iPhone 4: How does it perform for video recording? Let's bike to the skate park...

BoingBoing.net's Xeni Jardin takes the iPhone 4 out for a Venice Beach bike ride, to test the smartphone's new high-resolution video recording capabilities. 100% of video footage in this video was shot with iPhone 4.

For some portions (while riding bike), the iPhone was strapped on to Xeni's hand with rubber bands (The Rubber Band Steadicam), and the iPhone camera was facing one direction with medium-res video recording. In other sections of this video (skaters skating, orchids, ocean, and interview with skater Kiko, age 8) the iPhone camera was activated in the other direction and captured high-resolution video. You can see the difference, but both outperformed other smartphones and handheld ultra-mobile digital video camcorders. When it comes to video recording, iPhone 4 is the one to beat.

You have to be mindful of that camera orientation switch option noted above with FaceTime: when you shoot video out of one side of the device, you get lower-resolution 640 x 480 footage, and when you shoot out of the other side, you get far higher-res 1280 x 720. As with the still camera function, you can tap an area to focus in, even while you are shooting. Video is saved and exported as h.264 QuickTime, and you can email, MMS, or publish to YouTube right from the iPhone.

File sizes for the raw footage we used to edit together this video were surprisingly small, too.

For an example: a 13-second clip of Xeni talking to camera, shot in the medium-resolution (640x480) mode, was 5.2MB. A 16-second shot in the high-res 720p, 1280x720 mode, panning over a bunch of flowers, was 20MB.

More on Boing Boing.net:

IPHONE 4 FIRST HANDS-ON REVIEW
http://www.boingboing.net/2010/06/22/apple-iphone-4-hands.html

PHOTOGRAPHY REVIEW
http://www.boingboing.net/2010/06/22/apple-iphone-4-hands.html


(Special thanks to Q-Burns Abstract Message for the music!)

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• iphone
• gadget
• smartphone
• apple
• xeni
• jardin
• boingboing
• boing
• beach
• bicycle
• phone
• bike
• skateboard
• skating
• surfer
• surf
• los
• angels
• venice
• skate
• park

[jshatzman]

i think I love you



[djpaul146]

I have the iPhone 4 and you only get zoom in photo mode not video mode apart from that it's not a bad phone appart from the battery life it will last about a day if you play the games

[stengweed]

@drunkenmuse Regardless I still expect a pile of shit including free instructions, guitar and cooking lessons, amateur short film makers woeful efforts and people who film themselves every day for 5 years getting older and fatter. This is a disgrace.

Right I'm off to fine some donkey porn.

[drunkenmuse]

@stengweed In all fairness, the average person/consumer is likely an immensely untalented camera person and can therefor expect footage like this.

[FlowDeBandoler0]

samsung's BITCH

[GabtheRocker]

@xcaptaincrunchh Yes, 5x digital zoom for the photos only though. For the video recorder, you need to install an app from the app store like videozoom2, for instance :)

[xcaptaincrunchh]

is there a zoom on the iphone 4?

[SonCurran]

@MinsterRogers You edit it in a video program and you save as 1080p you moron.

[freddysamsc]

Do you have iPhone app idea? You can make your own iPhone app with a software called AppWizard in less than 30 minutes

[stengweed]

Wow! What an immensely untalented camera person. This would have been a pretty good idea if the person behind the camera wasn't a borderline retard.