Why do some cameraphones look like they're filming underwater?

[David H]

Even with the latest iPhones the video on many, old and new, look like they've been filmed underwater with everything waving around. I'd have assumed by now whatever short cuts they made to fit the technology into a little phone to allow it to happen could be overcome but it's no better now than on the originals. What is the problem that creates it and why can't they overcome it yet?

[cazzz1975]

the lens size on the phone is very small so its difficult to get a lot of light in through the lens, so everything has to be turned up ( white balance) so to speak, so when you move it around it struggles to cope with the change of scenery and speed.

essentially a camera fitted to a mobile phone is only really for taking snaps, for important pictures a proper camera is always best.

[rojash]

As cazzz says - look at the lens on a decent video camera, or a digital SLR and compare it to the pinhole on a phone.

[Mobius1]

Also - user ignorance. The poor image quality is often a result of compression, some fool takes a 720p or 1080p video and then encodes in VGA resolution for upload to the web. Kinda like painting a lovely picture and then having it sat on and run over by a lorry.

Then there's the people with the latest tech who haven't a clue and actually record at sub HD resolutions not realising how to actually use what they've got. Same thing with modern digital still cameras.