“For the longest time, iOS had almost no camera controls at all. There would be a toggle for HDR, a toggle to switch to the front-facing camera, and a toggle to switch to video recording mode. The only other tool that was accessible would be the AE/AF lock,” Joshua Ho reports for AnandTech. “This meant that you had to hope that the exposure and focus would be correct, because there was no direct method of adjusting these things. Anyone that paid attention to the WWDC 2014 keynote would’ve heard maybe a few sentences about manual camera controls. Despite the short mention in the keynote, this is a massive departure from the previously all-auto experience.”
“To be clear, iOS 8 will expose just about every manual camera control possible,” Ho reports. “This means that ISO, shutter speed, focus, white balance, and exposure bias can be manually set within a custom camera application. Outside of these manual controls, Apple has also added gray card functionality to bypass the auto white balance mechanism and both EV bracketing and shutter speed/ISO bracketing.”
Ho reports, “It’s been said that Apple is one of the few OEMs that take camera seriously, and these new controls can only cement that position.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dan K.” for the heads up.]
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Apple expected to continue ignoring smartphone camera megapixel numbers game in favor of image quality – March 20, 2014
How much better is Apple’s iPhone 5s camera? – October 14, 2013
A look at the technology inside Apple’s amazing new iPhone 5s camera – September 30, 2013
Apple iPhone 5s camera leaps two years ahead of entire camera industry – all cameras, not just smartphone cameras – September 13, 2013
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Hands on with the new 64-bit A7-powered iPhone 5s with new M7, camera features & Touch ID – September 12, 2013
Apple grants Burberry early access to iPhone 5s for fashion show photography – September 12, 2013
The exposure of these controls should be enlightening.
That’s a pretty focused statement!
If only Plato’s cave had had aperture control…
I would shutter if we had another iOS release without these controls.
Stop being so negative.
I SO love these puns.
I don’t know about these new changes but i’ll give it a shot!
We will have to wait and see what develops.
ISO want to see this happen. As a development there isn’t much more you could see as a fix for long term issues. It would be more than a wash.
This will be tough on many of the alternative camera app developers. I’ve used a bunch of them. All had problems with the interface, in my opinion. I’ll be interested to see what Apple does in the interface department.
Apple won’t do anything… these controls aren’t available in the stock camera app for iOS 8. They are only available if a 3rd party developer uses the API’s opened up for them. So a 3rd party dev would have to make an app that use these controls for users to get their hands on it.
Hmm. I’m sure many of them will. This seems very generous of Apple. Keep Camera simple but allow such flexibility to those who want (to probably pay a little more) to use it.
You know that to be a fact?
Sorry, aimed at MP.
I shutter (sic) in light of this information I think we should slow down and take a look at the big picture.
Glad to hear it. I’ve always wanted to use my iPhone along with my telescope for some astrocartography. Lack of long exposure time has made moon shots and other very bright objects about the only viable for me.
All you budding photographers in the crowd should remember that the best camera is the one in your hand.
This is the punniest MDN thread ever!
I loved every bit of it.
goodness, I just wish people would stop using their phones as their main cameras. It’s tiresome to look at blurry photos or some idiot on vacation wheeling his iPad around. Then they wonder why they don’t get good pictures. It’s a sad state of affairs that we are so willing to accept crappy phone photos as the new standard.