(Credit:
Bhautik Joshi)
Correction posted at 1:56 p.m. PST to clarify how Joshi attached the lenses to his phone.
The iPhone 3GS has a 3.2-megapixel fixed-lens camera and that seems to satisfy most users, but not Bhautik Joshi. The iPhone 3GS has a 3.2-megapixel fixed-lens camera and that seems to satisfy most users, but not Bhautik Joshi. The engineer at ILM R&D fitted optical drive lenses to the Apple phone's case, then stuck on a few PVC pipes to accommodate his 18-55mm Canon glass.
Personally, I think this this hack is way overdone. I'm pretty sure your modded iPhone won't fit in your pocket anymore and stability will be a major issue. Also, pictures taken with the modified lens actually look worse than before it was tweaked (Joshi responds to comments about image quality here). But if you're brave (or free) enough to try out this time-consuming hack, here's the link for the instructions.
The photo taken with the modified version is on the right.
(Credit: Bhautik Joshi)(Source: Crave Asia via Gizmodo)
Boost your photography skills with Nikon's free iPhone app.
I've owned a dSLR camera for years, but it spends most of its time on Auto mode. That's because I can't wrap my brain around things like aperture priority, ISO, and f-stops.
Unsurprisingly, most of my shots bite. I've tried reading enlightening books like How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera (nepotism alert: I know the author), but that doesn't help me when, say, I'm standing on the soccer-field sidelines trying to capture my daughter as she scores a goal.
What I need is a simple, informative how-to guide that fits in my pocket. Enter Nikon Learn & Explore, a new iPhone app that teaches photography fundamentals and offers shooting techniques for common situations.
Actually, that's just part of what you get from L&E. The app also offers a library of professional images you can browse, each with an accompanying Nikon World article that details shot composition, equipment, lighting, and all that.
The Learn section offers articles on image editing, shooting techniques, and fundamentals--many of which include both sample photos and how-to videos.
The Nikon World section provides features from the eponymous magazine, while the Glossary explains photography terms from A to Z. You can even mark individual articles and photos as Favorites for quick future access.
In short, this is a must-have app for novice shutterbugs and pro photographers alike (but more for the former). Best news of all: it's free.
The Snapture (app) is upon us! No more jailbreaking required. Instead, $1.99.
For more than a few iPhone owners, homebrew apps like Snapture--which endows the iPhone camera with extra features--were reason enough to jump through jailbreaking hoops.
Thankfully, that's no longer necessary, at least for this particular app: Snapture has gone legit. It's available in the App Store for an introductory price of $1.99.
Snapture provides a wealth of handy camera tools, starting with full-screen shutter action: tap anywhere to capture a snapshot. That makes self-portraits a lot easier than trying to nail the Camera app's tiny shutter button.
You also get zoom and pan capabilities: just reverse-pinch your fingers to zoom in up to 5x (keeping in mind that photos will turn seriously blurry at that level, though perhaps less so with the 3GS' higher-resolution sensor), then drag your finger to pan around. Very cool.
Speaking of fingers, Snapture's clever Touch Zone gives you the option of tapping and holding the screen, then releasing when you're ready to shoot--the idea being to reduce the blur that results from "shutter tapping." And if you slide your finger out from the blue circle that appears beneath the Touch Zone, it cancels the shot.
I particularly like Snapture's multishot feature, which can fire off three shots in rapid succession. As you shoot, thumbnails appear along the left (or right) edge of the screen for easy review. Tap and hold a thumbnail to get a full-size look, or swipe it to the opposite edge for Delete and Email options.
Having trouble keeping your shots level? Just toggle Snapture's Level Aid, which overlays a simple reticle. Want to shoot at a lower resolution so you can save memory? Snapture gives you a choice of three image sizes.
The app normally sells for $7.99, but Snapture Labs should give serious consideration to making the $1.99 introductory price permanent: Competing app Camera Genius offers many of the same features for just 99 cents.
But two bucks is a very reasonable price to pay for an app that overcomes most of the camera's shortcomings and adds several worthwhile features. I think it's safe to say Snapture has earned a permanent home on my 3G.
Update: Snapture Labs is offering a free upgrade to those customers who purchased the jailbreak version.
Taken with the iPhone
(Credit: Kent German/CNET Networks)While testing the iPhone 3G's GPS feature yesterday, we also took a few pictures with its camera. As we said in our iPhone 3G review, image quality is improved over the original iPhone, but it's far from being a top-notch camera phone. On the whole, interior shots and photos under blue or partly cloudy skies fared better than shots taken in bright, overcast conditions. Detail shots were decent, even if the iPhone 3G two-megapixel shooter lacks a zoom or any editing features. For full details check out our iPhone 3G camera slide show. Or to compare how the iPhone 3G stacks up against other camera phones, see our camera phone image gallery and peruse our slide show from the original model.
One of the joys of the iPhone is its camera.
I didn't think that I'd like it or even use it very much. But in addition to the phone's SMS texting, e-mail and Web-browsing technologies, I've actually used the iPhone's camera feature much more than I thought I would. I've already posted a few photos on this blog, but here are some more random pictures and thoughts.
(1) The iPhone camera works best at moderate light and is great at capturing stealthy candid shots, which are the best ones, I think. In low light, however, the iPhone's pictures are grainy, so hold your camera very still if you want to get a decent picture.
Hold your iPhone camera still in low light.
(2) Random people have asked me at random places to take photos of, well, random things (as with the woman in the post office who asked me to take a picture of her pet parrot).
Yes, in the post office!
(3) The iPhone is sturdy enough to go on bike rides in various forms of "pockets" and pouches that biking spandex allows you. In testing the EDGE network (which is slowly improving, I swear) during bike rides, I've used the iPhone with sweaty and greasy hands after riding on uneven roads. Also, even though I may be exhausted, the iPhone's user interface is still very simple and easy to use.
(4) Self-portrait pictures are doable with the iPhone's camera, but you have to learn some muscle memory to remember where the virtual 'shutter release' is on the iPhone. Perhaps, a future option for controlling the iPhone's camera would use the home key as the shutter release.
(5) Once you get your iPhone out in a social setting (better yet if you have two other friends who have theirs too) people will want to look at them, so don't have any incriminating e-mails, pictures or text messages on your iPhone for all to see.
More attention was paid to Zach's iPhone than the sushi.
A candid picture of Zach at Dolores Park Cafe in San Francisco.
(6) The iPhone allows you to take pictures of people who wouldn't otherwise ordinarily agree to have their pictures taken, and it allows you to take pictures at times you wouldn't ordinarily consider. It's small, subtle and doesn't look like an imposing camera with a zoom lens the paparazzi would use. Take advantage of this. In other words: spontaneity.
(7) San Francisco is an amazing and picturesque place--where else would there be free symphony concerts in the park, parrots in the post office, a massive park to bike through that empties out onto the beach?
The S.F. Symphony in the park, as captured on the iPhone. Too bad it doesn't have video functions.
The Conservatory in Golden Gate Park, as captured on by my iPhone.
The iPhone's 2-megapixel camera provides decent-quality pictures. But what's really cool and useful is its seamless integration with the built-in e-mail functions or the iPhone's ability to sync with programs like iPhoto or Google's Picasa. This ultimately enables you to share these pictures with a lot of people--and fast.
And, as cheesy as it may sound, the iPhone's camera allows you to share and capture the world around us, really. You can bond, take pictures that you can delete, you can be goofy, you can smile more.
Max and I in the middle of a bike ride at Ocean Beach (a self-portrait too!).
A captured moment: Smile!
I know that in the future, the camera will have a higher resolution, a flash, an image stabilizer and video functionality. I will be sure to get that version of the iPhone as quickly as I got this one.
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