I have now owned my new iPhone 4 for a few weeks, and it still today, impresses me, but what I wish to focus on in this particular part in my ongoing series are the photo, and video capabilities, but first would like to remind you all as to why I am publishing iPhone content on my Nokia blog following the many questions I have received asking me this.

The answer is simple. I’m a long time Nokia user, and enthusiast, and have always owned Nokia devices, but with Nokia’s current high end device shortages, or lack of competing devices in the high end,  I thought it high time I started learning about other brands, and OS’s, which in turn I’m very keen on learning from Nokia’s competition, and adding the experiences to my portfolio.

Not just these reasons though, I know for a fact many people are very interested in hearing what I have to say on my transition, not just by the many questions, and comments I receive each and every day on twitter, or email, but also looking at my blogs stats, as  since posting my iPhone series, I have seen a significant increase in my sites traffic. Obviously makes interesting reading for many for sure.

Now back to this posts purpose, iPhone 4 Photo, and Video experiences, and later iOS 4.2

I have already covered my experiences with FaceTime Video calling, which can be found in Part 2 here.

Having been out and about in the real world putting the iPhone 4 camera to the test in a range of environments, although very easy to use, with smooth UI, and Transitions, my initial impressions were quite good, with fast start up times, launching, point and shoot times, however this somewhat changed once I have got back home, and transferred my photos to my MacBook Pro.

Here are two examples below, can you tell which was taken with the iphone 4, and which one was taken by the N97? (Yes, we have our Christmas tree up already, mainly for our daughter, but you probably know all us parents say that lol).

Yes, the camera on the iPhone 4 is pretty good don’t get me wrong, but its when you start inspecting the ‘quality’ of any taken photos, its then you realize that the iPhone 4 cannot rival Nokia’s Optics I have come to know and love over the years, in any device, from N95, N82, and N97, all of which also have a 5MP Camera, MP for MP.

I took many photos with the iPhone 4, but each and every one simply could not match Nokia’s 5MP Quality Optics.  Did this come as a surprise to me?  No, not at all, I have always known Nokia’s Carl Zeiss Optics were unrivaled, and still remain so today.

So would it be fair to compare the iPhone 4, 5 MP Camera to the Nokia C7 8MP Full Focus Camera? Maybe, maybe not, even though there is a difference in pixel count, in my experience the quality produced from both cameras are pretty close when compared side by side, with identical settings set, and is quite an interesting point to be honest. The samples from each below are not the best example of this, as the iPhone 4 zoom reaches further, thus washing out the shot when compared to the C7, which zoom is not as far into the depth of field. Also the weather played a major part in the photos below.

You can check all my photos, all of which were pretty much taken in the same areas, in a range of outdoor conditions, here for C7 shots, and here for iPhone 4 shots.

iPhone 4 full zoom

Nokia C7 full zoom

The one thing I really do like however with the iPhone 4 camera is the ability of touch and focus on a specific item within the depth of field of the viewfinder. For example, placing a few different items on a desk, each placed a different distances from the iPhone 4, you can touch each item in turn on the screen to focus the camera on said object.  This also extends to video recording, which is a great feature of simplifying focusing via touch.

Another aspect that the iPhone does well with your photos is presenting them to you in a very smooth gallery viewer, which I have not experienced any lag, or delays when launching, and browsing through my taken photos, and video.  This also allows you to pinch and zoom your photos, (not videos) which actually look better quality on the iPhones Retina screen that on a PC.

My experiences with HDR within the camera application being switched on were a bit hit and miss, by that I mean, I couldn’t really find an example photo which benefited from HDR. To me, HDR simply adjusts the white levels in the photos, but from the various photos I took in snow covered conditions, proved somewhat a gimmick, and nothing special. Maybe I’m missing something here, so if you know, please let me know in the comments below, thanks!

Now to underline the iPhone 4′s video capabilities, my experiences were much better than my iPhone 4 photo experience, although you cannot zoom whist video recording, (not that I have found anyway) and there is no red led for low light videoing, thus the iPhone 4 video recording is still nowhere near as good as an Nokia device with Carl Zeiss Optics, but still impressive though, given these restrictions, limitations, and considering the actual size of the optics used in the iPhone 4. It can easily record Macro video though which impressed me, check out my very simple video demos below.

Both videos above were uploaded direct from the iPhone 4 to Youtube, and took less than a minute each.

Walled Garden

Apple’s iOS, as many of you already know, is quite restricted, and this is much more apparent within the iPhone 4 camera software. For example, there is no way any third party developer, such as Pixelpipe, can add a one touch upload option due to the iOS restrictions, this is quite lame in my experience, and something Apple should think twice about in improving iPhone owners photography experiences on their devices.

There is of course the Jailbreak route, but this is not an avenue I wish to venture just yet.

The only current share/options you do have after you have taken a photo are, to send photo via email, which I must add is very easy to use, and very quick, and offers you various sizes of a photo to email. Assign to Contact, Use as Wallpaper, or Print to a wireless printer.  Now while these options are indeed welcomed, its the sharing to ones online space that is missing.

To actually upload, and share a photo with friends, and family to the web, to the likes of Facebook, flickr, and twitter you need to launch a third party app such as Pixelpipe, then choose which photos you wish to upload, and your away.

I have found Pixelpipe’s iPhone app to be one of the best for simply uploading to my various online sites, as when launched it loads up your camera roll, and you choose your photos straight from there, and hit upload. There are more comprehensive options available, at a price, and I will cover these in part 4 of my series, which will cover my experiences with purchasing applications, and games from the iTunes App Store.

On a more positive note regarding the iPhone 4′s photography aspects are that after recording a video, you can simply upload to Youtube, and in my experience with this, found it very quick, and simply a joy to use, no mess, no fuss, it just works, simple. You are presented with several setting options for your video upload, including tags, privacy settings, title, description, and of course, quality of video (depending on what settings you recorded with).

I must confess though, having said and done all of the above, I’m still finding myself choosing the iPhone 4 for my simple point and shoot photos, and videos, and this is mainly down to the simple, yet attractive interfaces, speed of opening/launching, and closing the camera application.

iOS 4.2

Yes, as many of you iPhone owners out know, the iPhone got an firmware update from iOS4.1 to iOS4.2.  This was my very first experience in updating an iPhones firmware, and found it very similar to the Nokia Software Updater route I have come to know so well, however, Nokia’s OTA (Over The Air) firmware updates are a different experience altogether, much safer, and quicker too from past experience.

White iPhone 4

For anyone who has been following my plans on converting my iPhone 4 to the white model, the model that Apple never released, my plans are still the same, I will be carrying out the conversion, however due to some reports on white replacement parts being ill fitting, I have chosen to buy a used iPhone 4 middle frame (Antenna bezel) to experiment on first to see if my white replacement glass mates up to it perfectly, it should do being OEM, but I would rather do this first that strip down my black iPhone 4, only to find the parts don’t fit flush.

There are also rumors about the web, that Foxconns backdoor outlet of white iPhone 4 parts was shuttered last week too, which will now result in anyone wishing to get white replacement parts even more harder to get their hands on. Yes, there are many fake white parts available, but its these parts which are not OEM, and are ill fitting.

Now before you post and say no, there are no OEM White iPhone 4 parts, I beg to differ.  Legal, yes. Its no surprise that there is/was a grey market for the white iphone 4 parts, and the latest complete white iPhone 4′s too, but just like many other grey markets for a wide range of devices, appliances, and even vehicles, these things will always be about, just like counterfeiting.

Having been researching the ass off the various worldwide distributing of these parts, comparing high res photos from many of the online sources, checking peoples experiences with various companies offering the conversion services, and companies selling the white parts, I have learned quite a lot of the past few months, and yes, that includes be raiding about the teenager who made $130k selling white parts. I had even communicated with this guy when he first set up his website whiteiphone4now.com

Next week, Part 4, iTunes App Purchases experiences

Anyhow, thanks for taking the time to read this post, my next post in this series, part 4, will be covering my experiences with iPhone iOS Applications, both free, and paid for, from iTunes App Store, comparing it to Nokia’s Ovi Store.

It should make interesting reading, as Nokia offer Service Operator Billing, whereas Apple’s iTunes requires a creditcard registered to your iTunes account, a ClickandBuy account, or if you cannot set these up, require you to buy iTune Gift Cards from the likes of eBay, which you can Redeem in your iTunes, which in turn credits your account to allow purchases.

Be sure to checkout Part 4 very soon.!

Related posts:

1. My iPhone 4 Experiences & Thoughts Series Part 2 – iTunes & FaceTime
2. My iPhone 4 Experiences & Thoughts Series Part 1
3. The iPhone 4 Buzz – A Nokia Enthusiast Experience Shared Part 1
4. Apple Store Down – White iPhone 4 Incoming? We Wish – Windows Live Writer Beta Preview? Look In

Tags: EDITORIAL, iPhone, Platform / OS

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 30th, 2010 at 13:09 and is filed under Apple, EDITORIAL, NOKIA, not at nokia, Platform / OS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.