Believe it or not, the photo below hasn’t been Photoshopped:
The guy who took the photo says:
The cheap CMOS sensor of an iPhone does not expose the whole thing at once, it scans from left to right. If you take a picture of something that moves very fast (like an airplane prop) you can get some crazy pictures out of it since each column represents a slightly different time.
This oddball-but-cool effect is reminiscent of some of the distortions you see with scanner photography (for some examples, see this page).
Maybe it’s time to pull out those camera phones and start snapping pics of oscillating or rotating objects!
81 replies on “Cheap Camera, Interesting Shot”
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I’ve seen this happen when I take pictures in the car with the windshield wipers going. Very nice effect.
Cool effect!
so… iPhone is cool one more time! it adds cool effects and expands your creativity. It does amazing work. With one touch of screen you can stun your friends and lots of internet users in the moment! F A N T A S T I C! Another super-feature!
It`s not a bug, it`s a feature.
the process is called slit-scanning.
It’s a bug, not a feature.
it also makes you look retarded.
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I also noticed this effect while trying to take a picture of a fast moving train..
http://flickr.com/photos/johnhennig/2499211981/in/set-72157605108621877/
Not nearly as cool looking as the plane prop, but still a fun shot. Great work btw…
I wonder witch way the propeller is turning? Can anybody explain how the effect is generated? how the camera scans the image?
The propeller is turning clockwise as you see it in the picture. The little black strip near the hub of the prop is a deicing boot that is on the leading edge.
[…] it sucks but it’s cool […]
[…] Strange effect from an iPhone camera. I don’t think it’ll be long until this is a trend, with lots of examples all over flickr. […]
Here are a few prop shots from inside that I took a while back:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/23369064@N00/2445247941/in/set-72157603622401568/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/23369064@N00/2445243547/in/set-72157603622401568/
it’s an effect caused by a rolling shutter.
if they had used a sensor with global shutter this would not have happened.
it’s a limitation of the sensor, if you like to see it as a feature, be my guest apple fanboi
I know this sounds stupid but how do some of the propellor things end up not attached to the center thing that spins them? I understand that it captures the image in bars but how would it be able to distort it so it became unattached? Wouldn’t it just end up with a bunch of little propellor pieces all unaligned but still in a circle? Somebody please help me understand this so I don’t feel so dumb.
[…] Bovenstaande foto is dus echt! Niet ge’photoshopped’ ! Door de goedkope sensor van de iPhone camera wordt niet het gehele beeld in een keer gescand maar in gedeeltes. Als er dus een foto wordt gemaakt van iets wat snel beweegt kan je dus een vreemde maar fraaie foto krijgen zoals hierboven. Je hebt dus helemaal geen dure camera nodig voor mooie effecten! Via GlobalNerdy.com. […]
I am wondering why this person was standing so close to a rapidly spinning propeller :)
Haha. Apple quality, they say…
wow! super awesome! i’ve noticed some weird effects with my iphone camera as well. Especially when someone else is using their flash at the same time you’re taking a photo.
I think its the new un disclosed feature of an Iphone.
Hi, Stephen Kelly . My name is Zoom. Pleased to meet you.
[…] Cheap Camera, Interesting Shot — Global Nerdy Believe it or not, the photo below hasn’t been Photoshopped Partager: […]
SHOOPED! i can tell by the pixels
Foto interesante con la cámara cutre del iPhone…
Lo creais o no, la foto no ha pasado por Photoshop. El tipo que hizo la foto comenta: "El sensor CMOS barato de un iPhone no expone todo de una vez, sino que escanea de izquierda a derecha. I haces una foto de algo que se mueve muy rápido (como l…
mi hermao es gayyyyyyyyyyyyy :D coooollllll efect
Cheap cameras? They allow you to take 4 dimensions pictures!! Nice concept!!
[…] » noticia original […]
bad cameras are always the best ones! lo-mo
I don’t believe you… If it really has been taken with an iPhone then post the original picture. It has no apple footprint if you look inside it. All pictures that are taken from an iphone have this string somewhere in it: “£Apple iPhone”.
Yours doesn’t….
Nice though…
Best Regards,
monoco.
[…] Cheap Camera, Interesting Shot @ GlobalNerdy.com Leave a Reply […]
[…] cameras apparently scan left to right, which makes no difference for most pictures, but when you have a fast-moving object such as a […]
i no. my bff has an iphone: she takes lotsa pics. theres always the apple sign on it. ( :
[…] se puede producir, al retratar objetos en movimiento, efectos ópticos como el de arriba, visto en Cheap Camera, Interesting Shot. Los sensores CMOS baratos, como el del iPhone, no exponen la escena de una vez, sino que la […]
J’ai le même chez moi, çà s’appelle un Coupe Frites !
[…] Cheap Camera, Interesting Shot — Global Nerdy (tags: photography) […]
Blah blah blah iPhone. Christ on a tortilla you fan boys are pathetic.
This bug occurs with every cmos based camera made. Well… cheaply made. Anyone who’s taken a picture with a camera phone, ANY FUCKING CAMERA PHONE, from a moving vehicle will tell you that.
Mac bigots are so much like religious zealots it’s kind of scary. Another feature my ass.
Aw, is Michael kind of threatened by the Apple juggernaut as he watches Microsoft flounder and fail and crash in the marketplace? BOO HOO!
[…] says the iPhone’s camera sucks? Let’s see your D3X do this, tough guy! […]
I didn’t know that’s how the iPhone’s camera works.
Michael, I think you missed the rather obvious humour in some of these comments lol
Cue a spate of look at the fcuk’d photos I can make with my iPhone and perhaps a few Darwin award candidates :p
imagine what ppl would be saying about that if it were a zune and not an iphone
Looks great… who cares how it was created, or what created it.
FAKE !!! Look at the spinner ! (the central part) It is not moving !!! ;-P
This is a four dimensional object crossing through our 3-dimensional brane.
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The mac fanboy haters are far more passionate than the mac fan boys! It’s almost like they are the technogeek equivalent of homophobes, disguising their own self hatred for being secret fan boys of their own computer junk.
@Michael: “This bug occurs with every cmos based camera made. Well… cheaply made.” Tell that to the makers of the RED camera. Not exactly cheap, but still a CMOS sensor. This camera is in greater and greater use in film and TV all the time.
@ Monoco: The church didn’t believe Galileo either. Galileo was right. You are wrong.
@ Everyone arguing whether it is a bug vs. feature: It is neither or either, depending on your perspective. Is it a bug that paint brushes don’t photorealistically depict a subject in any painting on which they are used? The rolling shutter is a *limitation* of the CMOS chip, but since it is there by design, it can’t be considered a bug. Again, it is there by design.
@ Man: Thank you for being right and not being stupid.
@ Stephen Kelly: Good question! Also a much funnier topic of discussion.
looks great!!
[…] Cheap Camera, Interesting Shot The cheap CMOS sensor of an iPhone does not expose the whole thing at once, it scans from left to right. If you take a picture of something that moves very fast (like an airplane prop) you can get some crazy pictures out of it. […]