specific outings. Gizmodo has released EXIF data for the onboard camera here

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