“One of the interesting facts we learned from the Steve Jobs biography is that he planned to revolutionize photography, and he may well have achieved that,” Nancy Messieh reports for TNW. “Walter Isaacson wrote about Jobs, saying, ‘He had three things that he wanted to reinvent: the television, textbooks and photography. He really wanted to take these on.'”
“While diehard photographers will question just how much you can get done with an iPhone, there is no denying that the camera has steadily developed over time and, if you subscribe to the notion that the best camera is the one you have with you, the iPhone may well be the best camera in countless pockets around the world,” Messieh reports.
Messieh reports, “When it comes to smartphone photography, we can safely say that the iPhone 4S puts its users in a pretty good position, not only because of the quality of the camera, but also because of the huge variety of apps, and accessories, [of] which photographers can take advantage.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dan K.” for the heads up.]
An Instagram addict here. Yes, the iPhone has changed photography for me. It turned me into a trigger happy photo shooting fool. I have a phone with me at all time. I can edit it on the spot and share it pretty much any time, anywhere. Yeah, I think so.
agreed.
Redefine Photography? No.
Redefine the camera? As much as the Kodak Instamatic or the Polaroid Land Camera did in their day.
The point and shoot camera manufacturers of the world should be taking notice though.
If you can shoot, edit and transmit to friends and loved ones from anywhere at anytime, you have redefined photography for everyone but the pros.
Actually, you have certainly re-definded photography for pros as well.
I am a Pro – I carry my 4S with me *all* the time – and every time I have been able to take an image because I carried my 4S means another image that would not have been taken/created otherwise.
Not only that – the 4S – and the many apps you can get for it – has made photography FUN again. You can play and experience in ways not possible before.
It has indeed re-defined photography.
Oh yeah, I see lots of pros, even prominent ones using iPhones as part of their toolbox in their profession. A lot of them are taking advantage of the social media aspect of iPhoneography to expose themselves to a wider audience. Plus, they are posting amazing photos.
The Pro HDR camera app has this pro doing cartwheels!
The depth of color and saturation that this $2 app can bring out is cheaper than a 35mm roll of Fuji Velvia film!
Yes, the cameras and therefore photography is changing, dramatically!
Sorry for all the ‘!!!’ .
Havn’t had me coffee..
Ditto for me…
I can’t believe how much Velvia I purchased and shot over time. 100s of 1000s of frames… kept fuji very happy.
Pro HDR is a great app. And my “camera bag/backpack” is soooo much lighter!
Cheers!
My 3GS certainly changed things for me, in the ‘best camera is the one in your pocket’ sense.
Professionally, I’ve captured all sorts of stuff that simply wouldn’t have happened without the little thing ‘being there’ – and results are fine for web use.
Creatively, I’m amazed with the landscapes I’ve taken, a bonus being the simple in-camera tweaks that help turn them from snaps into wall-art.
Happy days indeed.
You need to upgrade. As someone who just upgraded from a 3GS to a 4GS, the quality of the photos is LIGHT YEARS better from the 4GS. Pictures are so much clearer, focus is better, resolution way higher, and while not *super* bright, the flash does help in low-light situations.
I used my 3GS’ camera occasionally, but I use the 4GS camera all the time now.
Upgraded from 3GS to 4S, agree 100%. No comparison–in most low-light situations I keep the flash off, and it still turns out nicely (and more naturally).
Just make sure to hold the phone steady and use the virtual trigger button, not the physical volume-up button… in low light, with the shutter held open just a tad longer, the latter causes motion blur, especially if you have a case that covers this button.
Absolutely right – it’s on ‘my’ Christmas present list after the kids stuff done and dusted.
4S worth the upgrade for cam and video alone.
Yes, in as far as it de-mystifies photography for average people to the greatest extent yet.
I’m sure people will say that you’re not a real photographer if you’re not constantly worried about your f stop and shutter speed, but that’s not what photography is about. It’s NOT ABOUT THE BOX. It’s about the image.
One of the things that make some photo clubs so boring is that all everyone does is sit around and talk about lenses. Not that it isn’t an interesting subject, but really – at a certain point, you become adept and comfortable with the equipment and you just let it become invisible. If it’s working right it shouldn’t get in your way. That goes for an iPhone or a Canon 1DX.
The iPhone takes pretty decent images for something its size. And size makes all the difference. I can’t practically carry a Canon 1DX with me everywhere I go, but I’m never without my phone. And any “real photographer” will tell you that not every image has to be the cover of S.I. or be blown up to poster size. Photographers use a range of tools so they always have the one that’s appropriate to the situation. Sometimes the iPhone is the one. Quite a bit more than I ever expected it to be.
I saw a lens mount for Canon lenses the other day. Just twist your nice “L” lens right on the front of your phone. I can’t think of any earthly reason to do this but you bet your ass I want to try it. Could be the perfect thing for panoramas… who knows?
So this great tool that I have is simple enough for anyone to use. It doesn’t make their pictures any better (get closer, people) but it does give them decent image quality and gets a lot of the mystery out of the way.
It’s easy to forget that 5 years ago, everyone wasn’t walking around with a fairly good still and motion camera in their pocket. Phones had cameras and remember how much THOSE sucked… No one ever used them and when they did, you wondered why they even bothered to take the picture. Now the iPhone is the most widely used camera on Flickr. Not because it’s the best camera box, but because it’s connected to the internet at all times.
It’s a web image pipeline.
I remember when I’d shoot an event on film, and a few days or weeks later, I’d have images to show to people who’d forgotten that they happened. We’re posting images in real time now. When you see the party, the party is still going on. That’s all because of the modest little camera inside all of our web-conneceted phones. That’s new. That’s how the iPhone redefined photography.
1 C1!
It’s about production AND distribution.. It’s the change in this dyad that has created the latest change in photography.
*shrug*
Annie Leibovitz likes the iPhone as a camera:
http://www.theverge.com/photography/2011/11/17/2569568/annie-leibovitz-iphone-4s-camera-brian-williams
If it’s good enough for her…
I’d also like to mention that fact that Sharp just released a 12mp smartphone camera sensor. 1080p capable, btw:
http://www.gizmag.com/sharp-unveils-thinnest-camera-sensor/20728/
Yeah but can it do half of what the iPhone does?
Did you read the article, or fandango pointing out this is a camera *sensor* not a camera in itself?
Also:
“The optical image stabilization in the lens makes it ideal for situations where pictures are often blurry due to camera shake, such as low-light situations.”
Optical image stabilization made a huge difference in reducing the barest motion jitter when I upgraded from one Canon to its successor, 4 years ago (despite this, it sucks in low-light, no-flash shots).
I take great care to hold still when taking low-light shots on my 4S, and take several shots expecting only 1 to turn out sharp. No one I hand my phone to can be expected to do the same, and I’m frequently disappointed by the results. Optical stabilization on the next iPhone will greatly improve the already excellent (for a camera phone) shots that the 4S takes.
I did say *sensor* before posting the link.
And yes, i did read the article.
I was just thinking that it might be a nice upgrade for future iPhones.
Couldn’t agree more. I take many, many photos, had several published in a regional newspaper, and there have been so many occasions when I got photos that I would have missed because I couldn’t be bothered to drag my Nikon D60 out with me. I have a Lumix TZ3, but it needs new batteries. One pic I had published was purely as a result of my going to watch some paragliders flying that I hadn’t anticipated and I only had my iP4 with me. I took twenty or thirty photos, and a few turned out to be some of the best I’ve taken in ages. I could not believe how well they turned out.
As my next iPhone upgrade will be an iP5, I can only imagine how much better again the quality will be.
Oh, and ProHDR and Autostitch are probably my two most used apps.
As someone who started photography in 1979 with a Contax 139 Quartz, I never, for one second, imagined that a camera in a phone could produce such amazing images.
In my experience, camera nerds take terrible pictures. To be a photographer you have to think viaually. Like an artist, in fact. That has not changed since the camera was invented and likely never will. I don’t have this ability myself, unfortunately, but I can recognize it in others. The equipment comes a distant second.