Actually the old iPhone camera is not so bad. The new iphone seems to be even better (finally). It isn’t a digtial single lens reflex (DSLR)with a wi-fi memory card but it is quite handy and you can blast your photos across the internet and now even MMS! Check my iphone photos here on my flickr stream.
above: iphone photos that I sent to my Flickr stream using AirMe
A few tips:
* The lens is not that sharp, so best to shoot stuff within 5 meters (15 feet). Closer the better really.
* It behaves like a 35mm more or less. These guys pulled it apart and listed all kinds of techie info (that apple doesn’t tell you btw) which is kinda interesting. But mainly the lens is slow, fuzzy and dark–and has no movement stabilizer. So you need to shoot in bright enough light and hold the camera still enough.
* There is a fair amount of distortion out from the center of the lens. So if you are shooting people try to get them in the center of the image and shoot a little down on their face. Especially with kids…
* Remember to clean the lens
A few tools:
* the easy to use tool that I most often use is CameraBag. It is useful to give the photos some feel. Lolo and Helga rock.
* Polarize (like Polariod, not polarizer filter), makes a faux instant photo format and you can scribble your own short title. There is a large PolarizeProject group on flickr with tons more info. Polarize is free.
* Fancier tools from the filter gurus at Tiffen in the PhotoFx app .There are many xlent filters here. I especially like the blur filter to create a little depth of field. You can also crop images which make things a lot more interesting. $
* If you do try to shoot in dark conditions the NightCamera helps a lot. It waits until the iphone is stable and then takes a shot.
* Pano helps you to make panoramic photos. It sorta works, but you will need some patience to make a great image. It ghosts the previous image up to let you try to match it to the next panel you shoot. I have only been able to get so, so results, but I think better images than mine are possible.
* Quad Camera is a lot of fun. You can get people to make all kinds of silly faces when you pull out your iphone. It is sort of like a portable photomat! It has lots of settings as well, so plenty of things to amuse the phototaker/camera geek.
* AirMe is a useful tool to upload images (although you can also just email them to your flickr email address) but you can also post to Twitter, Facebook and some others from AirMe and link the photo which is very useful. It will add tags, location info and even put stuff on your flickr map.