flickr windmill photos taken on an iPhone

By one measure, the most popular camera currently used by flickr members is the Apple iPhone 3G. (That measure is the day by day percentage of users who upload images taken on that camera type. There are certainly many camera types which have a higher absolute number of photos that have been uploaded, but often over a longer period, and possibly from fewer users than the iPhone).

However, the iphone 3G has a pretty poor camera (the camera on the iPhone 3GS is improved, but still a long way off even a fairly cheap dedicated point and shoot camera) so I was interested to see what sort of windmill images iPhone users have come up with.

The following are just a selection of images I found. As ever, searching for "windmill" throws up pictures that show traditional windmills, mock mills, wind engines, wind turbines, toys, and things that are barely relevant, or simply mis-tagged entirely. I've included any type of iPhone here, not just the 3G model, and my selection leans heavily towards the traditional mills.

• As ever, the most photographed mill is in Golden Gate Park: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19
• Just one instance of the Moulin Rouge, which seems surprisingly under-represented: 1
• An interesting set of four images of Pitstone mill: 1, 2, 3, 4
• Bembridge: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
• Lytham: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
• Wray Common: 1
• Heage: 1, 2
• Upminster: 1, 2, 3
• Thurne: 1, 2

None of these are really good images technically, and there seems to be a high proportion of images that are deliberatly manipulated to produce a worse image than the camera is capable of for stylistic purposes. However, the iPhone camera does have some advantages

• carrying any camera is better than not having a camera at all for capturing images!
• the iphone can geo-tag the images it produces - not everyone turns this on, but it's great to have this info available to back up any manually given description of the photo location
• the iphone 3GS additionally stores a compass direction that the camera was pointing in