• iOS Devices
• How-to
• iOS 8
• Camera
• exposure

iOS 8 How-to: Manually control the exposure in the Camera app

Sarah Guarino Oct 5 2014 - 9:00 am PT

7 Comments

In iOS 8, the Camera app has a lot of the same functionality as in iOS 7. In iOS 8, you are able to manually control the exposure levels in the photo. This means you can easily adjust how light or dark the photo is.

To do so open up the Camera app. Then you are going to tap on the focus point. The focus point is the subject point of the picture. When tapping to focus, a yellow square appears around the subject. To adjust the exposure level, tap on the yellow sun and slide it up and down. Sliding the sun up will make the picture lighter, and sliding the sun down will make the picture darker.

This same technique will work while using a filter.

• AAPL Company
• iPhone 6
• iPhone 6 Plus
• Camera
• gallery

iPhone 6 camera compared to all previous iPhones (Gallery)

Jordan Kahn Sep 23 2014 - 3:04 pm PT

5 Comments

The makers of camera app Camera+ have put together a great comparison of the new iPhone 6 camera vs almost all previous generation iPhones including the first iPhone, the iPhone 3G, 3GS, 4, 4S, 5, and 5S.

Skin tones look brighter and more true to life with the iPhone 6 in this portrait series. Although the iPhone 6 photo has a higher level of detail, I’m finding it slightly pixelated and blotchy-looking. Apple altered their local tone-mapping algorithm for better exposure and contrast using the new A8 processor, but it looks like it might be causing some issues with the skin tones in these shots. Additionally, their new noise reduction algorithm seems a bit heavy handed causing pixelation.

The full comparison on the company’s site lets you view full-sized shots for a number of different shooting scenarios including daylight, backlit, macro, lowlight, and portrait shots. Here’s an example from the portrait comparison (click below for full size):

Earlier today we published our own review of the iPhone 6 camera’s improved video shooting capabilities, which now includes the ability to shoot 1080p video at 30/60 frames per second and Slo-Mo video in 720p up to 240 frames per second.

• How-to
• iOS 8
• Camera
• time-lapse photography

iOS 8 How-to: Take a time-lapse video

Sarah Guarino Sep 19 2014 - 5:44 pm PT

11 Comments

New in iOS 8 you have the ability to record time-lapse photography right from the Camera app. Time-lapse photography is a type of photography that happens when the frame rate is lower than what is used to view the sequence. When the photo is played at normal speed, time looks to be faster. However, not everything would make a great time-lapse subject. Good time-lapse subjects include cloudscapes, celestial motion, plants growing, cars driving on a busy intersection and of crowds. In this how-to I will discuss how to make a time-lapse photographs.

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• Apps & Updates
• iOS
• iPhone
• Apple News
• Safari
• iOS 8

Safari in iOS 8 uses camera to scan and enter credit card info

Jordan Kahn Jun 5 2014 - 5:47 pm PT

15 Comments

In iOS 8, Apple has a new feature in Safari that allows users to scan a credit card with the device’s camera rather than manually entering the number when making a purchase online.

When entering a credit card number into a form online to, for example, make a purchase, Safari already allowed users to quickly select credit cards stored in its Passwords & AutoFill settings. You can still do that, but in iOS 8 you’ll now also have the option to select “Scan Credit Card” and snap a picture of the card. Apple then uses optical character recognition of sorts to input the number into the text field in Safari. There’s also a way to scan and save cards using the camera directly from within the Passwords & AutoFill settings.

Website developers don’t have to do anything to enable the feature, as Safari appears to automatically detect when a credit card number is being requested and presents the option to scan above the keypad.

Safari received some other updates announced this week at WWDC too, including a redesign in OS X Yosemite on the Mac, and highly requested features on iOS like the ability to request a desktop site and a tab view for iPad.

• Apps
• Facebook
• App Store
• Camera
• software

Facebook Poke and Camera pulled from the App Store

Mike Beasley May 9 2014 - 2:49 pm PT

1 Comment

Even though Facebook seemingly wants to break as many of its functions out into separate apps as possible—see Messenger and Pages Manager, for example—it appears that not every function is worthy its own App Store listing. Earlier today the social network pulled two of its iOS apps from sale: Poke (a Snapchat-like photo messenger) and Camera (which is exactly what it sounds like).

Both apps launched in 2012 and didn’t see many big improvements after that. Camera got a few small updates, though they didn’t seem to be much of a priority for the company. At one point a bug left the app’s internal employee settings exposed to all users for several months before being fixed.

Poke, on the other hand, was virtually ignored by Facebook from the day it went live until it was removed from the store. Most of the Camera app’s features were eventually rolled back into the main Facebook app, but Poke was not so fortunate.

Facebook hasn’t provided any reason for pulling either app, but it’s safe to assume that neither was being used that much anymore. The company now seems more focused on its messaging platform, with the recent acquisition of WhatsApp for $19 billion and the announcement that soon messaging would be removed from the main Facebook client in favor of the free Messenger app.

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• Mac
• iOS Devices
• Bluetooth
• Camera
• Home automation

Dropcam adds $29 motion sensors (and teaches its cam to recognize cats)

Ben Lovejoy May 7 2014 - 4:16 am PT

0 Comments

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPkxt0QpRD8]

Dropcam, whose Wi-Fi video security system impressed us when we previously tried it, is now adding separate motion sensors to its product range. Costing just $29 each, Dropcam Tabs are small, weather-resistant devices that can be attached to doors, windows, and valuables. They use Bluetooth LE to connect to your existing Dropcam Pro camera which then sends push alerts when motion is detected, turning it into a much more comprehensive security system.

Dropcam says battery-life is rated for around two years, making Tabs close to fit-and-forget. Tabs can be pre-ordered today, and will be shipped in the summer.

The company has also made the Dropcam Pro suitable for more households by allowing it to recognize and ignore cats. Previously, the system would send push alerts any time it detected any movement, creating lots of false alarms as Tiddles engaged in her hectic schedule of moving from the sofa to the food dish and back.

Detecting pets usually requires 3D sensor systems which can measure the size of moving things, but Dropcam says that it has analyzed many hours of publicly-shared video in order to teach the system to recognize cats using only analysis of the visual data.

• AAPL Company
• iOS
• iOS Devices
• iPhone
• Apple News

Analyst suggests iPhone 6 will favor thin design over optical image stabilization, camera will be flush in chassis

Benjamin Mayo Apr 29 2014 - 2:44 am PT

14 Comments

A post on Weibo from a Chinese analyst (via GforGames) suggests that the new iPhone design will not feature a protruding camera, which would have seemingly enabled optical image stablization, as Apple has instead opted to focus on a super-thin profile for the new device.

Apple’s current line of iPhones take advantage of the embedded SoC’s processing power to enable software-based image stabilization. Whilst optical image stabilization is generally considered to be superior, it also requires the camera components to be physically much larger. According to this report, Apple does not seem to have wanted to make this tradeoff.

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• iOS Devices
• iPhone
• Camera
• Kickstarter
• Aperture

Lensbaby planning to bring its DSLR selective focus lens to the iPhone

Ben Lovejoy Apr 3 2014 - 7:26 am PT

2 Comments

Lensbaby is planning to make an iPhone version of its popular selective focus lens range. The company’s existing lenses for DSLRs allow a small focal point to be positioned in a scene, creating some whacky burred effects in the rest of the image. I’ve used one on my DSLR, and it’s fun to play around with.

A magnetic attachment system means that you’ll be able to combine the Lensbaby with any existing magnetic iPhone lenses you already own.

It’s currently just a Kickstarter project, but with half of the modest $20,000 goal already reached just one day in, it seems pretty certain to make it into production. As of the time of writing, you can reserve one for $50, a $20 saving on the planned retail price.

Sample images below.

• Apps & Updates
• Apps
• iPhone
• App Store
• update
• Camera

Camera+ iPhone app adds 16×9 widescreen shooting mode, improved filters & editing

Jordan Kahn Feb 20 2014 - 12:26 pm PT

3 Comments

The popular Camera+ iPhone app from developers tap tap tap was updated today with a number of new features and improvements. On top of a “a bunch of refinements to The Lab” and photo editing, the app gains a new BOOST feature for setting filters to 200% intensity and widescreen 16×9 shooting mode. The update to version 5.1 also includes a number of bug fixes.

Camera+ for iPhone is available on the App Store now for $1.99.

Full release notes for the update below:

What’s New in Version 5.1

For Camera+ 5.1 we’ve made a bunch of refinements to The Lab, making the best photo editing on a mobile phone even better. We’ve made several usability tweaks to further streamline the whole experience. One slightly hidden, but handy addition is that you can now tap & hold an adjustment to reset it.

We’ve added a new setting so that you can choose whichever section you’d like to begin in when you edit your photos. This is nice if you always want to go straight to The Lab, for instance.

For those times when you want to go more intense with filters, we’ve added a new BOOST feature. You can now bump the intensity up to 200%.

You can take widescreen photos with the new 16×9 shooting mode. Bring out your inner Scorcese. Or Fellini.

Many of you were hitting a pipe too often while flapping, causing you to lose all your photos. That’s now fixed, thankfully.

And we’ve spent a good amount of time fixing bugs for this version. Many were esoteric and only occurred on particular hardware, but we did our very best to try and resolve all known issues for this release. If any of you experience any further issues, please report them to us.

Take 2: The API issue that was causing apps like Day One to not work properly with Camera+ is fixed now. For realsies this time. Thanks to the chaps at Day One for helping us to resolve this.