iPhone 3GS on the Oregon Coastline
Last weekend, I shot some photos out at the Oregon coast with the new iPhone 3GS to see how it handled. For being a camera phone, it handles plenty well and produces a fairly good result. Feed it through Lightroom and do just a skosh of of push and pull (add a bit of clarity and vibrance), and it turned out scenes like the following with ease:
Not too shabby. I should note that there’s not too much plasticity (for lack of a better word) in the files. Push or pull on the sliders too much and you can easily break these images. It’s really easy to go from just enough of any kind of adjustment to OMGTHATSWAYTOOFAR. Much easier than on bigger cameras. I’ve also notice a tendency for sky colors to tend towards purple at times. But we’re talking about a camera phone in your pocket for goodness sake. I’m willing to cut it tons of slack as long as it can turn out half way decent results.
Even though looking at images at a 100% doesn’t tell all of the story of what a camera can do, here’s what is in the above image when you zoom down to 1:1:
It’s none too shabby. Of course, these are great conditions and the camera is shooting at 1/1000th at ISO 70. Not too challenging. But still, for an itty bitty tiny lens and sensor, none too shabby at all. My only real complaint is that faintish magenta tinging in the water pulling off the beach.
I tested out movie mode as well. Here’s one of the clips I shot while standing on a different overlook:
The frame rate in this Flickr hosted movie is a bit choppy. The original QuickTime movie looks quite a bit smoother. But, for web-based quick video, it’s not too bad—for a freaking camera phone that slips into a pocket and is with you everywhere! I’m pretty happy with it, I have to say. It definitely satisfies that lust I had for a Flip or similar pocket video recorder.
5 Comments
Did you use iMovie image stabilization on the clip or do you just have "photographer hands"?
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Carl, I didn't use iMovie to stabilize the clip. For this clip, I was just leaning up against my car which gave me tons of advantage.
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Now that I've got my 3GS, my Flip will be going up on craigslist very soon. There's just no need for it any longer.
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OK, I'm not a pro photog, but I follow your blog because of my video work and I enjoy reading about what you do. My question is about Lightroom. I thought you guys used Photoshop for everything. What is Lightroom and why do you need it? I see it's made by Adobe too. Another $300 for what, exactly?
Thanks,
Dan
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Dan, That's a big question. The short answer is that I use Lightroom for managing my library, selecting images I want to process more, and doing initial processing like exposure, contrast, tone curves, and the like (anything in Adobe Camera RAW). Photoshop is still on the menu, but these days I typically use it for more advanced compositing needs or other edits that can't be done in Lightroom.
The big question is to compare Lightroom to Bridge. Bridge is pretty capable, gives you access to ACR, and the like. But it's not as smooth when editing down a 1000 shot take into a few selects.
One way to think of it is that Photoshop is the ultimate editor for pixels in a single image. Lightroom is a great editor for a batch of photos to figure out what photos you like and to do initial ACR processing on them.
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