Chicago Sun Times Swaps iPhone Training For Staff Photographers

frdmfghtr notes (via Cult of Mac) that "the reporters of the Chicago Sun-Times are being given training in iPhone photography, to make up for the firing of the photography staff. From the CoM story: 'The move is part of a growing trend towards publications using the iPhone as a replacement for fancy, expensive DSLRs. It's a also a sign of how traditional journalism is being changed by technology like the iPhone and the advent of digital publishing.'"

Comments

Why the iPhone of all thing?

[Anonymous Coward]

It takes horrible pictures.
At least use the Samsung Galaxy Camera GC100 or something similar.

Re: Why the iPhone of all thing?

[IndigoParadox]

Eye-Fi is one manufacturer of the type of SD card the grandparent is talking about. Their cards in particular have a small amount of storage, a Wi-Fi radio, and a tiny client which automatically uploads pictures written to the storage via the SD interface to a designated server via a proprietary protocol apparently based on HTTP.

Re:must be a joke

[Internal Modem]

They replaced their pool of photographers with freelancers (sports, feature stories, breaking news, etc...). In addition, reporters will now carry iPhones in part to capture low resolution video for their website. It's not really the DSLR v iPhone the headline claims.

Re:The equipment isn't the story

[NoNonAlphaCharsHere]

I used to bump into a Sun-Times staff photographer at the local Starbucks once in a while. He had approximately $15,000 in LENSES hanging around his neck.

Re:Grammer perhaps?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm sorry, sir, but I am afraid I must revoke your geek card. It's "me fail English? That's unpossible!"

Re:The best camera is the one you have with you

[meta-monkey]

Actually, it'll only be properly exposed if it's pointing a subject that's 18% gray (within its metering area, ie spot, center, or center weighted).

The meters inside cameras are reflective meters (as opposed to an incident meter you hold in front of the subject and click). So they measure the light reflected off the subject. But different subjects reflect different amounts of light. A white object is more reflective than a black object. So how does the camera know what color the object is that it's pointed at? It doesn't. So it assumes it's medium gray and sets the exposure accordingly. That's fine for an average (by definition) scene, but fails everywhere else. This is why if you've ever pulled out a point and shoot camera, or phone or pro DSLR in green square mode in the snow and taken a picture, you'll notice all your white snow is gray. That's why professionals use manual exposure, or at least exposure compensation in auto modes.