iPhone Camera: 3Gs vs. 3G

Since I got my iPhone 3G, one of the things I've liked the most about it has been playing with the camera and the myriad of great apps available in the App Store. I mentioned it as one of my 4 must-have cameras, but complained about the quality. Well, I'm happy to say the camera in new iPhone 3Gs is a dramatic improvement and I'm loving it. That is the main reason why I upgraded and I truly think it's totally worth it. On paper, the differences are:

iPhone 3G	iPhone 3Gs
2 megapixels	3 megapixels
Photo geotagging	Photo and video geotagging
Fixed focus	Autofocus
	Tap to Focus (and exposure)
	Video Recording (VGA - 30 fps)

At first glance it doesn't seem like much, and the extra megapixel might be irrelevant for the most part, but what makes the camera in the iPhone 3Gs a killer one is the Autofocus. The fact that it can actually focus is great, but the brilliance of the Tap to Focus functionality is just amazing. This is technology that will surely make its way into other cameras soon, it just makes sense and feels totally intuitive. I especially like the fact that the camera not only focuses on the point you tap on the screen, but it actually adjusts the exposure as well.

The video is cool, but the still camera is what I truly love. I went out and shot a few photographs with both iPhones to see the difference. Have a look, and click on the images to open full size. All photographs are exactly as taken with the iPhones with no editing at all except for adding the details at the bottom at export using the BorderFX plugin.

The first thing I noticed was that the new iPhone 3Gs shows more EXIF data than the previous one as shown in the photographs above. Now I can tell ISO, shutter speed and lens in addition to aperture! The lens seems to be at a constant aperture of f/2.8 and shooting in Aperture Priority. Another thing to note in these is the depth of field. Notice the second photograph gets slightly blurry towards the end. This is because I tapped on the lettering to focus there. Cool!

Another great thing is the macro capabilities. The iPhone 3Gs can focus much, much closer than the previous one. The barcode above was shot at less than 2 inches. I'm attributing the slight blurriness to the slow shutter speed of 1/10.

The iPhone 3Gs could still improve in the noise department as the above shot at ISO1016 shows, but it's still a vast improvement over the 3G. At least this one can focus where you want it to.

I also have a feeling the lens in the 3Gs is wider. In the 2 photographs above I was standing in exactly the same place and only swapped iPhones to take the shots. Notice how the view is slightly wider in the shot below. I could be crazy, but it surely seems to be wider to me. The in-camera processing of the file also seems crisper, with more contrast and a bit sharper. Although this is subjective, I like the look of the 3Gs files.

Comments

[john]

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