Day 6: Photography using Malaysia Apple iPhone

My past days have been preoccupied with proposals and projects. It means good business for me but it makes me…ignore my Apple iPhone in Malaysia. T_T

If you read from day one I received the Malaysia Apple iPhone you will remember I’m only having this Apple iPhone because I’m reviewing it. Thanks to the guys at iPhones Unlocked, they’ve hooked me up with a 4GB unit.

Initially, I was only to have it for a 7 day review but it’s still in my hands. I’ve also worked out a deal with them so you can buy Apple iPhones in Malaysia from this blog at a special rate.

One of the reasons I upgraded my nostalgic Nokia 6610 was because I wanted a point and shoot camera. I’m bad at hogging the camera for personal use (or cam-whoring). But I wanted a camera so I could take pictures which either brought me inspiration or had a moment to be eternally sealed onto digital.

Photography with the Apple iPhone was a treat and a surprise. The thing about phone cameras are it isn’t a ‘full’ camera. In other words, it was built-in for you to capture significant times when you needed a camera badly. And didn’t want to run to the nearest camera shop for a disposable camera. The sharpness and ability of the phone camera are a bonus, as I would call it.

However, mobile phone manufacturers are outdoing themselves in the particular area. From your CMOS came Carl-Zeiss to boosting the megapixels up to 7 or even adding optical zoom! The first time I heard Samsung was introducing a 7-megapixel camera, I got a shock – “That is A LENS!” In addition to that, they have gone to 10-megepixels in 2006.

Albeit the Apple iPhone loses out in megapixels at the moment, they have done a very good job in the areas of sharpness whilst maintaining the slimness of the Apple iPhone. You would expect from a thinly looking mirror finish device as the Apple iPhone to only have a 1.3-megapixel or CMOS camera. But don’t be fooled by it because it captures lovely images at 2-megapixels.

These are some pictures which I’ve taken with the Apple iPhone camera. The original size of a landscape picture is 1600 pixels by 1200 pixels. But I’ve downsize the pictures to 600 pixels by 450 pixels. I’ve also uploaded a file to download all the full resolution unedited pictures at the bottom.

The first picture taken is of the 1-Utama ceiling while sitting at the black sofas near Parkson. Normally, a digital camera would light up a little of the ceiling instead of giving a pitch black effect. On the other hand, if you have full control of your Apple iPhone camera then you can use it to your advantage. As for the second picture, I found it surprising the environment turned out darker then it should be but does help create the main focus area – the stage. The following picture of food is to test the distance taken with an Apple iPhone. If you noticed, the clarity starts from midway to the top.

The picture of the car was taken from inside my car on an evening day. The sky was already turning gloomy but to our human eyes, it wasn’t that dark really. The conventional lift buttons came out unexpectedly blue here although it was litted with dim yellow lighting. The mini sofa (Hawk, we should get this!) was taken while strolling in Parkson and this is the best from the bright indoor lighting. Second last, we have the infamous DiGi Yellowman invaded a kiosk and again, you’ll notice the brightness isn’t too good here. Lastly, is another test for minimum focusing distance on the Apple iPhone and you’ll notice again where the picture is clear.

In the end, the results above concludes the Apple iPhone camera is just a ‘camera’. It doesn’t have a macro function, no video recording function, no white balance and no night mode (or function to make environments brighter). To the right is the same Starbucks picture I took but with my Sony Ericsson w800i camera phone. Again, I just downsized it and no enhancements. With the additions of Macro, Night mode and average sharpness the photo here comes out better than the Apple iPhone.

However, Apple’s iPhone has made it clear to me in Malaysia this is but a camera in a phone. It’s not a digital compact camera or a DSLR camera. It is just but a camera built into the Apple iPhone plus a good 2-megapixel capability.

Ultimately, it’s sad though it doesn’t have a video recording function to take advantage of its 4GB or 8GB space. Maybe Apple wants to ensure the Apple iPhone won’t be used in piracy. :P

[tags]Apple iPhone, iPhone photos, iPhone camera, Apple iPhone Malaysia, iPhone photography, iPhone photographer[/tags]