The volume of pictures I’ve taken on my 3G  shows that Apple definitely crossed the usefulness threshold (for users like me at least) with their first stab at putting a camera in a phone. The image quality is lacking, though, and there’s no real manual control and it performs horribly in low light. Apple did a heck of a lot to correct those issues with the 3GS, and even caught the attention of photographers with the improved sensor, an increase in resolution, low light performance and tap-to-focus. (side note: If you haven’t heard about Chase Jarvis’s new book “The Best Camera Is The One That’s With You” check it out…awesome iPhone photography)

And with this release, Apple’s shown that they’re still listening and has put even more useful features into the camera:

• Video recording in HD (720p) up to 30 frames per second with audio and in-camera video editing with iMovie – I’m skeptical about what using this will be like, but how can you say this isn’t cool?
• 5-megapixel still camera – instead of uselessly increasing megapixels they’ve focused on putting in a kick-ass low light sensor, which will make much more difference to image quality.
• The new front-facing camera - finally I can take a picture of Jules and I when we’re out and about that I don’t have to re-take 3 times because all I got was the sky or “just” my stomach.
• Tap to focus video or still images – awesome for isolating your subject and blurring the background – this is the feature that made photographers go banana sandwich when the 3G came out.
• LED flash - huge – this sucker even stays on to light your subjects when you’re shooting video.
  
• Photo and video geotagging -neat if you care about this sort of thing, which I do because iPhoto’s sorting by place is awesome.

The New Camera + App

OK, so I’ve told you all that so that I can now tell you about this. Now that the iPhone camera is 17 new kinds of awesome, you’re going to start looking for apps, right? Only natural. Along with the “Best Camera” app, I’d recommend this one – Camera+. What’s different about this app is that it gives you lots of control and a much closer experience to an actual DSLR that the pros use. Plus the lightbox, zoom and custom filters are sweet and you can do some really cool “post-production” type of work directly on your phone. For $2.99, it makes the whole experience of using the camera way more than $2.99 cooler…check the video, you’ll see what I mean. If you end up buying it and loving it, you can thank Lisa and TapTapTap for their hard work. 

This post was written by Steffan Antonas. Find more at blog.steffanantonas.com

New in the iPhone App Store: Camera+

The barriers to entry that I’m talking about aren’t just a little bit lower, they’re A LOT lower. The technology that companies like Canon and Nikon are making available to the masses is, in many cases, tens of thousands of dollars cheaper than what professional videographers have used historically to get the same result. What’s interesting is that the latest DSLRs weren’t even made to shoot films, but spend a few days surfing around Vimeo and you’ll realize quickly that there are hundreds of classically-trained photographers that are doing just that – and they’re excited about it. A few extra buttons and menus added to the tools they’ve been using for years suddenly expands their skill sets by orders of magnitude that are making them re-think their entire approach to doing what they do (and to what services they can offer clients).

What’s great to see is the level of enthusiasm, grass-roots innovation and information sharing online around what’s happening with DSLR video. The best example I can think of is Canon, which itself has done a tremendous job leveraging Vimeo to bring its customers together to collaborate – not only do they run their own Vimeo group contests like “Beyond The Still” to encourage fans to embrace DSLR videography and collaborate, but there are user-created groups resembling some of the most popular Flickr groups around each of their HD-ready cameras (7D, 5DMKII, Rebel T2i etc) with thousands of subscribers where people are sharing their footage, as well as teaching and helping one another.

Anyway, I think I’ve made my point. I think it all comes down to the fact that video just gives audiences so much more of what they’re looking for when it’s done right, and it’s the medium that people are going to start looking for by default. YouTube has trained the next generation and set the expectation – if you can find what you’re looking for in text – you can probably find the same thing on video too if you know where to look. And THAT  is the basis for the shift in behavior that we’re seeing on the web towards video. When people expect to find content in the form they want it it (i.e. video over text), they’ll look for it in that form. So why not give them what they want? You can afford to now. :)

Below are 3 great video shorts recorded on DSLRs to complement the one at the top of the page, which was shot on an intermediate-level DSLR by Philip Bloom on a Canon Rebel T2i which you can get on Amazon for well under $1000.  I hope you enjoy these as much as I did…

Shot on a Canon 5D Mark II and edited by Jason Arthurs on Vimeo.

A Canon 7D Short: Thursday Night from gnarly bay productions, Inc. on Vimeo.

Shot on a Canon 7D

Canon 7D – Short Wedding Film from Ray Roman on Vimeo.

Shot on a Canon 7D

This post was written by Steffan Antonas. Find more at blog.steffanantonas.com

The Rise of DSLR Filmmakers & The Next Wave Of Web Content

By contrast, when they watch you on video, there’s no where for you to hide and your strengths as well as your flaws get amplified and become a focal point of the audience’s experience. People are picking up all kinds of non-verbal cues that they’re using to decide whether they like you and what you’ve got to say. There are people out there who are so comfortable and enthusiastic when they’ve got a camera in their face that they were born to do it. Others…not so much.  Whether you were born to be on camera or stick to writing is not necessarily a reflection on your character or intelligence either – you’ve just got to know your DNA.  Stephen Hawking wasn’t born to be a TV rockstar. Enough said.

The good news is that if you’re thinking about trying out video blogging, you can dip your toe in without committing too heavily on equipment and time, and use TubeMogul to measure and test how people are reacting to you and your video content in real time. If you’re a video amateur the instant feedback you can get from seeing how long people watch your content, where they’re watching it and when they drop out minute-by minute (called drop out rate), can give you a pretty good indication of how you’re being received, and whether people like what you’re doing or not. You can use that data to tweak your message and style and see how your audience responds. Pretty neat stuff. This way you can borrow a camera from a friend (or rent one) and see if this is something you want to invest in long term. Here’s the demo video from TubeMogul on how their drop-out analytics work:

This post was written by Steffan Antonas. Find more at blog.steffanantonas.com

How To Test How Your Audience Is Responding To Your Online Videos In Real Time

What’s happening in the background in this demo, on the simplest level, is that the prototype connects the phone’s camera to an optical character recognition (OCR) engine, recognizes the image as text and then translates that text using Google Translate. Even in small chunks, you can see what a difference having a tool like this could make in a pinch, especially if you’re traveling in a foreign country.

According to Google, right now this technology only works for German-to-English translations and it’s not yet ready for release into the wild. I’m sure you’ll agree, though, that this demo shows a lot of promise for what the future might hold. It’s exciting to know that soon your phone might be able to translate signs, posters and other foreign text instantly into your language.

This post was written by Steffan Antonas. Find more at blog.steffanantonas.com

Video Demo: Prototype of Translation in Google Goggles

This post was written by Steffan Antonas. Find more at blog.steffanantonas.com

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