Monthly Archives: October 2014

Sunglasses

Photographs

Near Union Square.

iPhone 6, 1/250, f/2.2, ISO 32.

This was directly into the sun and I could barely make out the screen while this chap prattled on about the Queen, having picked up on my English accent. A touch on LR’s sliders and a decent image resulted, despite the halos from the lens facing into the sun. Despite the lighting, definition in the shadows is outstanding.

The ergonomics of the iPhone 6 are pretty awful as cameras go. Mine is fitted with a rubber ‘bumper’ (edge surround) which helps a little. A handle of some kind would greatly improve matters. Readiness? I just kept it turned on in one hand as I walked around. So acclimated are people to cell phones that pointing it about caused no reactions. It’s clearly perceived as a non-hostile device, possibly because it’s perceived as such an ‘amateur’ camera. The average subject has no idea just how splendid the resulting images can be and likely pays no attention as a result. Fine with me.

You can snap a picture using the volume button or the touch button on the screen – the latter more comfortable for portrait images. The screen is easier to make out in bright light compared with predecessor iPhones, likely owing to a new surface finish (polarizer?) which is less glossy. Nice. Finally, I switch off the shutter sound by muting the phone, making it as silent as the electronic shutter in Panny’s splendid GX7. Responsiveness is every bit as good as that of Panny’s masterpiece, meaning instantaneous. Very nice indeed.

I have never been particularly good about holding cameras level when called for and enhanced software solutions in recent years have made me even more careless in this regard. Why bother when you can fix the image in processing, rather than wasting time when taking it? If you were to find one technical fault more than any other in my iPhone 6 snaps it’s lack of level framing, but the controls in Lightroom 5 make fixing that a one click process. For street snapping, fixating on composition when making images means images lost.

Newly married

Photographs

Racking out the iPhone 6.

With a view to seeing what the superb camera in the iPhone 6 could do, and to better learn how to use it and conquer its limitations, I took it for a spin in San Francisco yesterday, and will be commenting on pluses and minuses over the next few days. I took some 177 snaps in one hour, which saw the battery use 40% of its power (the iPhone 6 was on all the time) and this was my route:


The number designates images taken; blank means just one.

No comment needed here; I just had to wait for a break in the traffic while praying they would not go away.

Given how my brain ‘sees’ in 35mm FFE (too many years with a 35mm lens on my Leicas!), I found that the field of view of the camera is much more like 28mm, as I was at first always too far from my subjects. I prefer 35mm to 28mm but when the camera is this good I’m not complaining.

iPhone 6, 1/260, f/2.2, ISO 32. Monochrome in LR5.

Removing so many snaps from the iPhone is made easy in iOS8. Go to Photos->Collections, select the date the images were made and Delete All. You really do not want to delete 177 images one by one ….

Woof!

iPhone, Photographs

More experience with the iPhone 6.

iPhone 6 snap.

This is the ideal camera for the street snapper who has no need for a zoom. The focal length approximates that of 35mm on full frame cameras.

While both the iPhone 6 and the larger iPhone 6+ models have image stabilization in movie mode, only the 6+ offers OIS for still pictures. But that’s not quite right. Apple has been awfully clever with the smaller phone’s design. When you take a still image the camera actually records four images, then samples these, combining the sharpest components into the final version. None of this is visible to the photographer and the technology is completely transparent. I have not run any tests to see how well this works, but am constantly pleasantly surprised that the iPhone’s frequent choice of ISO 32 – and hence slower shutter speeds – does not result in camera shake. Yet another example of Apple’s application of continuing improvements from year to year, none huge on its own, but after two or three model iterations you end up with a clearly superior device.

I use Photostream in Settings to sync images with iPhoto on my MacBook Air and have iPhoto set so that editing is automatically done in Lightroom, which is far more powerful than iPhoto; snapped at lunch today, I just added a tad of sharpening in LR (sharpness slider in LR at 70).

You don’t have HC-B’s sense of anticipation and timing? No problem. Just keep your finger on the button and you get a burst of images, allowing you to choose the best – even if it’s of a man jumping a puddle …. In fact, I would bet that the iPhone is what the Master would be using today, were he still with us. Of course, he would have to dial in the black and white effect.


Monochrome conversion done in iOS8 on the iPhone 6.

iOS8 has a tremendous processing capabilities, revealed when you hit ‘Edit’ in Photos. Dump that dumb as a brick Leica M Monochrom.

GPS? Of course. Something the huge brains at Canon and Nikon seem incapable of integrating in their gargantuan DSLR bodies, and found in every iPhone for years now:

GPS data in LR5.

Here’s an exploded view of the camera’s lens. Far from simple:


Non-trivial. The lens in the iPhone 6.

At the grocer’s

iPhone, Photographs

Thanksgiving is coming.

iPhone 6, the first and last at ISO 32, the middle one at ISO 125. I have no idea how the iPhone determines the ISO to use, but who cares with image quality like this? These easily print 13″ x 19″, as the below illustrates, and are straight out of the phone, with no processing.

These beautiful pumpkins and gourd were snapped at the local grocery store. Apple’s thorough design attention makes a nonesense of all the high pixel count sensors in regular cameras. The sensor is but 8mp, but you would never guess that from the outstanding image quaity. Too bad Apple does not make cameras.

Even at ‘nose in print’ distances the original print is tack sharp and, quite frankly, an image from my massive Nikon D3x FF DSLR could not be any better. For that matter, most people are not serious photographers and care not one whit for such technical mumbo jumbo in any case, and this image needs no gear excuses. Tell a ‘photographer’ viewer it’s from an iPhone and the reaction will be one of incredulity. The print was made on the HP DesignJet 90 dye printer on HP Glossy paper, still the best printer/paper combination out there if you care about deep blacks and lustrous colors.