The Olympics - shot with a smartphone

[SmartWombat]

Dan Chung's Olympic smartphone photoblog | Sport | guardian.co.uk

We don't hear much "my yyy is better than your zzz" in this forum, I think this really pushes the boundary of iPhoneography and I for one think his iPhone photographs are far better than my iPhone photos.

[Photo-John]

Thanks for that link, Paul. I'm generally against camera phones because they're too limited compared to even the simplest P&S. However, Dan Chung's photos prove the old point that it's not what you've got, but how you use it. On the other hand, I think he'd probably get better photos if he had a bit of zoom to work with. He wouldn't be the guy shooting news with an iPhone then, though.

[armando_m]

Impressive work !

[Old Timer]

How in the world did he make that namy venues? Super images for an iphone.

[patrickwilson86]

Indoor sporting events are notorious for poor lighting, and often require a very high ISO along with the fast shutter speed and wide aperture mentioned above. We often hear from photographers who are concerned about introducing digital noise (grain) into their image. While it's true that higher ISOs will result in more noticeable noise, the current line of DSLRs on the market today does a far better job at this than previous models. It's not uncommon for professionals to shoot at ISO 3200, and 6400 when necessary. If the presence of noise is not something you are comfortable with, you may want to explore one of the many terrific noise reduction programs like Noise Ninja, or Neat Image.

[Photo-John]

Indoor sporting events are notorious for poor lighting, and often require a very high ISO along with the fast shutter speed and wide aperture mentioned above. We often hear from photographers who are concerned about introducing digital noise (grain) into their image. While it's true that higher ISOs will result in more noticeable noise, the current line of DSLRs on the market today does a far better job at this than previous models. It's not uncommon for professionals to shoot at ISO 3200, and 6400 when necessary. If the presence of noise is not something you are comfortable with, you may want to explore one of the many terrific noise reduction programs like Noise Ninja, or Neat Image.

Sure. But that's missing the point here. What do you think of shooting something like the Olympics with a seemingly underpowered camera like the iPhone?

[Greg McCary]

I certainly wouldn't go to a once and a lifetime event like that armed with only a camera phone much less an IPhone.

[Skyman]

As the article says he had several of these cameras set up together with remote control apps and additional lenses (in this case binoculars). I am guessing that the phones were factory original with nothing other than the editing apps and remote syncing to slow them down so not a good example when the rest of us load our phones with apps/music etc and cover the lenses with muck from our pockets.

Also when you compare it to the action shots of the old news photographers who used 5X4 rail cameras and maybe carried two or three plates of film, the iphone photos are less remarkable.

This doesn't take away from the fact that these are outstanding photos but when taking in context they are less remarkable. They are however a great reminder never to blame the limitations of your camera. yes the latest / fastest camera should make your job easier but if not having it prevents you from getting any results then you haven't learnt your craft properly.