iPhone 3G S: First impressions of its upgraded camera

The digital camera on the new iPhone 3G S seems to deliver on its promise of better performance compared with other iPhones, at least in my initial use of it over the past few days.

Imaging capability is among the several key areas where Apple has upgraded this newest version of their smart phone with capabilities that competitors have—and have had for years, in some cases.

Here's what I observed:

Sharp pictures. In my casual test shots, the 3G S yielded shots that looked noticeably sharp, at least in the viewfinder. Some of the credit undoubtedly goes to the presence of auto-focus, a first for an iPhone and a less-than-universal feature on other cameraphones. There's also has a unique tap-to-focus feature, which lets you override the auto-focus by tapping on any subject on the screen. I found the camera successfully focused on the subjects on which I tapped.

A macro feature—another first for an iPhone and relative rarity on cameraphones—lets you shoot objects as close as a few inches away. As you can see in my close-up shot (just 4 inches away) of an n-scale train layout, this feature, too, appeared to yield impressively sharp performance.

Here's a sample of a close-up I took of an n-scale model train set using Apple's new iPhone 3G S built-in camera. Click to see the full-size (and unedited) image.
[ Photo: M. Gikas ]

It likely helps, as well, that the 3G S camera has been upgraded to 3-megapixels of resolution, compared with the 2-megapixels of past iPhones. But resolution isn't everything, as we say in our digital camera advice. Factors including the lens and image processing also affect image quality. The new Palm Pre has a 3-megapixel camera, too. But in my casual test shooting, I found its photos to be less sharp than that of the 3G S, particularly when taking close-ups.

Decent videos, too. The 3G S is the first iPhone with video capability. While we haven't extensively tested video from other cell-phones, the videos I shot looked reasonably clear—even at close range. (Download a QuickTime video of a model train set I shot with the iPhone 3G S. Download IMG_0034) In addition, you can edit videos for length, at least rudimentarily. A film-strip-like bar appears on top of each video clip, showing successive images from it. You slide the virtual tabs at each end to edit where the clip begins and ends. You can preview your edit before you finalize it with a press of the Trim button. The feature is less robust than video-editing software on a computer—you can't splice together successive clips, say, or save the original full-length clip for later editing. But it's extremely easy to use.

I also took some full-motion video of the train set with the new iPhone's camera. Click the image above to download and watch the 30-second QuickTime video file.
[ Photo: M. Gikas ]

Ease-to-use interface. Video shows up integrated with still shots once you press the "Photos" icon on the iPhone desktop. The iPhone 3.0 interface has also yielded improvements in the management of your images. For example, where you once had to exit camera mode in order to view images—even the one you just shot—the new interface places a thumbnail of the last image you shot place in the corner of the display. Click on it and you see the image full-sized, in the photo gallery.

We'll continue to test the imaging capabilities of the new iPhone, and reflect that performance in our full Ratings of smart phones (available to subscribers), which we expect to post late this week or early next. —Mike Gikas