iPhone as a USB Camera
Your iPhone identifies itself as a standard USB digital camera when you connect it to computers. This allows you to offload your images to the computer without using iTunes. On Windows, your iPhone works like any other digital camera. You can set it up to automatically download its pictures each time it connects. On Macs, you can download photos using iPhoto, Image Capture, Preview, or any other software that communicates using the USB digital camera standard.
The iPhone and Windows XP
Windows allows you to choose what happens when you connect your iPhone to your computer. To make that choice, follow these steps:
- Open the Control Panel, select Printers and Other Hardware → Scanners and Camera → Apple iPhone (Windows XP).
- Right-click Apple iPhone, and pick Properties from the context menu.
- Click the Events tab, and choose the "Camera connected" option from the "Select an event" pop-up list.
The Apple iPhone Properties dialog box allows you to automatically save your iPhone pictures to a folder you specify. - Pick one of three options for when you connect your iPhone to your computer:
- Start this program: By default, this option launches the Microsoft Scanner and Camera Wizard and guides you through the process of choosing whether to download your images.
- Take no action: Choose this option when you want to manage your photos through iTunes or when your iPhone is hosted on another computer. It tells Windows not to do anything automatically when you attach your iPhone.
- Save all pictures to this folder: Select this option to automatically download your images to a folder you specify whenever you connect your iPhone. This makes photo downloads simple. Connect your iPhone; offload your pictures.
iPhone and Windows Vista/Windows 7
For Windows Vista and Windows 7, changing the default action when you attach an iPhone to the device is done in a different manner than with Windows XP. When the iPhone is connected to the Windows computer with a USB cable, two actions take place. First, iTunes is launched if it has been installed on the computer. The second action is to launch the AutoPlay window. When Windows detects that the iPhone has a built-in camera, AutoPlay gives you the option of importing pictures using Windows or opening the device to view files with Windows Explorer.
When your iPhone is attached to your Windows Vista or Windows 7 computer for the first time, the AutoPlay dialog box appears. Check "Always do this for this device" if you want to have it always import pictures into the Pictures folder or if you want to use Windows Explorer to view, copy, or move the image and video files on the iPhone to the computer.
You can set other AutoPlay defaults by clicking the Set AutoPlay defaults in Control Panel link at the bottom of the dialog box. Doing this opens a window that, among other things, displays devices that have been attached to the computer. This window lets you also choose the option to take no action when you attach your iPhone to the computer (helpful if you plan to use iTunes to sync photos to your PC) or ask whether you want to import pictures or browse files each time the iPhone is connected.
If you're going to use iTunes to sync photos between a folder on your computer and your iPhone, then you may want to set AutoPlay to take no action when you connect your iPhone via the USB sync cable.
iPhone and Mac Image Capture
By default, iPhoto is your iPhone's natural sync partner, but you do have a choice. If you want to just download your pictures to a folder, rather than import them into iPhoto, use Image Capture instead, as follows:
- Launch Applications → Image Capture.
- In the sidebar on the left side of the app window, select your iPhone from the list of Devices. Below, you'll see the name of the device and the words "Connecting this iPhone opens:". You can make a choice to open iPhoto (the default), Image Capture, Preview, or AutoImporter.
Now you're ready. Connecting your iPhone launches Image Capture instead of iPhoto. To download your entire photo roll, select the folder where you want to save your photos and video, and then click Import All. The iPhone sends over its pictures, and the Mac stores them in the selected folder.
What's that AutoImporter setting? If you select this, connecting your iPhone to your Mac automatically opens Image Capture and imports all photos without intervention on your part. It's perfect if you take a lot of photos with your iPhone and don't want to be hassled with choices or dialog boxes on your Mac every time you connect the iPhone. Image Capture provides more than just another way to pull photos off your iPhone. It also displays a huge amount of information about every picture. You can view a time and date stamp, the size of the file, the aperture at which the photo was taken (it will always be f/2.4 on an iPhone 4), the color depth of the image (in bits), the color space (which helps reproduce the image colors on your computer), the physical dimensions of the image in pixels, the resolution in dots per inch, the Exchangeable Image File Format (EXIF) version, the focal length of the lens (4mm on iPhone 4), the shutter speed, the "film" speed (ISO), the latitude and longitude for the location where the photo was taken, the flash settings, the maker of the camera (Apple), and the model (iPhone).
iPhone and Mac Preview
The Preview application that comes with every Mac is an extremely useful program. You can view most image formats, annotate images, do some minor color tweaking, and rotate or crop pictures. It shouldn't come as a surprise that it can also be used to import and display images from your iPhone.
Launching Preview on your Mac when your iPhone is attached to it, select File → Import from <name of your iPhone>. Clicking Import or Import All copies the photos on your iPhone and then opens them for editing or viewing in Preview.