Dave Metzener's Weblog

When did Apple change the way they send pictures taken by the iPhone? When I first got the iPhone, if I would take a picture which was stored in the phone as 1600×1200 it would send the images in email as 800×600 or quarter size.

I was testing a form I was creating for taking information in case of an automobile accident and was testing taking pictures and sending them as well. I copied the pictures out of my Camera Roll and pasted them into the email message I was testing and sent. When I looked at the email, I was very surprised to see the images at 1600×1200!

This works whether you use the Share button in the Camera Roll to send the email or simply copy them to the clipboard. I don’t remember over reading any of the blog posts about iPhone OS updates where they said that the pictures would be sent at full resolution now.

Searching Google, I am finding people asking questions about the 800×600 size as recently as 2 months ago. So I have to assume that this was an update in the 3.0 Firmware. Maybe its because of the MMS feature added but not usable in the US yet (thanks a bunch AT&T!). I’m pretty sure that the “Share” button in the Photo app is new to allow photo and movie MMS message to be sent. They must have decided to send those items full-size and in doing so, allowed pictures (and possibly movies, I don’t have the 3GS to verify that) in emails.

Either way, I’m very pleased that we can send full-sized photos in email now.

Here are some screen shots of the Photo Application showing what I am talking about in the 3.0 iPhone Firmware:

This is the Photo App with the Share button circled

Here I have highlighted 3 pictures to either be emailed (or MMS’s when AT&T gets around to it) or copied to the clipboard.

In the Camera Roll, you can delete pictures taken as well as Share/Copy them.

If you tap the “Share” button, you get this screen giving you the ability to Email the selection. I suspect when AT&T finally decided to let us poor Americans send MMS’s, that there will be another button labeled “MMS”.