Apple Thoughts - News & Reviews on all things Apple

"The iPhone's lack of camera flash makes it a poor performer in low light conditions but developers have been hard at work to make it better."

You can see how well it works from the video above. Not sure how often I'd have a use for it but it is only $0.99 USD in the iTunes Store. There are also several other options in the iTunes store for night vision type usage, varying from free to a couple bucks in case you aren't sold on this particular app. 

"Joby, makers of the various Gorilla accessories - the GorillaPod, the GorillaTorch, GorillaMobile, etc - have just unveiled their first iPhone app: the Gorillacam. The free app provides a number of features to improve the usefulness of the iPhone camera, including a grid for rule-of-thirds shots, making the entire touchscreen a shutter button, burst photo sequences, and much more."

Handy little app, and best of all it is free.

"OK, so we've already established that the iPhone camera is capable of some pretty amazing photography, even if you don't use one of the many fantastic photography-related apps available on the Store. One thing I've not seen it used for to date has been action shots; but Oregon-based photographer Jared Souney has been putting his 3GS to good use for just that."

Interesting article on how a pro photographer has been experimenting with his iPhone 3GS to take action shots of BMX competitions for example. This isn't a specific how-to article however, more of a generalized discussion on how he takes the shots, what applications he uses to help him and that sort of thing. Still, I was a able to get a few tips on technique and some new apps to try out from the article so there may be something in it for you too.

"Apple's iPhone has recently become the most popular camera on Flickr, one of the Internet's most well-regarded photo sharing social media sites. Expressed in "percent of members" terms, the iPhone has lately bested two models of Canon's EOS Digital Rebel, of which the XTi had long been the clear favorite choice of Flickr members."

This actually has been amended so the iPhone is now behind the Canon Digital Rebel XTi, making it the 2nd most popular camera used on Flickr. However among camera phones, the iPhone clearly is the leader as the graph above shows as a percentage of Flickr members. Wonder what the stats are over on You Tube among camera phones?

"Like most people who’ve had an iPhone 3GS in their hands, we’ve been extremely impressed with the video capabilities of this little device. Not only Does it take near-HD video, it has excellent basic editing software and video can be uploaded to YouTube over Wifi or the cell networks. Among other things, it is the most useful video camera in the world today. No wonder the video camera market is shaking in its collective boots. Thank God those iPhones are so expensive, and Apple will only sell 20 million or so of them in 2009. If Apple added cameras to its line of iPods, there would be another 3+million of them hitting the market per month, and the low end of the digital video camera market could be crushed. Uh oh."

The photo above is the one Mike Arrington refers to in his article (from Macrumors). If this is true, it will turn the mini-vidcam market on its ear for some people. There are still going to be some who appreciate the ease of use of the Flip and its many variants, but it's hard to argue that having a camera on your device that shoots good stills and reasonably good video with on-device editing won't at least take a small chunk out of that market.

"We guess this has been a long time in coming - iPods of the next generation could possibly make do with a built-in camera if Apple knows what's good for them. After all, since the device already holds a veritable tome of information, why not make it able to capture images on-the-fly?"

On one hand, I can't think of a good reason to have cameras on an MP3 player, but on the other hand I also live by the axiom that the best camera on the market is the one you carry with you. Seeing as a lot of people are perpetually plugged into their iPhone, this would put a camera within reach at all times.

Not the greatest of ideas, but not a terrible one either. Your thoughts?

"ClearCam is the latest iPhone app to go live on Cydia, home for the jailbreak apps, and turns your 2MP photos into 4MP ones by stitching 6 normal photos into one super photo. Similar to the manner in which Gigapan created the 1474MP image of the inauguration, Occipital's ClearCam works its magic by creating a composite image using 6 iPhone photos taken in succession."

The quality of the samples is definitely impressive. I won't be jailbreaking my iPhone any time soon, though. The camera is good enough for most of my mobile phone camera picture taking needs. Note, I said good enough and not "good." There is definitely a difference!

"This update extends RAW file compatibility for Aperture 2 and iPhoto ’08 for the following cameras: Canon EOS 50D, Nikon D90, Sony DSLR-A900, Nikon Coolpix P6000. It also addresses issues related to specific cameras and overall stability."

If you're like me and like buying the newest shiniest cameras, this update has your name all over it. It's available now in Software Update, or if you just can't wait that long, hit up the link above and grab it the old fashioned way!