Filed under: Accessories, Hardware, Peripherals, Odds and ends, iPhone
iPhone photo news: tripods and water drop lenses
The iPhone has made photography fun for me again. I frankly hated the cameras I had in some of my other, older phones, and I don't like carrying around my big Canon digicam all the time, so having a fairly capable camera in my pocket has opened up my photo-taking horizons again. When I got the 3GS this summer, one of my first tests was to take some macro pictures using the camera. Sure, the 3GS is better at macro photos than the original or 3G models, but it still isn't a "real" macro camera. What if I wanted to take close up pictures of a tiny insect or a detail of a flower stamen?
The Apple Press has a great little tutorial today on how to take better macro photos with the iPhone using alternative lenses. I'll leave reading the post as an exercise for our readers, but let it suffice to say that you can do a lot of really cool macro shots with an iPhone by putting a small drop of water onto the lens. The Apple Press also provides a link to Amazon for an inexpensive magnifier that can fit in your wallet, perfect for those who are a bit queasy about putting even a drop of agua on their iPhones.
Meanwhile, the geniuses at Mobile Mechatronics are now selling an inexpensive product designed to help you take better photos with your iPhone. The Blur Tripod ($US14.99) consists of an iPhone tripod adapter, a mini tripod, and an upcoming companion app called Blur Software that provides an adjustable delay to your iPhotography so that all vibrations in the iPhone / tripod combo are damped out before the photo is snapped. The app is going through the labyrinthine approval process right now, and will hopefully be approved by Apple in the near future.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Tarnation said 12:40PM on 9-16-2009
A tiny screen on the back so you can take photos of yourself.
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ack154 said 12:42PM on 9-16-2009
My 3GS takes AWFUL pictures. If it is not a fully bright and sunny day, the picture is often just terrible. Like my old 1.3 MP Fuji camera from back in 2000 took better shots.
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boriscleto said 12:46PM on 9-16-2009
A camera in the iPod Touch.
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noza said 1:01PM on 9-16-2009
Does the water-drop trick requires a 3GS? The lens on my 3G is flush with the back and I can't get a water drop to stay put; it just rolls right off.
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Konstantin G. said 1:06PM on 9-16-2009
Here my Tripod for under 1$ :-)
http://www.kostik.de/home/2009/8/8/my-iphone-3gs-tripod-setup.html
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Bazzama said 1:15PM on 9-16-2009
Add an LED light (top of my list).
Some Blackberry's has an LED flash/strobe that is extremely bright for what it is, and take very nice photos in darker environments.
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YodaMac said 1:23PM on 9-16-2009
My desires are more on the Video end of the camera, as in "Where are the Video apps???"
Video editing apps? (stitching together clips)
iChat apps? (3GS as your webcam when connected via USB cable)
Streaming apps? (stream live video from your 3GS to a website over WiFi/3G/Edge)
p.s. I like that tripod (well, the iPhone adaptor part is really all you need...)
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Yannis said 1:34PM on 9-16-2009
A xenon flash like those in sony-Ericsson's k series would be just perfect
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grangerfx said 1:38PM on 9-16-2009
The water drop is a terrible suggestion. Water and iPhones do not mix! When I was trying to buy a used 3G from eBay I was shocked at the number of water damaged iPhones. Some of them were simply splashed with water. It appears that Apple has not designed any kind of water resistance into their phones. There is even a water dot which changes color when exposed to moisture. Even having the phone in a humid environment is enough to change the color of the water dot. When that dot changes color your phone's warranty becomes void. The camera is poking out of a small hole in the back of the case. It is a tight fit but if you do the water drop lens trick a few times, it will seep into the electronics and then it is all over. The contacts on modern ships are so small that even a tiny amount of water can short them out. Here is a list of iPhones for sale on eBay with water damage:
http://tinyurl.com/qszbws
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Anton said 2:26PM on 9-16-2009
wizard's chess! were you at the ren fest in mn?
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btblomberg said 4:29PM on 9-16-2009
They need a case/battery pack case with a flash and slide over macro lens built into it as well as a tripod mount. Take care of a lot of things at once.
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jason said 9:22AM on 9-17-2009
I absolutely love my 3GS photos. They're a bit rough around the edges - like a Polaroid or Lomography camera - but that's what gives the photos personality.
Here are some photos I've taken with my 3GS: http://blog.iloveflycasual.com/index.php/2009/07/more-iphone-photography/ & http://blog.iloveflycasual.com/index.php/2009/03/iphone-the-new-polaroid/
p.s. The mini-tripod would also make a great stand for watching movies!
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CaptCaveman said 9:54AM on 9-17-2009
Nice pictures. I going to guess that the 4th picture up from the bottom from the first link was taken from the "L" near the Bryn Mawr train station?
Anyway, I somehow felt that the pictures were from Chicago even before I saw the picture of the Hancock.
...how I miss living near Chicago, but I will never miss living in Chicago.
weckman said 10:49AM on 9-17-2009
I had a similar tiny tripod for my N95 which was always in my backpack. However the apparent inability with this one to take pictures in landscape mode is a real bummer! Or am I missing something here...?
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Tommy said 1:11PM on 9-17-2009
I clicked the link to their website on my iPhone and the screen was filled with little flash cubes where the content should have been. You'd think a company that is marketing to iPhones could come up with a website that supports iPhones?!
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CaptCaveman said 7:48PM on 9-17-2009
The tripod looks interesting. But the Night Camera apps has pretty much eliminated all of my blurry pictures. I used the stabilize feature and it won't take the shot until the camera is still.
If I'm in a situation where I don't need to get off a shot as quickly as possible I always page over to the Night Camera app.
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RNewman said 12:21PM on 9-18-2009
If you are getting bad pictures with the iPhone 3GS, you either have a defective camera or not understanding how it works. Even in very low light, using some kind of support (not hand held) it yields very good pictures. If you need extra light, you can buy one of the LED movie lights and mount it to an old dock (I use and old one from my iPod) mount the movie light on the old dock plug the iphone into the dock connector for support. I tapped the weight in the bottom of the old dock to take a standard tripod screw, and it gives out enough light to make great pics in low light.
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Anonymous said 8:46PM on 9-20-2009
A nice photography iphone app
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=325439409&mt=8
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Josh M said 12:56PM on 9-22-2009
Not mention of simply using the Griffon Clarifi for Macro shots?
http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/clarifi
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