There’s a common question asked, “Which camera is best for…” Add your own circumstances! Yesterday I was faced with a stark choice. I was at a country churchyard around dusk, and there was a magnificent sky behind the silhouetted church building and trees. I wanted that image! So here it is:-
So, what’s the answer to the conundrum? Which camera is best for a shot like this? The answer is…
Whatever camera you have with you!
In this case, just an iPhone 12!
If you’ve been moving files from your iPhone to your PC recently, you’ll have noticed that Apple are no longer saving or storing files as ‘jpeg’ on the iPhone. Instead the file extension reads ‘HEIC.’ It stands for ‘HIGH EFFICIENCY IMAGE CODING.’ and it came with the latest iPhone update. It’s not new, and iPhone didnt even invent it, but incorporating it into the new iPhone image software is seen by Apple as the way forward for the future, after all jpegs have been around the internet for about 25 years.
So, why have I posted it? Because of how it was captured. The camera is switched on, untouched. On my iphone the Fujifilm app has connected by WiFi to the camera and is showing me the image being recorded on the sensor. I can adjust the camera settings, shutter, aperture, ISO etc etc.
Also, because the camera is mirrorless it can capture images silently. No noisy mirror to move out of the way. With the focus beep switched off, and the camera set to ‘Electronic shutter’ instead of the mechanical shutter, there is no sound as it does its work. (Ideal for church interiors incidentally).
So, to a casual onlooker, the photographer is simply sitting playing with his phone.
A visit to Newcastle on a wild, wet, windy Tuesday, and an opportunity to capture some images with the iPhone. I was fascinated with the tumult of the sea at the mouth of the Shimna River, so I opened the ‘Hueless App’ and quick iPhone snap or two later…
Go on, use your iPhone camera, and record life as it happens.
With the increase in iPhone photography (and of course there are other similar brands of smartphone) and with photographers starting to take iPhone photography seriously as an image medium, new apps to help the photographer improve there images are appearing all the time.
One of the real bug-bears with the iPhone camera is its lack of depth of field capability. The small size of the lense and its proximity to the sensor makes optical depth of field impossible, (at least just now, who knows what lies ahead). So it was only a matter of time before an app appeared to produce a depth of field effect using digital manipulation in post-capture processing. The app is AfterFocus, and it’s available now in the App Store for 79p. Continue reading Depth of Field on an iPhone?
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