I was fortunate to grab a new iPhone 4S, as only 5 shipped to the Blacksburg stores on the first day. And, while there are cons to go with the pros, I think I’ve made the right decision to make the switch from Android to IOS.
The chief reason for deciding to change was that all our other computing devices in the house are Mac. Second, the iCloud photo-stream and calendar sync just makes a lot of sense. And Siri is turning out to be quite helpful for gathering information and sending timed reminders to myself.
I am very impressed with the relative speed of the latest iPhone to the earliest Droid. The screen brightness and clarity are far, far better than the Droid. Visibility in daylight and on the car dash are amazing. And the voice recognition for all text entry fields is about equal to Dragon Dictate full version on the Mac, with few mistakes so far. This is really good for dictating quick notes-to-self and emails.
The camera on the Droid was essentially useless. it was sluggish and produced muddy images that were stuck on the phone unless I cabled it into the desktop or emailed them one at a time to myself.
The always-at-hand camera on the iPhone–not to mention PhotoSynth, Camera+ and Instagram (so far)–will offer me occasions for a more spontaneous, candid and efficient grab shots I would not have bothered with when lugging the D200. And sharing via Facebook, Flickr, Twitter and other means will be so much easier now.
While the quality is not equal to the DSLR and granted, I’m not that interested in all the cutesy filters that come with some of these apps, there may still be the opportunity for “photography” as opposed to snap-shooting. Sea changes in the medium of image-making bears a whole essay after giving the matter some thought.
The milkweed image was taken with Camera+ which has an image stabilization feature.
I added a couple of other shots to the end of my Flickr “NATURE” group you can take a look at if you’re so inclined.
Congrats on being a loyal consumer Fred. Isn’t that part of your personal torment? You are still ahead of my curve, but you might have reasons to justify that. You are not on the leading edge, but not waiting for the last gasp from the last pretty cool thing either.
As for images and the manipulation of such I think I’ll stick with straight off the camera. It’s fun to mess around with software but was that my original intent to convey? Then there is an issue with purpose and distribution of the image. Is there a great demand for super duper printed items? I share my photos in email friendly size and compression. Selfishly, I might add, since my upload speeds are maple syrup on a cold day on a level surface.
One could argue that the time and money spent staying techno current is a bad investment. Do you ever wonder how much the economy has been effected by transfer of money to mostly non productive telecom, internet, pay tv etal? The jobs created in those industries doesn’t make up for those lost in others.
As a confirmed Luddite, albeit one who has the most advanced computer systems at her fingertips, I refuse to go for a phone that does anything other than make and receive calls.
And I may not be so silly, mobile devices are the the latest tool used by The Bad Guys and few people are savvy enough to protect themselves in cyberspace