Despite its high price tag and innovations such as its touch screen, Apple's iPhone doesn't break new ground in all features and functions. Sometimes it's merely competent--as with its built-in camera, which is fine but nothing special.

The iPhone's camera does have a 2-megapixel (MP) sensor. That's more than most camera phones (at least in the U.S.), which are limited to no more than 1 MP of resolution. But other phones, such the Samsung SCH-a990, Sony Ericsson K790a, and Nokia N95, offer 3 to 5 MP.

But resolution is only one ingredient of image quality. The iPhone's camera yielded photos that were comparable in overall quality to those from our tests of those high-res cameraphones. Which is to say images were better than those from most cameraphones we've tested but fell short of those from a typical digital camera.

The iPhone's dynamic range (which is the difference between, or ratio of, the lightest and darkest elements of a displayed image) was especially good, with minimal visual noise in the resulting images. Also images taken in low light were passable, which they aren't from all cellphones. On the other hand, color balance was only fair, with many daylight shots bearing a bluish tinge.

That blue tendency might have been avoidable if the iPhone's camera offered white-balance settings. Instead, you're basically stuck with the settings the iPhone sets (although you might be able to fix problems later using an image-editing program). Some cameraphones offer white-balance settings and some other niceties the iPhone lacks, such as video recording, ISO options and a flash.

Spartan and straightforward, the iPhone's camera seems to aim to make picture-taking simple at all costs. And it largely succeeds: You use your thumb to click on the (virtual) shutter button and take the picture, which is indicated by a virtual shutter sound. The 3.5-in. LCD monitor, much larger than on other cellphones, further makes it easy and enjoyable to frame images. (Click on the image above for a larger view of the iPhone in action.)

Pictures looked great on the big screen in review and album modes, too. In those modes, the iPhone has a feature that's a rarity among camera phones (although common to digital cameras): it automatically rotates the image so that it orients correctly. A portrait-oriented photo will have lots of black space when the camera is held horizontally, for example, but will fill much more of the screen when the device is held vertically and the image automatically adjusts. Unlike some phones and many digital cameras, you are unable to connect the iPhone through an A/V out terminal in order to connect and view it on a TV screen.

The iPhone's scroll feature, a key distinction of the touch screen with all content, gives the impression that your finger is actually moving the photo across the screen, and pulling up the next shot in the album. You can also spread your fingers to instantly zoom in and out of images. As we've noted before, the screen does get oily with all that finger contact but the smudges are particularly noticeable only where the screen is dark, and you can use the included chamois cloth to clean it.

You get photos off the iPhone and onto your computer using USB or e-mail. (With the latter, iPhone downsizes high-res images to VGA quality--640 x 480.) You can import photos only using iTunes; unlike most other higher-res camera phones, there's no memory-card slot for getting images on and off the phone. The slot's absence is another basic-to-a-fault aspect of the iPhone's generally worthy camera phone.

For more information on the iPhone, check out:

Our Flash-based interactive, which offers detailed look at its features
Our look at the iPhone's performance as a cell phone
Our online video First Look at its overall performance (Flash software also required)

View all Melissa Turnkey's articles

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