By Jon Cohen
I woke up on this the second morning of owning the new iPhone 4 to the built in alarm. I was shocked by how loud this tiny little speakers sounded, I estimate it is at least 25% louder then the previous iPhone 3GS. As the day progressed I had a chance to make a FaceTime phone call using the iPhone 4′s front facing camera. Apple requires you to make the call using WiFi so it was a bit of a pain in the rear to have to find a WiFi hotspot but I did. I assume Apple will soon allow FaceTime over the 3G network. With that being said the experience of FaceTime was one I will not soon forget. FaceTime was easy to use, fun, and the quality on my end was remarkable and totally useable on a daily basis. I only hope that more devices use Apple’s open standard of FaceTime in the near future. Right away, I assume the next iPod Touch will have the FaceTime build in with the same front facing camera as the iPhone 4. (Should be released in early September 2010)
One of the reasons I decided to get an iPhone 4 was the improved rear Digital Camera, now featuring a 5MP sensor and a built in LED flash I knew it would allow me to share better quality pictures with all of my friends and family. As well allow me to capture images that I would be able to be printed if needed I was very impressed. As for the front camera it does not impress me in the same fashion as the rear camera does but I must say it gives pleasing images that are very similar to the iPhone 3GS. An interesting feature that the iPhone cameras have is built in Geo-Tagging (it uses the iPhone’s GPS to keep track of where the photo was taken)
Below you will find sample images from the rear camera as well as the front camera. It should also be noted the LED flash can be used as a flashlight ( and There’s an App for that). Final thoughts on the camera, great with good light (day or indoor), very nice when ambient light is present and when that LED Flash kicks in. Poor images with no light, very grainy even with flash. Therefore, like most cameras use it in the correct settings and you won’t be left disappointed.
During Day 3 testing I plan on trying out the HD video, discussing the battery life, and left you know about the first software bug I have found.
Read Day 1
Read Day 3
In my house:
Image from rear camera on iPhone 4 without LED flash
Image from rear camera on iPhone 4 with LED Flash
Image from Camera on Front of iPhone 4
At the pub:
Image with good light source no LED flash needed
Outside:
Panorama with the iPhone 4
Using the Zoom:
Zoomed in with digital zoom (more then 200 ft. away)
By Jon Cohen
So as you may have noticed it is SUMMER! This means from most a chance to get out of the house head to the beach or go on vaycay. Before heading to the lake or on to the airplane lets make sure you have the right gear to capture those amazing moments that you will want to live in motion beyond your memories. Today we will look at a few options for small and compact camera’s that can be used to catch all the events happening over the summer.
I will be looking at the simple “shoot and share” camcorders, these are very popular. First thing to remember is that small and portable does not mean crappy picture. With all the advances in technology over the last 5 years we have seen the most to smaller devices that can give you just as good quality as your 3 year old camcorder. Where most of these newer video recording devices fall short is when it comes to night usage. Yes some do have LCD mini lights that come built-in, but for the most part they don’t really do the job. So with that being said you will need to make sure you are in a well lit area to do pleasing night videos. Other then that these small camera’s are great. Most offer 720p HD video output. But don’t be fooled by the HD logo, they still give you the same picture you seen on your television during HD programming. In fact the philosophy that bad video capturing will bring you bad video output, this is nothing new, but now that bad video is in HD. So please remember to hold steady, don’t move the camera to fast from left to right and please, please, please remember that video only looks good one and that is horizontal so keep the camera the right direction.
Now that we got the basics out of the way lets look at brands to try out. Kodak, Flip Video, Coby and Sony each of these use the basic built-in flash memory for quick capture and each offer a quick transfer solution to bring the video to an editor or directly to the web (though the computer). After testing a few, I found that all give nice video during the day, and the Sony was the one that gave the nicest and most accurate colors during testing. By far the Flip Video was able to offer the cream of the crop with the SlideHD a touch screen based video camera, it should be noted it is also the most costly and newest to the market. While the Kodak and Coby where great value choices. None of the tested units gave great results in night or indoor use, but as stated before if you are in a well lit location you can get very pleasing video.
Regardless of which product you choose you will be able to easily share these memories online or with friends and family by hooking the camera up to the television. Now stop surfing the web and get out their and enjoy the summer.
By Jon M. Cohen
As you might be aware of already, the new iPhone is set to launch on June 19th. 2009. With the release of this new hardware device we see a lot of new added features. But what about the little iPod Touch? Yes it does get the great 3.0 software upgrade that allows for many improvements, but does it really matter on the same outdated hardware? The answer is maybe. The real interesting thing to note is that Apple has posted on its website that the new 3.0 software upgrade for the iPod Touch with allow for stereo bluetooth connectivity a feature that has been long asked for by iPhone users. You may say big deal, the iPhone and the iPod Touch now with OS 3.0 have many great new features, but the real big deal is that the current iPod Touch does not have any bluetooth built in and thus a claim of bluetooth connectivity can only suggest that new hardware will be coming out soon.
With this expected hardware upgrade it would be wise of Apple to also include a camera. Only time will tell and if my guess is correct we will not need to wait very long to see this new iPod Touch.
What a nice looking Camera, and it is lightweight, compact and flashy. Sony really loaded this camera up with all the bells and whistles, from the five color options (Green, Pink, White, Black, Blue) that it comes in to its touch screen. The camera features super image stabilizer and smile detection, plus a huge built in 4GB memory. It does in fact have an 8.1MP (Mega Pixel) output, and allows for hookup to any HDTV that has HDMI (newer TV) support. The camera also has a movie mode that will allow 640 x 480 resolution, with 30 FPS (Frames per second). This by far is a great release from the folks at Sony, and will surely be purchased by Sony’s loyal customer base. However, for those of us who care more about the pictures taken then the look of a camera, this camera is not for you. Don’t get me wrong, Sony will sell this overpriced camera to all customers and tout it to be top end. What I found was that for the top dollar (MSRP: $350.00) that Sony is charging, you only get average output. The picture quality and zoom were poor, and the touch screen was very difficult to use and navigate. Sony’s clever marketing states that this is a “FullHD” camera, then in small print lists images only, thus meaning the movie mode can’t do HD at all. Last time I checked no one hooks their camera up to their HDTV to show pictures, most people go and upload it on their computer. Some other points of interest are the following; the DSC-T2 uses a special connector to get the pictures off the camera and this connector is very easy to lose or break. Not quite sure why Sony didn’t just offer a standard USB 2.0 connection option. The lens which is a Zeiss lens provides a poor color representation and the camera produces a lot of lens flares when using the red-eye reduction mode. My final thoughts are that this is a good-looking camera that provides a poor quality picture – don’t be fooled by its high price and the name “Sony”. I would suggest looking into a Canon SD1100 for your next digital camera purchase.
