Test of Apple's New HDR Imaging System for iPhone 4 in iOS 4.1 update

Apple included a new feature last week when it updated its iOS to the 4.1 that will work with all the latest iOS devices such as the new iPhone 4, iPod touch 4g and future iPads. This new feature works with the devices' camera, namely the iPhone 4's camera, and allows the user to take photos with HDR or High Dynamic Range imaging.

With HDR, the iPhone's camera is now able to take multiple photos per shot, and the camera merges two photos that contain the lightest and darkest areas of the image, creating a final HDR image that is truer to what the image looks like in real life. This in turn makes the final HDR photo appear clearer and with more vibrant colors than what a standard image would look like.

I did a test of this new feature with my iPhone 4 and photographed my DVD player in HDR mode. The first image is the standard image:


And this is the HDR image:


You can see a little bit of the difference as the HDR image is clearer and has more "true" color to it. The shadows do not appear so dark on the HDR image and the lighter parts are not completely washed out like the top (standard) image.

There is also an ap in the Apple Ap store that takes the idea of HDR further, the HDR Pro Ap, which has more features and user controls over the HDR image before saving. This is yet another great update to the iOS from Apple for the iPhone 4 and other iOS devices.