Pixels—The Art of the iPhone

Marty Yawnick, one of my favorite iphontographers, has written an excellent piece on the new iphone camera: http://lifeinlofi.com/2010/04/21/leaked-iphone-musings/

I rarely like to report on rumors and speculation, but this genie is already out of the bottle.

It looks like those leaked photos and details over at Gizmodo of an upcoming iPhone (the iPhone HD perhaps?) are probably genuine. When Apple goes after leaked info or devices, it’s usually a good indication that the item in question is the real deal and yesterday, they asked Gizmodo for their property to be returned.

If it’s real — and I think it is genuine — it’s a beautiful device. It’s almost enough to draw me away from T-Mobile and their relatively inexpensive all-you-can-eat plans and drink the much pricier AT&T Kool-Aid.

Click here to read the rest of the story

But is it true to the iPhone aesthetic?

A great article at cultofmac.com on the lens kluge.

Through a glass viewed darkly, if not even muculently: the iPhone camera stinks.

To be fair, that’s not entirely Apple’s fault. While there are certainly better camera sensors out there than the one Apple chose to install as the retina in their little iBall, there’s a clear correlation between sensor size and image quality when it comes to digital cameras, and you can only make a cell phone’s sensor so big.

Nothing to be done about the sensor then. But like a fly hovering over hamburger, gadget tinkerer Bhautik Joshi had a seemingly stupid question buzzing around in his brain meats: can you improve the quality of the images the iPhone takes by attaching an old Canon SLR lens?

Read the rest.

For the record, iPhontography hopes that Apple never improves the iPhone camera.