Apple Launches iPhotographer

Magical & Revolutionary Device at an Unbelievable Price

SAN FRANCISCO - January 27, 2020 - Apple^® today unveiled the company’s long-awaited iPhotographer^TM smart phone, housing a complete photographic system in a lightweight, stylish successor to the wildly successful iPhone mobile computing platform. iPhotographer allows Creative Content Contributors to generate stunning digital still and moving images of unparalleled quality, reformat them for various outputs, and upload wirelessly to a global database for sale and distribution, all automatically and seamlessly. iPhotographer is just 0.25 inches thick and weighs less than a quarter-pounder hamburger, freeing content makers from the weight of traditional photography and video equipment and allowing them to explore their creativity unfettered. In addition, iPhotographer maintains the high level of connectivity and interactivity Apple enthusiasts have come to expect in digital devices, including browsing the web, reading and sending email, enjoying photos, watching videos, listening to music, playing games, reading e-books, GPS navigation, social networking, blood sugar monitoring and much more. iPhotographer will be available in late March at the breakthrough price of just $49.

“iPhotographer is our most advanced technology in a magical and revolutionary device at an unbelievable price,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “It is designed to bring a level of photographic sophistication previously reserved only for professionals to the common person, allowing them to easily generate secondary revenue in their spare time and still pursue their primary careers as doctors, lawyers, engineers, teachers, housewives, students, grocery store baggers, baby sitters, etc. It’s a game-changer.”

At the heart of the electronics package is the A10 chip containing Apple’s next-generation image sensor. Designed by Apple, the 10,000x10,000 pixel (100 MPix) CMOS sensor contains four color layers (RGBK) for exceptional color fidelity. ISO sensitivity ranges from 100 to 1,000,000 with almost no light spillover from the 1 nm square pixels. Combined with a proprietary noise reduction algorithm, the sensor produces noise-free, ultra-rich images in all lighting conditions including complete darkness. Starting with the square format raw file, other common aspect ratios are automatically generated for each shot allowing the user to tailor their compositions for various needs. Images are stored on a 1 Petabyte (1000 TB) internal optical memory card and instantaneously uploaded wirelessly to Apple’s servers over any 5G network (10 GBits/s) for permanent storage and access. This data capacity also enables up to three hours of 2160p high-definition video at 60 fps. A brilliant, high-resolution (300 ppi) organic-LED touch screen delivers crisp, clear images with an ultra-wide 180-degree viewing angle.

iPhotographer features an innovative, ultra-fast, tack sharp, f/1.0, zoom lens covering 14 mm-1200 mm focal lengths for extreme wide angle to extreme telephoto shooting situations. This all-purpose lens is computer designed to be free of distortions, chromatic aberrations, and vignetting. Incorporating the latest advances in nano-technology, the carbon fiber, virtually mass-less shutter, achieves breakthrough shutter speeds up to 1/50,000 of a second in still mode, or 50,000 frames per second in video mode. Newbies can now shoot high-speed photography just like the videographers on Discovery Channel’s Time Warp. Say so long to that pesky, heavy tripod as digital image stabilization eliminates all extraneous vibration even for shutter speeds of 30 seconds. “Senior citizens will especially like this feature as they will be able to hand-hold photos like their teenage grandchild. It brings back the steadiness of their youth and it’s magical!,” said Jony Ive, Senior Vice President, Design. Because the miniature lens does not contain a diaphragm, smaller apertures are made possible through a digital compositing algorithm which combines several shots at different focal points. Images with unlimited depth of field, clarity and detail are now possible without resorting to expensive and difficult to use tilt-and-shift lenses or large format cameras. Similarly, the iPhotographer camera recognizes when variations in light exceed the dynamic range of the sensor and shoots several images at various stops over and under normal exposure to create a high dynamic range (HDR) composite. This is all done instantaneously without manual input or time-consuming post-processing.

Building on Eye Controlled Focus technology first introduced in the 20th century by the now defunct Canon Corporation, Apple’s iEye^TM focusing system tracks the user’s eye movements, integrating composition, focus and focus tracking, and frame rate into one continuous step. The built-in forward-facing eye sensor on the top of the iPhotographer - which also doubles as a camera for video conferencing - continuously monitors the user for eye movements. Side-to-side eye motion for a static landscape signals to the camera that a panorama is desired, so the articulating lens moves accordingly to create a composited panorama. Similarly, following a moving subject with your eyes lets the camera know that panning shots with a slow shutter speed to convey motion are desired. Blinking and panning eyes produces high shutter speed images of moving subjects. Lag time for the camera to decide is a scant 1/1000 of a millisecond.

On the software side, Apple is addressing a common complaint by creatives that weather often obscures vistas when on location. This can be quite costly and disappointing especially when family members are seeking to come back from vacation with marketable photographs. The new software, developed at Apple’s Adobe subsidiary, is called the Automated Location-Aware Fill (a-LAF) App and is integrated with the image processing engine on the A10 chip. Knowing the date, time of day, location and elevation from the built-in GPS, and orientation of iPhotographer with the built-in accelerometer, the a-LAF App removes clouds or other obstructions, resulting in a picture-postcard-perfect image. Conversely, the a-LAF App can even add in clouds, fog, rainbows, alpine-glow and other atmospheric phenomena to enhance scenics. Prompting the voice-activated menu system, users can engage the iMaster^TM App to emulate the look of various master photographers. Similar to the shuffle function in iTunes, iMaster will randomly select, based on the subject matter, among dozens of photographers’ styles contained in the A10 database. Shutterbugs will be delighted with the newfound timeless image quality after the style of such masters as Ansel Adams, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Annie Leibowitz, Helmut Newton, Frans Lanting, or Alfred Stieglitz, to name a few, is applied to their photos. iMaster can also be configured to shuffle by photographer, image genre, and photographic period (going back even to the genesis of photography). All of the post-processing workflow is transparent to the end-user - a testament to the power of the 10 GHz image processor - and “is a real confidence booster to creative types,” said Scott Forestall, Senior Vice President, iPhotographer Software.

With the introduction of iPhotographer, Apple is launching today the iPennyStock^TM Store. Intended to be a global clearinghouse for stock images, all iPhotographer images are uploaded to the iPennyStock servers via Apple’s cloud computing model, formatted for web viewing, catalogued, and displayed in the store in real time. Similar to iPhoto’s Faces technology, iDetect^TM software identifies all subject matter in a scene and automatically tags image files with keywords and captions. iDetect’s database contains over 10 billion identified subjects including flora and fauna (complete with genus and species keywords); geographic features; highways; towns, villages, and cities; state, provincial, and national parks; buildings; national monuments, and other iconic imagery; and celebrities. Uploading and storing images is free of charge. Apple will charge a 10-cent commission (10-50% of sale price) for images sold. All images will be sold with a royalty-free license. Images in higher demand will command the upper-tier 99-cent pricing structure. Use of iPhotographer legally binds users to grant Apple “the irrevocable, perpetual right to edit, adapt, use and publish in any media now known or hereafter discovered any or all of the photographs without compensation to the participant, his or her successors or assigns, or any other entity for use in promotion of the iPennyStock Store.” Said Apple’s Phi Schiller, Senior Vice President for Worldwide Marketing, “...with the iPennyStock Store, Apple will be opening up new avenues of revenue generation for millions of content creators and lowering the bar imposed by big, monopolistic, stock houses on rights-managed, high-quality images. It’s the democratization of stock photography and we are excited by the diverse content that will flood the market.”

iPhotographer is the only camera system you will ever need. And because the iPhotographer is solar powered, you will never need to replace a battery, and it will last a lifetime, or at least until its successor comes out next year. In addition to the standard model, a 3D model sporting a second articulating lens, will be available in April for $99.

In Steve Job’s closing remarks to a standing room only crowd at the Moscone Center, he said, “iPhotographer levels the playing field and removes the barriers that have denied entry to the business of photography for so many creatives for so long due to the lack of artistic talent, technique, training, experience, and initiative. It will revolutionize photography as we know it.”