iphoneApple’s iPhone is a wonderful device, able to do a lot of things well with a slick and revolutionary touchscreen interface that has changed the way people interact with their phones. For all its good qualities though, the iPhone still has a major flaw, and that is its camera.

The iPhone has a 2.0 megapixel fixed-focus camera with no zoom, no white balance adjustment, and no video capability, something that could have been great a couple of years ago but something that just won’t cut it anymore. In these days of 5.0 and 8.0 megapixel autofocus camera phones with manual adustments and with high-definition video capabilities, the iPhone’s tiny sensor just can’t compete.

Luckily, there are some things that can be done to alleviate the situation. The first thing of course involves taking better pictures. The basic rules of photography still apply here, so use the rule of thirds, wherein instead of placing your subject dead center, place it on one of the intersections of an imaginary 3×3 grid. Don’t take pictures in direct sunlight as this will result to pictures with hard shadows. Keep the lens clean to get clear pictures. Lastly, hold the phone with both hands and in a landscape orientation to lessen blur.

There are also a lot of applications available on the app store which adds to the capabilities of the iPhone’s camera. There are some that add digital zoom, white balance adjustment, and anti-shake acpabilities. It’s just a matter of finding what you need.