iPhone 4 camera weirdness

kpenrice · Mar 8, 2013

Hi guys, new poster here and I already have a question, but I thought if anyone could answer it I would find them here!

My friend had a car accident a while back and took a few photos of it with her iPhone 4 to use in the court case. The lawyers from the other side are now saying that the EXIF data of the photos doesn't match an iPhone 4 as whilst the phone listed in the EXIF data says iPhone 4, the aperture setting (f-stop, f-number, whatever you want to call it) is 2.4, not 2.8 as it should be.

She certainly hasn't edited the EXIF data, but she may have cropped (not edited) the photos. She also no longer has the iPhone 4 to test with (she's on a 5 at the moment and had a 4S since).

My question is as follows:

1. Do any iPhone 4 phones have an aperture setting of 2.4? I don't mean iPhone 4S's, but straight up iPhone 4.

2. Do any iPhone 4S phones say iPhone 4 in their EXIF data? Like I said, she says she took it on her iPhone 4, but she may be mistaken as it was around that time she upgraded to her 4S.

3. Would any program change the EXIF data to say a different aperture setting or different phone?

I've spent ages looking and I've found a couple of sources that mention an iPhone 4 with this aperture setting:

****

and

https://discussions.apple.com/message/13230481#13230481

Please help, it's driving us both mental!

Lazer · Mar 29, 2013

kpenrice said:
Hi guys, new poster here and I already have a question, but I thought if anyone could answer it I would find them here!

My friend had a car accident a while back and took a few photos of it with her iPhone 4 to use in the court case. The lawyers from the other side are now saying that the EXIF data of the photos doesn't match an iPhone 4 as whilst the phone listed in the EXIF data says iPhone 4, the aperture setting (f-stop, f-number, whatever you want to call it) is 2.4, not 2.8 as it should be.

She certainly hasn't edited the EXIF data, but she may have cropped (not edited) the photos. She also no longer has the iPhone 4 to test with (she's on a 5 at the moment and had a 4S since).

My question is as follows:

1. Do any iPhone 4 phones have an aperture setting of 2.4? I don't mean iPhone 4S's, but straight up iPhone 4.iP
My recently purchased Verizon iPhone 4 has a aperture setting of 2.8. I suggest you corner an Apple "Genius" at an Apple Store and perhaps they can tell you if the first gen iPhone 4's had a 2.4. (Is there a first/second gen iPhone 4? I don't know!) But a bit of Googling tells me that the 4S does indeed have a 2.4 aperture. http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1244462

2. Do any iPhone 4S phones say iPhone 4 in their EXIF data? Like I said, she says she took it on her iPhone 4, but she may be mistaken as it was around that time she upgraded to her 4S

You might try this over in the 4S forum.

3. Would any program change the EXIF data to say a different aperture setting or different phone?
No program should spontaneously change the EXIF data. Some metadata can be manipulated intentionally with software designed for the purpose. Uploading to sites such as FLICKER will remove the data.

I've spent ages looking and I've found a couple of sources that mention an iPhone 4 with this aperture setting:

****

and

https://discussions.apple.com/message/13230481#13230481

Please help, it's driving us both mental!

Cropping a photo (at least with iPhoto) does not change the metadata.

I'm a retired criminal investigator and am quite familiar with attorneys and their ways. This guy is blowing smoke. The metadata (EXIF) issue is nothing but a red herring. It would be helpful if your friend could recall what phone she was using to take the pictures and I would assume she could go back through her cell records and figure out what phone she had on the day of the accident. When photo evidence is admitted in a trial, it is introduced by the person that takes it and it would help if she could testify as to what camera (phone) she used. They'll be one question: "Is this photo an accurate representation of the accident?" And that should do it.

Bring this issue up with her attorney and good luck.

L