leica

The iPhone camera and video always felt like a checkbox feature.  A feature Apple half-heartedly shipped so no competitor could say hey “but they don’t have a camera.”

Those days are over.  With the iPhone 4 and iOS 4.1 Apple decided its time to double-down.

The improved iPhone 4 camera and video permeates every aspect of the device’s design.  The industrial design borrows heavily from the famous Leica camera while up the stack the iMovie video-editing app is the first multimedia content creation tool that actually works.  In between are a new front-facing camera, more megapixel, LED flash, and more. See the full details below.

Why Buy a Flip or Poot n’Shoot Camera

If you intend to buy a smartphone in the next twelve months there is no sensible reason to buy a Flip (my four month old Flip found a place in the gadget cemetery) or point-and-shoot camera.  In fact, Apple is set to disrupt both of these markets – point and shoot camera and hand-held videos.

50 Million Photographer and Videographer Prosumers Equipped 90% of the Day

As the camera gets even better what market will they disrupt next – SLR?  I don’t know but I do know that this is an accelerating trend.  Over the next nine to twelve months fifty million plus people will be walking around with semi-professional quality camera and video equipment for most of the day.  If you add some of the Android devices this number will look more like 75M devices.  On this foundation new businesses will be formed that only a year ago were simply not possible.

Timeline of the iPhone Camera Improvements:

iPhone 1 (June 2007)

• 2 megapixels
• No flash or auto-focus
• No video

iPhone 3G (June 2008)

• No improvements.

iPhone 3G S (June 2009)

• 3 megapixels
• Added basic video

iPhone 4 (June 2010)

iOS 4.1 (Sept 2010)

• HDR (High Dynamic Range) Photos – example below.  See the AppleInsider review.