Today I have done a camera shootout with the iPhone 4, the iPhone 3Gs and the iPhone 3G. As you already know the difference between the cameras in these phones is quite big but it was interesting to find out just how big. Check out the shootout gallery inside.

I started with a plain shootout setup with a few different colorful objects. First out was the iPhone 3G and as you can see the end result is very washed out and a bit grainy.

The 3Gs managed to get a slightly better photo…

…and the iPhone 4 was the best of the bunch, even though that photo also was a bit washed out.

And here’s a reference shot from my 550D with a 1.4 lens.

But to really see the difference between these cameras I put together an overview containing 100% crops. It’s not fair comparing the iPhones with an 18 megapixel DSLR but it’s good to have as a reference.

iPhone camera shootout part 2

iPhone camera shootout part 3

iPhone camera shootout part 4

In the second part of the test I have done some outdoor shooting during almost perfect light conditions. All of the cameras perform pretty good during these conditions and you can get some decent shots even with the iPhone 3G. Check them out inside.

The iPhone 3G actually surprised me a bit here. If you don’t care about the resolution this photo is actually very good. The sky is detailed and it’s even better exposed than the iPhone 4 shot below.

While shooting outdoor landscape photos you get some really good results using the new HDR function. You get a detailed sky along with a detailed foreground.

As you can see in the 100% crops above, all of these photos are quite OK. The iPhone 4 has a much better resolution which gives you a sharper image overall but the difference between the iPhone 3G during these conditions isn’t really that big.

iPhone camera shootout part 1

iPhone camera shootout part 3

iPhone camera shootout part 4

In the third part of the test I’m shooting an object from a pretty close distance (15 cm). Here you can really see a big difference between the different cameras and if you compare the 3G with the iPhone 4 side by side you can see that they are miles apart.

As you can see the iPhone 3G has a problem getting a sharp focus on objects that are close to the lens. The photo is blurry and very grainy.

Without switching lense on my 550D I couldn’t get any closer than this so the 100% crop below isn’t really accurate but it shows what kind of sharpness the iPhone 4 is capable of. Impressive.

The 3G photo is barely useable for anything while the 3Gs and photo from the iPhone 4 is pretty good.

Moving on to a even worse conditions. I went inside a wardrobe and shot these photos during very poor lighting conditions.

All of the iPhones are pretty bad during poor lighting conditions – and that’s where the new iPhone 4 flash comes in handy. It makes all the difference and it’s capable of snapping photos even when there’s hardly any light. Without the flash the iPhone 4 is almost as bad as the 3G, but with a higher resolution. The worst phone in this test was the iPhone 3Gs with very bad low light performance.

iPhone camera shootout part 1

iPhone camera shootout part 2

iPhone camera shootout part 4

There’s no doubt that the iPhone 4 has a much better camera than the iPhone 3G and the iPhone 3Gs, and the new HDR functionality makes it even easier to get good results during hard lighting conditions. As you can see in the comparision above the HDR photo shot with the iPhone 4 is much better than the rest of the bunch. Let’s move on to snapping text and images.

I use the iPhone daily to snap interesting articles in magazines and newspapers and that was very hard to do with the iPhone 3G due to it’s focus problems. A magazine snap taken with the iPhone 3G is often very blurry and you can barely read the text:

The 3Gs is much better at this task and the snap is something you can actually use.

While the iPhone 4 takes even crispier images.

And as you can see in the crop above the HDR function can be used even during these conditions, giving a photo with more natural white balance.

Summary: The iPhone 3G has a quite bad camera that really only is usable during perfect lighting conditions and when you have a focus point that is over one meter away from the camera. The 3Gs and the iPhone 4 are much more allround but when you are in a low light situation even the 3Gs is worthless. The new iPhone 4 has an excellent camera that is a good enough replacement for a simple point and shoot camera, but there’s obviously still a big step up to a professional camera.

iPhone camera shootout part 1

iPhone camera shootout part 2

iPhone camera shootout part 3

Plug in your iPhone or iPod into your computer and you’ll get the new iOS 4.1 update. It was launched just recently and includes HD video upload, the new Game Center, TV show rentals, HDR photography, a faster iPhone 3G OS and a few bug fixes.

The photographer Lee Morris got tired of people letting him know that taking good photos was all about having the right camera. He arranged a fashion photo shoot and took all of the photos with his cell phone – an iphone 3Gs. Amazing results! Next time someone tells you that the iPhone camera sucks show them this article.

I posted a few of the images and asked people to critique them (never exposing that they were shot on my cell phone). I couldn’t help but laugh when a few of our readers claimed that these were “the best images I had ever taken.” Nobody ever claimed that they were too grainy, too soft, or lacked detail.

The iPhone Fashion Shoot By Lee Morris [fstoppers.com]
via [Feber.se]

Here’s an interesting video showing an iPhone 3GS going head on with an iPhone 4 to test the browsing speed. It’s actually quite a dramatic difference in rendering speed. Check it out.

Via [tuaw.com]

Today is the launch day for Apple’s new iPhone 3GS in Sweden. I was in line this morning to get hold of the new, updated version of the phone. Here’s some photos of the holy unboxing procedure.

As always when it comes to Apple and package design – the packing is very slick and beautiful. When you open up the box you get immediate access to the phone..

…and directly beneath the phone you find the adapter, headphones, UBS cable and instructions.

This is what you get inside the box

The phone is protected by thin plastic.

A new, shiny iPhone 3GS 16GB.

If you are a lucky owner an iPhone 3G S and live in New York City, you can (soon) try out this really cool application that is one of the first apps that really takes full use of all new features of the new more powerful iPhone. Check out the clip after the jump to see the application in action – it’s really cool.

Acrossair, New York Nearest Subway [acrossair.com]

YouTube clip

As you know, the new iPhone 3G S can record video with pretty good quality, but the sound quality ain’t that good. With this small external microphone you can improve the recorded sound quite dramatically (at least you can hear quite a big difference). The device is $14 and you can read more about it inside.

Voice and video recording on iPhone 3.0 brings iPhone owners to the new mobile multimedia era. Yet, sound quality is not the best. Try out the NEW Flexible mini capsule microphone which is especially designed for new iPhone 3.0. It enables you to record better sound quality. Instead of receiving sound from the iPhone speaker at the bottom, your iPhone can receive sound from any direction. It is especially useful while shooting video as the microphone and the camera can be pointed to the same direction. Bend and turn the microphone to the desired direction to focus sound source. Flexible mini capsule microphone gains 25+ dB, sound clarity increases as well as sound quality improves. It works on iPhone 3G S, iPhone 3G, iPhone 2G and iPod Nano 4G.

Features:
- Multi-directional adjustment
- Plug and Play
- High Quality microphone, fine sensibility
- Small, Lightweight and Portable Design with jack cover
- No Battery is required
- Gains 25+ dB

Color :
- Black
- White

Compatible Models :
- iPhone 3G S
- iPhone 3G
- iPhone 2G
- iPod Nano 4G
- iPod Touch
- iPod Touch 2G

Gallery:

Flexible Mini Capsule Microphone for iPhone 3G S [brando.com.hk]