You've come a long way, iPhone camera

Back in July 2007, four days after the very first iPhones hit the shelves, I purchased the original iPhone for way too much money.  The camera was pretty mediocre in today's standards, but it was leaps and bounds better than the flip phone I had.  The one thing that the original iPhone was notoriously bad at was motion photography.  They way it scanned photos, images would often "shift" from one side to the other.  Here's an example:



My kids' heads aren't that slanted in real life!  There wasn't much in the way of EXIF data either.  The only data with this photo is f/2.8, which was probably fixed.

Now I have an iPhone 4, and use it just about everywhere. If there is enough light, I can safely say that motion photos are now captured perfectly.  Check out these pool shots from our vacation earlier this month:





Perfect stop motion with incredible detail. You can see individual drops of water on Dova and Adam. Plus the photos are now complete with EXIF info:

Camera Apple iPhone 4
Exposure 0.001 sec (1/1875)
Aperture f/2.8
Focal Length 3.9 mm
ISO Speed 80
Flash Off, Did not fire
Orientation Horizontal (normal)
X-Resolution 72 dpi
Y-Resolution 72 dpi
Software 5.1.1
Date and Time (Modified) 2012:07:01 11:59:52
YCbCr Positioning Centered
Exposure Program Program AE
Date and Time (Original) 2012:07:01 11:59:52
Date and Time (Digitized) 2012:07:01 11:59:52
Brightness Value 9.979069767
Metering Mode Multi-segment
Subject Area 1295 967 699 696
Color Space sRGB
Sensing Method One-chip color area
Exposure Mode Auto
White Balance Auto
Scene Capture Type Standard
Sharpness Hard
Compression JPEG (old-style)

I had fun making impossible "walking on water" shots as well (they fell immediately after the photo):





Now with lenses that you can buy for camera phones, you can do incredible macro shots.  You can see the reflection of the phone in these bucky balls which are 3/16" in diameter:



Ice cream is so much more fun in a fish eye lens:



I hardly ever wish I had my DSLR with me when I'm traveling light with my iPhone and lenses.  I purchased these lenses which are similar to the ones at Photojojo on Amazon for pennies. Check them out here:

AGPtek® 3 in 1 Camera Lens Kit for Apple iPhone 4 iPad (Fish Eye Lens, Wide Angle + Macro Lens)

The macro lens is screwed into the wide angle lens, so it appears that there are only two lenses in the set, but there are actually three.


EMPIRE Apple iPhone 4 / 4S Detatchable Telephoto Camera Photography Lens

The 2x telephoto lens is not as useful, but helps keep your resolution up with some telephoto capability. Both sets of lenses use a magnetic ring that attaches to the iPhone or iPad.  They go with me everywhere!

Along with these lenses, I use this nifty tripod mount which is handy when taking videos.  You can mount the iPhone in one of two grooves, which can be used by itself to prop the phone at an angle.


Stand with Mini Tripod Mount Adapter for iPhone 4G (Black)

Check out the cell phone lenses, you won't be sorry!
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