When you shoot a photo with the HDR feature enabled, the iPhone will actually shoot a 3 exposure bracket and combine them to get an HDR image. Steve’s examples in the keynote showed images taken with the iPhone in difficult lighting situations: bright skies over a landscape, and portraits of a man and woman in the shade on a sunny day. The results look really nice.

Image via “Live Apple fall 2010 event coverage by Ryan Block for gdgt.

iOS 4.1 will be available next week.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced the new iPhone 4 during this morning’s WWDC Keynote Address and among the features of this new smartphone is a built-in camera with some serious specs. As smartphones progress we see more and more features — communication, entertainment, and photography for example — combined into a single portable device. And if the specs of the iPhone 4 are any indication, Apple is now ready to give point & shoot cameras a run for their money.

iPhone 4 Camera Specs

• 5 megapixels
• LED flash
• 5x digital zoom
• 720p, 30fps HD video recording
• Tap to focus video
• Built-in video editing with iMovie for iPhone ($4.99 in the App Store)
• One click sharing

Focus on Image Quality

The iPhone 4 camera may mean the end of using the phrase “camera phone quality” as a derogatory description of an image’s IQ. Not only have they bumped the resolution up from 3 MP to 5, but there is no reduction in pixel size. In his presentation, Jobs said:

“Now everybody loves to talk about megapixels, but we tend to ask the question how do we make better pictures? Megapixels are nice, but what these cameras are really about is capturing photons and low light photography. So we’ve gone from 3 megapixel to 5 megapixel, but we’re using a backside illuminated sensor.

“In addition to that, when most people increase megapixels they make them smaller, but we’ve kept ours the same size. They don’t capture less photons.”

An ultra-portable, 5 MP point & shoot camera with a focus on image quality, and HD video recording capability? Count me in.

Steve Jobs quote via Engadget.

“5 Tips For Making Great iPhone Photos” by Chase Jarvis has a few quick tips for getting better pictures out of the little camera on your Apple mobile. Some of them are pretty much common sense: hold the camera still, and avoid both fast-moving subjects and low light situations.

What really got my attention is Chase’s point #2: compose the shot with your finger on the camera button. I was completely unaware that one could hold down the shutter button on the iPhone camera. The phone does not capture the frame until you let go. This tip should do wonders for sharpness — tapping the iPhone camera’s shutter button is almost guaranteed to introduce a little bit of blur from camera shake. RTFM indeed.

In addition to the iPhone, USB Fever’s portable detachable lenses work with a number of different cellphone, PDA and notebook cameras. The wide angle and telephoto lenses are $16.99 each, and the fish-eye is $19.99.

Link from “iPhone Accessories – iPhone Magnetic Mount Lenses” by Geeky Gadgets, via sandhal on FriendFeed.