This will be a very short review on flying your iphone as a still camera. It may also apply to flying the newer ipod touch units which use IOS. I use an iphone 4S, which sports a 8MP camera in the rear. iPhone cameras are known to take fairly decent pictures - the 5 and the 5s and 5c will probably be a step up from my experience....but the 4s certainly takes decent stills. My 4S easily fit into the same small holder I fabricated (aluminum and plastic) for the Canon S95. A couple rubber bands held it very well, and the Phantom easily flies it. The 5 series are quite a bit lighter in weight, so those should life off even easier. Smart Phones have plenty of memory as well as loads of computing power. The combination has allowed Apple and other app makers to offer a much wider array of tweaks and options than most simple flying cameras. I used the Fast Camera App : http://www.i4fastcamera.com/ This app allows you to set many options as shown below: (click to enlarge) An good initial setting might be: 30 second timers (pics start 30 seconds after activation) 4 seconds delay between pics (14 per minute) and perhaps 100 total pics (7 minutes max). Auto-focus should be on. Flying the iPhone It would probably be wise to turn off the wireless and other services - in fact, going into airplane mode will save energy and processing power and avoid any interference with the R/C controls on your quadcopter. Prepare the quadcopter and, when ready, start up the Fast Cam by pressing the start button on the screen. That's all there is to it!
Once you have retrieved the camera, hit the stop button for Fast Camera (or other intervalometer / timer app) - and save the pictures to your camera roll. I find it easier to move all the pics to my laptop and then select the best 5-10 pics, erasing the others. The iphone 4S takes 8MP photos - quite large and big enough to make nice prints if you want to frame them. Two sample photos are below - these were downsized to 2000 pixels (dots) wide from their original 3300. You may have to click a couple times to enlarge them to their full (downsized) resolution.
As a comparison, here are two enlargements of cars and people in the parking lot. The better quality enlargement is from a Canon S95, while the more blurry is from the iphone 4S. Still, the 4S is quite good - you can recognize car models, etc. (Canon S95 Above) (iPhone 4S above) Summary: Smart phones can be expensive pieces of equipment - so most pilots would not want to fly the latest and greatest models unless they were very certain of their piloting skills and quadcopter reliability. However, older smart phone can depreciate in value quite quickly. A 4S phone can be purchased used for as little as $160. Or, you may have one sitting around due to your last upgrade! Another option may be to contact some of the iphone repair shops and buy a phone where some major parts are broken (cell service, for example, and maybe a cracked screen)...but yet where the cam and the apps still work. This could be a low cost flying platform. There are a number of comparisons of various smart phone cameras online - the iphone usually ends up as one of the best of the bunch. Apple spends a their R&D on improving the camera software and hardware so as to differentiate it from less expensive smartphones. Phones are made to be tough - they have fixed lenses and, unlike many flying cameras, are made to take pictures where vibration and movement is present. While I won't be using the 4S as my first choice of flying cam, it will be waiting in the wings as a backup and perhaps for lower altitude shots where the automatic focus and smart processing will come into play. Note: I did not test out the video for this reason - cameras like the Mobius ($75-$85) are lightweight an inexpensive and take great HD video. Smartphone cameras are getting better and better - the 41MP Nokia models have an amazing sensor.....it would be interesting to see the results of flying one of those! Here is a link if you want to drool over 40+ Megapixels...... http://connect.dpreview.com/post/5234892048/nokia-lumia-1020-camera-review
Pics enclosed of the iphone holder - it was the same one used for the S95 in another review. It's made from a piece of plastic (small vent cap) cut with a dremel tool and then some small pieces of aluminum at top. Epoxy and rivets hold it together. The tabs at the top fit on the standard Phantom GoPro mount. Weight of this frame is 42 grams. Weight of iphone 4S is 141 grams. Weight of iphone 5 and 5s = 112 grams Weight of iphone 5C = 132 grams Foam is glued to it to support the camera and/or foam. The iphone was inserted by putting the unit apart a bit and then closing it around the phone (notice some of the foam is cut out for this - so it fits in that slot).
