One of the major improvements gracing the new iPhone 4 is the new camera system: The front-facing camera makes video calls possible, while the rear-facing 5-megapixel camera is greatly improved from the predecessor.
Pixels: The big and small
Although the camera is losing out to competitors in the megapixel race, Apple claims that the iPhone’s new backside-illuminated sensor with larger pixel size will deliver better images in both normal and low-light. To put things into perspective, iPhone 4’s pixel pitch is measured at 1.75 µm, Nikon D700 fullframe DSLR is at 8.45 µm, and your typical point-and-shoot cameras such as Panasonic LX3 are at around 2 µm. Which means we can expect the iPhone 4’s camera quality to be slightly behind a dedicated camera’s.
720p Video + Gyroscope?
Also of interest is the new 720p HD video recording capability. Of course, there are already phones out there capable of the same thing. But what’s really interesting is the new gyroscope built into each iPhone 4. It’s not hard to imagine that app developers might be able to make use of it to create some kind of image stabilization for video recording.
An image-stabilized 720p camcorder with decent image quality and a pocketable size means photographers who are not using video-capable cameras now has a convenient mean to capture videos. For professional photographers, adding short video clips into photomontages is a wonderful way to spice them up.
Conclusion and samples
iPhone 4’s camera is a great improvement, but certainly not the best among the newest breed of phones. However, what’s going to make it really good is when app developers take the new gyroscope and apply it to photography apps.
