NSFW - iPhone 4, pictures videos and boobs galore
Reagan and I got our hands on a couple of new iPhone 4's yesterday and decided to go test out the new camera with Sash and Rambo yesterday on Hollywood Blvd.
There are a lot of new functionality when you open the camera.
The lightening bolt in the upper left hand corner allows you to adjust the flash - Off, Auto or On
The camera twist icon allows you to switch between lenses, either the one facing you or the traditional outward facing lens.
The camera - video slider allows you to toggle between the two like in the 3Gs.
You can selectively focus as well and once you are focused on something you can zoom in or out with a +/- slider that appears with a double tap.
* One unexpected feature is that when you point it at Rambo her boob pops out.
Here is a full NSFW gallery of our rigorous testing on Hollywood Blvd.
Overall the flash while bright is only really effective if used close-in.
The images when zoomed are not the best quality.
The files are HUGE when they come out of the camera. 1935 x 2592 pixels.
Click to see the full resolution
We took some video of our adventures as well.
Sash lost a bet and had to walk back to the office without her pants on, Donald Duck style (shirt and no pants)
The coolest feature of the new iPhone 4 though has to be FaceTime
You can live video chat with other people who have the iPhone 4. It is like living in The Jetsons. Although you can only use FaceTime when you are on wifi, which is probably for the best considering AT&T's coverage issues.
The screen resolution is also pretty great 4 times the pixels.
All in all the camera and screen resolution are a vast improvement over the 3Gs. Network coverage is still dicey at best and the steel surround antennae to boost the signal has not proven very effective for me at least.
The iOS 4 software update has a host of other features like app folders, background image, camera zoom, etc.
Available today from Apple
xoxo
-missy
Single-Pixel Digital Cameras: How and Why?
A camera's mega-pixel count is an essential feature that digital buyers look for when perusing the latest and greatest in the digi-cam market. Companies proudly boast that number on the front of their product and everyone knows that, with mega pixels, more is better.
However, US researchers seem to disagree, and are building a single-pixel camera.
Being developed by a lab at Rice University in Houston, Texas, the single-pixel camera is designed to tackle what its developers see as the "inefficiencies" of modern digital camera.
It currently resembles an old-fashioned pinhole camera and is the size of a suitcase,
Okay. But what's the point of something that captures a single pixel?
The camera was created, according to Dr. Kelly and his colleague Richard Baraniuk, because digital cameras are very wasteful. They require expensive microprocessors and massive battery power to capture an image - most of which will not be used in displaying the picture.
There's some sense in replacing the excessive intricate, delicate, mechanisms within the camera (especially if consumers are paying for components that aren't even in use), but what exactly do researchers hope to replace the complex electronics with?
"Instead of taking the light from an object through a lens and focusing it on a pixel array, we actually reflect it off an array of mirrors," he said.
This digital micro-mirror device, as it is known, consists of a million or more tiny mirrors each the size of a bacterium.
"From that mirror array, we then focus the light through a second lens on to one single photo-detector - a single pixel."
Pinhole-a-go-go
Photography, regardless of your camera of choice, typically involves a lot of expensive equipment. While each commercial camera offers its own range of benefits and results, if you've got a little time to get more involved in the process, pinhole photography is a fun and cheap way to capture an image and learn about how photography works.
A pinhole camera can be made out of any receptacle; big or small, it's basically just a lightproof container for your film with one small hole (a pinhole) which is uncovered to expose your film to a flash of light. The light passes through the pinhole to capture a reversed image onto your photo paper, which will appear when processed. For a more accurate definition and scientific explanation, read photo.net's really, really long description. The results of pinhole photography are not usually predictable; the images tend to be polarized and distorted with light leaks. For best results, try many different homemade cameras to learn what works best!
Photo Location
To learn how to make your own camera, although there are many methods, here's a fairly basic tutorial. The more lightproof your camera, the more crisp the results will be. For more consistent results, pick up a cheap Holga camera and make your Holga into a pinhole camera. Whatever your results are, be sure to share them with fellow photographers to learn about your camera and how your next can be improved. The SG photography group is a great place to start.