Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
It’s 2018 and it blows my mind that we still have to choose between using a smartphone camera and a real camera.
Why hasn’t a single camera manufacturer added mobile data and standard smartphone apps to a real camera?
Why hasn’t a single smartphone manufacturer made a smartphone with a real camera attached to it?
How hard can this possibly be?
In this article, I will outline what I want in a smartphone/camera hybrid and why I think it would be an instant success.
Since I discovered photography, I have always had a camera nearby. Even if “the best camera is the one that’s with you”, I often have to think about what camera to carry. I don’t always need a professional body and lens to capture life around me. Ideally, the camera for everyday carry is small, lightweight, yet capable of shooting photos with great image quality.
I don’t claim to be the best iPhoneographer, nor do I want to anger the Android crowd, I’m sure the shooting experience would be similar to the latest flagship Android phone. I just never got to own one, sorry. This is my journey from the first iPhone to the latest iPhone X.
The Huawei P20 Pro, the world’s first smartphone with three rear cameras, has been torn apart by the folks at iFixit to reveal a nice surprise. Above and beyond the published specs, it seems that all three of the phone’s rear cameras feature optical image stabilisation. According to iFixit’s report, only the 8MP telephoto camera in the P20 Pro is supposed to have hardware optical image stabilisation. But they’re not quite convinced.
It seems that with every new smartphone release, DxO has to offer up a new standard. It’s not surprising, though, really. Mobile phone camera technology is advancing at a pretty ridiculous pace. So, it makes sense that with each new flagship phone release, things get better and better.
But it’s happening with alarming frequency. Less than 6 months ago, the iPhone 8 Plus achieved the highest DxOMark score ever of 94. Less than two weeks later, the Google Pixel 2 hammered it by 4 points bringing the top score to 98. And now, the Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus has just pipped it to the post with a 99. DxO’s current highest mobile score ever. Until the next new phone announcement.
The phone camera has become a ubiquitous part of daily life. There’s no getting away from them anymore, even if we wanted to. Wherever we go or whatever we do, we always have them with us, and we often get the urge to grab a quick photo with them, even if we own bigger and more advanced cameras. And so you want to get the most out of your phone when you have to use it.
The ShiftCam 2.0 wants to help you do exactly that. Based around a custom iPhone case, it houses six built-in lenses that you slide to get the one over your rear camera lens that you want. There’s also a wide-angle adapter for your front camera, and then five interchangeable “Pro” lenses. The ShiftCam 2.0 is currently on Kickstarter and has already more than doubled its target in less than 24 hours.
While DxOMark isn’t infallible, it does offer some great insight into overall trends as technology evolves. DxOMark have just posted a great report on how far phone camera technology has come in the last six years since DxOMark started testing them. It’s not surprising that their numbers seem to marry up with real world experience, but it’s interesting to see just how quickly it’s all happened.
Google have now announced the availability of the final Developer Preview of Android 8.1. While the finalised version won’t roll out until December, the new preview features “near-final” system images. The new preview actives the Pixel Visual Core chipset in both the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2XL.
Essentially, this is an 8 core system on chip (SOC) which can run three trillion operations per second. Android Central reports that Google’s HDR+ routines will be five times faster using less than a tenth of the energy over using the standard image processor. This means better dynamic range and reduced noise through computational imaging.
It feels like only last year we were faced with a technological breakthrough. Dual cameras in our phones. Two cameras working together as one to improve image quality, and increase ISO performance. To let us realistically fake the shallow depth of field previously only possible with large sensors. Oh, wait a minute. That was last year.
Dual camera smartphones have pretty much become a requirement now for anybody taking their mobile photography seriously. Already, though, Samsung want to make the whole concept obsolete. They’ve now announced some new mobile image sensors based on dual pixel technology. Similar to that found in cameras such as the Canon 5D Mark IV. Only way smaller.
This has to be the weirdest yet coolest looking camera mount I’ve ever seen. It’s like a JOBY GorillaPod, but with suction cups. Despite obvious inspiration from a certain aquatic animal, the Tenikle has only 3 legs, not 8. Each of these legs is not only bendy, but also has several suction cups.
Combining bendy legs with suction cups certainly opens up more camera positioning options, with less gear. The Tenikle is currently on Kickstarter with just over a couple of days left, and it’s absolutely smashed its $15K goal.
The Godox A1 has been much talked about since it was announced not too long ago. A flash trigger that could fire speedlights and real strobes… on your phone? They even did a fancy iPhone studio shoot to show off its capabilities. Then it went on pre-order. Many people thought “What’s the point? Why spend so much money on lights to use your phone?”.
They’re right, of course, but for me the big draw is behind the scenes photos. If my lights are already set up at a shoot, it takes no time at all to whip out my phone and grab a shot for Instagram. Some hate the idea of the A1, some love it. But how well does it really perform? This review from photographer Rob Hall goes pretty in depth into the Godox A1 feature set as well as some of its drawbacks.
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