One thing you can be sure that Apple will improve with every iteration of its iPhone is the device’s camera. The original iPhone packed a 2-megapixel camera that wasn’t all that great at taking photos; things got significantly better two generations later with the iPhone 3GS. The 5-megapixel camera in the iPhone 4 received a ton of praise, but its 8-megapixel successor in the iPhone 4S is even more terrific.
So terrific, in fact, that the developer behind the hugely successful Camera+ application for the iPhone, Lisa Bettany, says the device “outshines” many of the high-end compact cameras currently on the market.
Bettany has put together a great article on the Camera+ website that shows the evolution of the iPhone’s camera, and how each generation takes significantly better pictures than the last. As you can see from the image below, there’s a huge difference between the image captured by the original iPhone than that captured by Apple’s latest device.
It’s not all that surprising, because it is a 2-megapixel camera versus an 8-megapixel one. However, what is surprising is that Bettany says the iPhone 4S “outshines” many of the high-end compact cameras currently available:
“The iPhone 4S is dramatically clearer and sharper than previous iPhone versions. Using separate focus and exposure in Camera+ on the iPhone 4 & 4S significantly helped create a more balanced exposure.
While it’s not nearing the same quality as a professional level dSLR, it is comparable to a top of the line compact camera and even outshines it in some ways.”
I encourage you to check out Bettany’s post on the Camera+ website to see the comparison between shots taken on the iPhone 4S and those taken on two high-end Canon cameras. The results are really impressive.
Are you pleased with the new camera in your iPhone 4S?
[via TechRadar]
Killian Bell is a freelance writer based in the U.K. He has an interest in all things tech and also covers Android over at CultofAndroid.com. You can follow him on Twitter via @killianbell.
29 responses to “Check Out The Amazing Progression Of The iPhone Camera’s Quality Over The Years!”
I had the 3G; it wasn’t great, but wasn’t as bad as what’s shown here. In decent light I actually got respectable images from it. The 4S camera is head and shoulders above it but the comparison shown above is exaggerated, possibly by using a 100% crop that doesn’t reflect how people normally view an image.
@yahoo-7SQVQRJOWPMVEJHSWJ42EJ2GXQ:disqus , the 3G (which I did own) could do decent pictures at medium range, but it couldn’t focus on anything closer than a couple feet, which is what makes this shot look so bad.
I also like….love the big yellow tinge on my 64 gb iPhone 4s… Make my days more warm and blurry.
Maybe I’ll be able to let go of this item just like my previous 2 iMac 27 and 2 LED cinema Display (all again for the yellow tinge)
With Apple screen …you really see things differently!
This is an incomplete comparison actually – or perhaps she just highlighted the parts where iPhone came out equal or on top. I have both Canon S95 and iPhone 4S and I was hoping the 4S would save me the trouble of carrying around the S95 especially on trips. Unfortunately, the S95 is still far superior for low light settings as well as evening and night shots. Plus I am not a camera expert by any means, but it seems from the comments in her blog post that she did an unfair comparison as far as ISO is concerned.
I’d value Lisa Bettany’s opinion more if she wasn’t in business of selling a iPhone camera App… Lets face its in her financial interest to say this …. How about using a less biased source Killian ?
Why not go to Display settings on your iMacs and the cinema displays and change the display temp to something you prefer to work with?
Imagine our reaction when some people in this site was comparing the iphone4s camera to last generation DSLRs! Ridiculous! Anyway, at least the author of this article has the decency of comparing the iphone4s camera to other point and shoot cameras. It’d be nice to see side by side image comparisons next time. Also, it’d be great if we could manually control the settings of the iphone4s camera (iso, aperture at least) so we can get all the juice from that tiny sensor!
It may be a great camera but it is not a very usable camera based on how you grip it. It still is only a point and shoot at best. It you want to photograph subjects, you still need a DSLR camera.
While I agree, so many of my friends (including myself) have DSLR’s and really never use any of the functions of the camera. I always find myself pulling out my iPhone as my main camera as it’s something I always have with me.
“The best camera is the one you have with you!”
For the reason that my iMac present patchy yellow tinge
This can’t be profiled or cannot work seriously with issue like that
See my poorly made Youtube video http://youtu.be/V_Dg7_m_tD8May… yours is flawed as well…. (test explained there)Cheer Note : i love Apple… just don’t’ understand why they still haven’t resolve this issue by now.
2G & 3G just had FIXED focus. 3GS introduced AUTOFOCUS.
Wow… you can really see how the quality has improved. I’m a big fan of the iPhone 4S camera. There are some brilliant apps out there for it. The accessories you can get for it are good too. The Olloclip is ace… certainly worth checking out