A Camera Complex
In a dramatic turn of events, the unleashing of Apple’s sixth order of portable communication facilitators baring the letter “S”, generated ever so slightly lesser or greater levels of enthusiasm and cynicism than their non “S” branded predecessors, a word I despise using in any technological context…along with counterpart. Both terms are as common as a brick phone wedged between the front seats of a Yuppie’s BMW.
They are not worthy of the engineering elysian to which we refer, the essence of human endeavour, the imperial enabler of remote contact. An invention we would Fedex to an alien race in a time capsule minutes before the destruction of our planet, along with a recording of Tchaikovsky Sixth Symphony, a video of the Rumble in the Jungle, Martin Luther King’s I had a Dream, a bicycle, a potato, Evian mineral water, Einstein’s theory of relativity and a note saying, all contents strictly for non-profit use, unless you happen to be God.
Aside from multi-level tertiary dimension tactility, one scorching point of speculation pertaining to this specific Smart Phone’s intriguing résumé concerned optical particulars and it’s designer’s sensational decision to abandon caution and augment its sensory perceptions with a quartet of mega pixels, raising the grand total from 8 to 12.
Of course, if we consider image quality as the photographic equivalent to break horse power, a higher number of megapixels no more ensures a camera’s superiority than an engine with a larger fuel capacity guarantees a Volkswagen increased speed, snappier acceleration or a sustainable carbon footprint. Overall performance is governed a myriad of additional components, parameters and features.
Amongst the most significant are focal length, the standard of the image sensor, whether or not interchangeable lenses are supported, the facility to preserve pictures in RAW formats and thus allow for crucial post processing options such as the ability to re-instate colour to a monochrome image. The presence of manual overrides for contrast, exposure, white balance, aperture variance and shutter speed and in each case, the range and granularity of adjustment. Professionals could name others far too obscure for me to list, let alone expound to expound on. Suffice to say that this point and click chronicler of magic moments…
Which upon launch could be obtained for little more than a month’s worth of Sky TV, could would and should never stand frame to frame with this domineering DSLR, which would have likely necessitated sacrificing the very holiday it was purchased to document, despite its senior status and inferior resolution.
But what of the iPhones legendary beauty to pixel ratio? Could a contemporary handset-housed camera that snapped farther above its stats than a toothless crocodile really upstage an ageing but fully fledged enthusiast grade alternative? Four years separates the contenders in questions, which were chosen for no other reason than their proximity to hands and fingertips, along with the fact that I believed the comparison would be fascinating.