iPhone: The World’s Most Popular Camera, Says Geekaphone

If a picture says a thousand words, the iPhone camera speaks volumes.

This week, blog site Geekaphone claimed the iPhone has become the “world’s most popular camera” with 45 million iPhone photos uploaded to flickr. It’s not just for amateurs to use, professionals too are capturing notable images with their iPhone cameras. For example, New York Times photographer Damon Winter uses his iPhone to take pictures of soldiers in the field.

And to think Apple’s rise in the camera market started with the standalone Apple QuickTake in the 1990s. So what makes the iPhone such a great camera?

For starters, the iPhone 4’s 5-megapixel camera really renders awesome images. More importantly, the iPhone (read: camera) is always within hand’s reach whenever photo opportunities arise.

Then there is the App Store. Some 6,000 photography apps are ready for download, everything from filters (Hipstamatic) to panoramic features (360 Panorama) to digital effects (Color Splash). Each of which can add interest to even the most boring pictures.

Here are Geekaphone’s must-have iPhone camera apps:  

I’ve seen hundreds of iPhone pictures while Web surfing, on flickr, and especially from Facebook friends. While my high school photography class doesn’t qualify me to be a photo critic, here are three of my favorite iPhone photos:

Tom Kaneshige covers Apple and Networking for CIO.com. Follow Tom on Twitter @kaneshige. Follow everything from CIO.com on Twitter @CIOonline and on Facebook. Email Tom at tkanshige@cio.com