Manual exposure control with iPhone?

[tevo]

Spot expose! Tap and hold the camera screen to where you want to meter for, and when you let go it locks the Exposure. Granted, it also locks the focus so watch out for that.

 

[Majeed Badizadegan]

Yeah...the iPhone's lens is actually pretty GOOD. With a 5- to 8-MP, backside-illuminated sensor behind a multi-element f/2.8 or f/2.5 lens, the "imaging" parts of the iPhone 4,4s,and 5 are pretty good,actually. I suspect that the majority of snapshooters will use the built-in flash in "many" indoor lighting conditions. And it does "okay". But I agree, the designers have made a truly regrettable decision with the relationship between Exposure Value level, and ISO, and shutter speed...

Looking through over 15,000 of my own iPhone 4 shots I have made since August of 2011, the VAST,vast majority of the clunkers are due to the shutter speed being too slow because the ISO value has been kept "low". In low-light levels, the typical 1/15 second shutter speed leads to a LOT of blurred shots. Even indoors in say, a well-lighted McDonald's dining room...the speed the camera will pick is too slow to stop motion of a kid eating a cheeseburger...(real-world example from yesterday!!!)

Again, exactly my dilemma. I could go through 50,000 shots in Lightroom taken with my dslr in the last year and would be hard pressed to find many shots at 1/15 sec. I would never shoot that slow handheld with Any lens. If there were shots at that speed, they would almost surely be shoot on a TRIPOD.

To make matters worse, without "camera +" (volume button as shutter release) you are actually PHYSICALLY HITTING the screen with your finger, which could easily cause camera shake type blur at 1/15 sec. You can also hold down the camera button and release to snap, which is one method I've developed. But all are symptoms of the problem. The heart of the issue is the slow shutter speed.

 

[manaheim]

I use my iPhone for quick pics and videos of the kids all the time (if I don't have my real camera), but it seems like trying to use it seriously enough to want to control manual settings is a little ... Over the top? I mean... I suppose if it had the features and you could really make them work... Sure, why not? But it just sounds like you're expecting a whole lot more out of your phone than you should.

Gryphons point may have been phrased in a bit of a glib fashion, but I think it's a valid point regardless. With extremely rate exceptions, when you combine functions into a single device by one manufacturer you wind up with compromises.

 

[Majeed Badizadegan]

Even partial control, such as controlling the ISo, would force the shutter speed to be faster

 

[jake337]

Even partial control, such as controlling the ISo, would force the shutter speed to be faster

You can't control the ISO on the 5?

Get a HTC One series phone I guess. The F2 aperture is nice. Set at ISO 800, with exposure "control" turned all the way up lets you snap in pretty dim lit areas.

 

[paigew]

I use 'pro camera'. You can 'set' exposure by dragging the exposure square over what you want exposed. There is also an 'iso boost' and if it is set to 'on' it will go up to 3200. You can't manually select what ss or iso to use but I get great results with it. here is my instagram feed.

 

[Majeed Badizadegan]

My previous phone the Evo 4g, almost 3 year old android, allowed manual ISo selection.

I guess I took that for granted. But it's always hard to tell with Apple becuse often aesthetics take precedence over functionality. Even though the ability is there, apple simply disregards the need for the functionality. One size fits all, right? Not so much.

 

[Majeed Badizadegan]

I use 'pro camera'. You can 'set' exposure by dragging the exposure square over what you want exposed. There is also an 'iso boost' and if it is set to 'on' it will go up to 3200. You can't manually select what ss or iso to use but I get great results with it. here is my instagram feed.

Not the same thing unfortunately. The problem is the iPhone favors low ISo values over reasonable shutter speeds. Even at ISo 50 indoors the shutter is still at 1/15 or 1/20 second. That's bad programming. And spot metering with pro camera or camera + just isn't quite the ticket. Sure they help a bit in some situations. But often are not the right solution the problem.

I mean 1/15 sec is not even enough to freeze a kid eating a burger, or even slight movements of the head/face

 

[Mully]

Hmm, pretty disappointing.
You'd think there would be an "app for that". Apparently not.

I learned a long time ago that there will be NO APP for anything that Apple might disapprove of, such as using your phone as a hotspot for your laptop, enjoying an app with a sense of humor that amuses you but might offend grandma, or might make it possible to use your device in ways that Apple has decided should be reserved to a different device.


If you're disappointed that the apps and extendability is limited, all I can offer is "that's what you get for buying an Apple product".

Now this a a very uneducated comment.... learn before you speak

 

[amolitor]

Hmm, pretty disappointing.
You'd think there would be an "app for that". Apparently not.

I learned a long time ago that there will be NO APP for anything that Apple might disapprove of, such as using your phone as a hotspot for your laptop, enjoying an app with a sense of humor that amuses you but might offend grandma, or might make it possible to use your device in ways that Apple has decided should be reserved to a different device.


If you're disappointed that the apps and extendability is limited, all I can offer is "that's what you get for buying an Apple product".

Now this a a very uneducated comment.... learn before you speak

Not, hopefully, to start an Apple vs. <whatever> war, but this matches my experience precisely. Apple sacrifices flexibility for pretty much everything else. As a skilled computing professional, familiar with many useful modes of usefulness in electronic systems, I generally find Apple's limited-but-friendly systems to be infuriating. They're squarely aimed at the lowest common denominator market, and it's worked out extremely well for them.

Their computers do not report problems in a useful way, generally, their cameras don't work like grownup cameras, everything is instead simple and intuitive. When being more powerful or flexible would get in the way of simple and intuitive, out goes powerful. It's a design choice, they're very clear on it, and it informs all that they do.

I'm typing this on a Mac right now, by the way. One that often drives me nuts.

 

[rexbobcat]

Now this a a very uneducated comment.... learn before you speak

I have to agree. Apple is very proprietary and is basically the polar opposite of more developer friendly, open source solutions such as Linux and Android.

 

[Majeed Badizadegan]

I learned a long time ago that there will be NO APP for anything that Apple might disapprove of, such as using your phone as a hotspot for your laptop, enjoying an app with a sense of humor that amuses you but might offend grandma, or might make it possible to use your device in ways that Apple has decided should be reserved to a different device.


If you're disappointed that the apps and extendability is limited, all I can offer is "that's what you get for buying an Apple product".

Now this a a very uneducated comment.... learn before you speak

Not, hopefully, to start an Apple vs. <whatever> war, but this matches my experience precisely. Apple sacrifices flexibility for pretty much everything else. As a skilled computing professional, familiar with many useful modes of usefulness in electronic systems, I generally find Apple's limited-but-friendly systems to be infuriating. They're squarely aimed at the lowest common denominator market, and it's worked out extremely well for them.

Their computers do not report problems in a useful way, generally, their cameras don't work like grownup cameras, everything is instead simple and intuitive. When being more powerful or flexible would get in the way of simple and intuitive, out goes powerful. It's a design choice, they're very clear on it, and it informs all that they do.

I'm typing this on a Mac right now, by the way. One that often drives me nuts.

This

 

[Mully]

I learned a long time ago that there will be NO APP for anything that Apple might disapprove of, such as using your phone as a hotspot for your laptop, enjoying an app with a sense of humor that amuses you but might offend grandma, or might make it possible to use your device in ways that Apple has decided should be reserved to a different device.


If you're disappointed that the apps and extendability is limited, all I can offer is "that's what you get for buying an Apple product".

Now this a a very uneducated comment.... learn before you speak

Not, hopefully, to start an Apple vs. <whatever> war, but this matches my experience precisely. Apple sacrifices flexibility for pretty much everything else. As a skilled computing professional, familiar with many useful modes of usefulness in electronic systems, I generally find Apple's limited-but-friendly systems to be infuriating. They're squarely aimed at the lowest common denominator market, and it's worked out extremely well for them.

Their computers do not report problems in a useful way, generally, their cameras don't work like grownup cameras, everything is instead simple and intuitive. When being more powerful or flexible would get in the way of simple and intuitive, out goes powerful. It's a design choice, they're very clear on it, and it informs all that they do.

I'm typing this on a Mac right now, by the way. One that often drives me nuts.

Then your mac is not set up right...I rarely have problems ...I have owned a Mac since Jan 1985 so I know know from where I speak... something is wrong with your mac if you are having problems. Don't like the product switch but don't be a product basher, just switch to something that suits you.

 

[amolitor]

My problems are not that the Mac breaks, it's that when there are actual underlying issues that I can fix, the Mac declines to give me any useful information. It assumes that I am not a skilled networking engineer, mathematician, and computer programmer, and simply tells me 'that didn't work out, sorry'. This was actually clear in my prior post, you've simply chosen to ignore that so you can trot out your "well, Macs are perfect, so yours must be broken or you are stupid" suggestion.

My Mac is fine. The design choices made in large areas of the user interface are poorly suited to me. There are other aspects of it that suit me well, which is why I retain it. Obviously.

You'll do better on the internets if you stop assuming that whomever you're talking to is a dunce.

 

[Mully]

^^^^^ All I have ever seen you do is make negative remarks about most things...I am not alone in my opinion of you with this....when do you ever post an image to show your work......I never said you were a dunce...my reference is to those that bash something when they have other choices...now who is the dunce.