I was like many of you. When I got my iPhone 4 I was very much impressed with the video (and picture) capablity of the phone. I thought maybe that I can use it more often when I don't want to carry around my Sony HD camcorder.
As a test, last weekend I went camping and armed myself only with the iPhone 4 for both pictures and video (normally I take along a Cannon digital camera and a Sony HD camcorder).
I took a lot of pictures and video in all sorts of lighting conditions.
When I got home and displayed everything on my 60" monitor, the shortfalls became evident. While most of the video looks decent, the color saturation was a bit overdone and the phone has a hard time with fast action. Also, its almost impossible to hold it completely still thus causing screen lag and sometimes tearing. Video looks great on small screens, but when blown up, forget it. If you want good video, a separate HD camcorder is still a better way to go (obviously). For me, some sort of digital image stabilization would go a long way to improving the video on the iPhone 4. Sure, digital stabalization would cost in overall video quality, but its a good tradeoff considerating shakey video is terrible to watch on big screens.
Pictures were another story. Most of the pictures look pretty darn good. Still not as good as a dedicated digital camera but under the right lighting conditions, its hard to tell the difference at times.
I know a lot of this is nothing new especially to forum members here, but I wanted to convey my hands on experiences. This was a really good test for me because I was able to compare how the iPhone 4 performs against my other dedicated equipment.
I know, its just a phone. Impressive to say the least but I think I will go back to using my other equipment for long term documenation of my vacations and events. The iPhone 4 is definitely great when in a pinch but can't recommend using it to capture memories for permanent archives.
With that said, I can't wait for what the future holds. Sony, Panasonic and other camera makers have got to be taking notice of what is happening. Portable devices are getting dangerously close to the quality of dedicated equipment. Hopefully the iPhone 4 has got them at least looking at better and more feature packed still and video cameras.
As a test, last weekend I went camping and armed myself only with the iPhone 4 for both pictures and video (normally I take along a Cannon digital camera and a Sony HD camcorder).
I took a lot of pictures and video in all sorts of lighting conditions.
When I got home and displayed everything on my 60" monitor, the shortfalls became evident. While most of the video looks decent, the color saturation was a bit overdone and the phone has a hard time with fast action. Also, its almost impossible to hold it completely still thus causing screen lag and sometimes tearing. Video looks great on small screens, but when blown up, forget it. If you want good video, a separate HD camcorder is still a better way to go (obviously). For me, some sort of digital image stabilization would go a long way to improving the video on the iPhone 4. Sure, digital stabalization would cost in overall video quality, but its a good tradeoff considerating shakey video is terrible to watch on big screens.
Pictures were another story. Most of the pictures look pretty darn good. Still not as good as a dedicated digital camera but under the right lighting conditions, its hard to tell the difference at times.
I know a lot of this is nothing new especially to forum members here, but I wanted to convey my hands on experiences. This was a really good test for me because I was able to compare how the iPhone 4 performs against my other dedicated equipment.
I know, its just a phone. Impressive to say the least but I think I will go back to using my other equipment for long term documenation of my vacations and events. The iPhone 4 is definitely great when in a pinch but can't recommend using it to capture memories for permanent archives.
With that said, I can't wait for what the future holds. Sony, Panasonic and other camera makers have got to be taking notice of what is happening. Portable devices are getting dangerously close to the quality of dedicated equipment. Hopefully the iPhone 4 has got them at least looking at better and more feature packed still and video cameras.