Apple iPhone 3G S Cell Phone Review - Imaging

We found that although the iPhone 3G S has a much better camera than the 3G version, it wasn't that good compared to many other cell phone cameras. Courtesy of our colleagues at Digitalcamerainfo.com and Camcorderinfo.com, we have a full set of tests on the imaging features of the iPhone 3G S, comparing it to digital cameras and camcorders. You can read the full DigitalCamerInfo.com review here, and the Camcorderinfo.com review here.

Still Resolution (4.23)
Although the resolution that the iPhone 3G captures images at has greatly increased, the sharpness of these images hasn't increased in the same way; the images are noticeably soft and lack detail. We found that the camera in the iPhone 3G S could manage about 970 lw/ph horiontally and about 930 lw/ph vertically (lw/ph is line widths per picture height, a measure of how many black and white lines the camera could capture), which puts it in the middle of the range with other cell phone cameras. Some, such as the Samsung Memoir, shoot higher resolution still images with much superior sharpness.

Cell Phone	iPhone 3G S	iPhone 3G	iPhone
Score	4.23	3.33	4.18
lw/ph horizontal/vertical	970 / 930	866 / 897	970 / 879
Image of Resolution Chart

Cell Phone	Nokia 5800	Samsung Memoir	AT&T Fuze
Score	4.94	Samsung Memoir	4.74
lw/ph horizontal/vertical	1054 / 1062	3248 / 2448	1033 / 979
Image of Resolution Chart

Color (6.19)
We found that the iPhone 3G S captured good color in still images; most of the colors on our test chart were accurate and had relatively little shift from the origionals. However, there were some areas where the colors were distinctly inaccurate: some of the reds and blues were some way off. The chart below shows the color errors: the longer the line between the origional color (the square) and the color the camera captured (the circle), the more inaccurate it is.

As you can see, some of the colors have considerable errors, but the iPhone 3G S is not alone in that; most cameras have more color error than digital cameras.

Cell Phone	iPhone 3G S	iPhone 3G	iPhone
Score	6.19	3.90	5.22
Color Checker Chart

Cell Phone	Nokia 5800	Samsung Memoir	AT&T Fuze
Score	5.26	6.83	5.13
Color Checker Chart

Courtesy of DigitalCameraInfo.com, below are a series of images that show how the different versions of the iPhone and a decent point and shoot camera (the Sony T900) shift the colors that they capture.

	Camera Color Comparisons
	Ideal	Apple iPhone 3G S	Apple iPhone 3G	Apple iPhone	Sony T900
Dark Skin
Light Skin
Blue Sky
	Ideal	Apple iPhone 3G S	Apple iPhone 3G	Apple iPhone	Sony T900
Foliage
Blue Flower
Bluish Green
	Ideal	Apple iPhone 3G S	Apple iPhone 3G	Apple iPhone	Sony T900
Orange
Purplish Blue
Moderate Red
	Ideal	Apple iPhone 3G S	Apple iPhone 3G	Apple iPhone	Sony T900
Purple
Yellow Green
Orange Yellow
	Ideal	Apple iPhone 3G S	Apple iPhone 3G	Apple iPhone	Sony T900
Blue
Green
Red
	Ideal	Apple iPhone 3G S	Apple iPhone 3G	Apple iPhone	Sony T900
Yellow
Magenta
Cyan

Noise (0.19)
The images that the iPhone 3G S took were a little noisy, though; shooting in bright light, we found about 1.38% noise, which is a little higher than we like to see. This noise grew more significant when we tried shots in low light (at about 60 lux; about what you would get indoors with just a couple of lights); the noise grew to about 2%. That's significantly more noise than we saw in the iPhone 3G, which is a consequence of the higher resolution; the more pixels are squeezed onto the sensor, the higher the noise is for each. Samples of the noise in images from the iPhone 3G S are below, courtesy of DigitalCameraInfo.com

	Auto ISO
60 Lux
3000 Lux

Live Preview (8.0)
The look of the live preview has been tweaked slightly from the previous generation of iPhones, with the addition of an slider switch at the bottom right/ top right that switches between still and video mode. The other change is that the screen now changes orientation if you are shooting in portrait or landscape mode, with the icons on the buttons rotating when you hold the camera in landscape mode (as shown below). The sqaure in the center of the screen is the focussing and metering point; touch elsewhere on the screen and this moves around.

Unlocked Standby to First Shot (6.45)
Starting from the home screen, we were able to take a shot in just over 3 seconds. That's a bit faster than the  3G iPhone, and speaks to how the phone is more responsive because of the faster processor and more memory. This is also one area where the lack of a dedicateds shutter button shows: other phones were significantly quicker if they had dedicated shutter buttons.  For more information on how we conduct this test see this article.

Shot to Shot Time (1.43)
The iPhone has no burst or other mode that allows it to take a group of shots; the closest you can get is by hititng the shutter button as quickly as possible. In this situation, we were able to take one shot every 2.1 seconds, for a frame rate of about 0.48 frames per second. Again, this is a dissapointingly low number: other cell phone cameras are able to take more, such as the Nokia 5800, which can take 15 shots in 5 seconds. For more information on how we conduct this test see this article.

Shutter to Shot Time (8.0)
We measured the time between the shutter being pressed and the image being captured at around .2  seconds, which is pretty quick. Again, this is obviously because of the faster processor and more memory; it is a significant improvement over the 0.44 that we saw on the iPhone 3G.  For more information on how we conduct this test see this article.

Interface (7.0)
The interface of the photo app is pretty straightforward: the shutter button is on the right, with a slider above it that switches from still to video mode. The button below the shutter shows the last captured image, and jumps to the camera roll where the photos and videos are stored. The blue box is the focus and exposure point: the camera will try and focus and expose for whatever is under this, and it cna be changed by simply touching the screen.

Photo Album Software Internal (7.0)
The photo album built into the iPhone is mostly unchanged from previous iPhones. Referred to as the Camera Roll, it allows you to skip through images by flicking left or right, look at thumbnails and do basic filtering (to look at just photos or just videos). you can also email photos straight from here. You can't organize photos directly on the device, but albums can be imported from iTunes so you can take your favorite photos with you.

Manual Control (0.0)
There are no manual camera controls on the iPhone 3G S; there is no way to set any of the camera features directly

Zoom (0.0)
There is no zoom on the iPhone, either optical or digital. There are applications available that produce a digital zoom effect by enlarging the center of the image, but that's not a standard feature.

Focus (3.0)
At long last- the iPhone 3G S has a camera with a real auto focus mechanism in it. We found that this could focus down to about 2 inches away from the lens and right out to infinity. We found that it focussed pretty quickly, and that the touch-screen was a good way to control the focussing.

Flash (0.0)
There is no flash on the iPhone 3G S; if you need more light, you have to add your own.

Metering (0.0)
There are no real metering features on the phone, but you can compensate slightly for backlight and the like using the touch screen control; when you touch an area of the live view, it meters for that area.

White Balance (0.0)
There are no white balance features; everything is handled automatically.

Image Handling (0.0)
There are none; images cannot be renamed, cropped or otherwise edited on the phone itself. Instead, you have to wait to upload it to a PC or Mac before you can edit it.

Video Quality (8.79)
Video is a new feature in the iPhone 3G S; previous versions of the iPhone could not capture video. The 3G S did a good job here for a first attempt; we saw sharp video with decent color, smooth motion and overall excellent quality.  If you want to read more about the performance of the iPhone 3G S as a camcorder, you can read the  full review produced by Camcorderinfo.com here.

Video Resolution (15.07)
We found that the video captured by the iPhone 3G S had excellent resolution: it had the highest video resolution score that we've ever seen from a cell phone. Apple is obviously doing something very right here.

Video Compression (4.0)
The videos that the iPhone 3G S captures are compressed using H.264 compression, which means that they can be played back in Apple's own Quicktime software on a PC or Mac. It can also be uploaded to YouTube with just a few clicks. A sample video shot by our sister site Camcorderinfo.com is below.

Interface (8.0)
The video interface of the iPhone 3G S is exactly the same as the camera interface with the exception of the shutter button turning into a recording button. While you are recording a video, the time elapsed is displayed in the top left corner.

The iPhone camera application in video mode

A video being recorded. Note how the focus hasn't changed; the video is blurry

Manual Control (0.0)
There are no manual controls for video recording: you can't set the shutter speed, etc.

Zoom (0.0)
There is no zoom on the video, either of an optical or digital type.

Editing (3.0)
You can do very basic editing of videos that you have captured; they can be trimmed down to remove bits you don't want, but they can't be joined together, or have the audio removed to have titles added. This is better than nothing, but it's not very sophisticated. Once the videos have been edited, they can be uploaded to YouTube with a couple of clicks.

Our sister site Camcorderinfo has produced a few YouTube videos that show some of the pros and cons of the video features of the iPhone; those are shown below.

Modes (2.0)
There is only one video mode; the basic one that captures video at 640 by 480 pixels. No additional options are provided for capturing lower resolution video or altering the frame rate.

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