Using the video camera on the iPhone 3GS

The video camera on the iPhone 3GS takes approximately standard definition (SD) video at a silky smooth 30 frames per second. Here are some tips about getting the best out of your video camera...

It's better to hold the iPhone 3GS horizontally when using the video camera - otherwise when you play back the videos on TV or your computer they will be in 'tallscreen' with lots of wasted horizontal space.

You can click on a subject on the screen at the start of the video to set the focus and the exposure using the on-screen square. But remember if you do this and then change the subject the focus will be 'locked' to the original distance.

Hold the iPhone 3GS in two hands - ideally while resting on or against a solid object - to ensure that the picture is as stable as possible.

Remember while you can use the red onscreen button to start and stop videos - you can also use the main button on the supplied iPhone 3GS headsets too.

Although the iPhone 3GS has the ability to trim the videos - it's a very blunt instrument that can only remove footage from the start and the end. Much better to 'edit while you shoot'.

Each minute of video you take will eat up approximately 3.7MB of storage space. Although the footage is compressed heavily when you upload it to YouTube, MMS or email the processing will obviously take that much longer the more you take - and use up that much more bandwidth.

Remember if you talk while you take footage your voice will be much louder than the subject because the microphone is facing you (and you're a lot closer).

To transfer your videos from your iPhone 3GS to your computer you need to import them using a compatible program. On a PC we recommend Adobe Photoshop Elements to import both photos and videos. On a Mac, you just have to launch iPhoto to import videos and photos. Videos imported this way will be uncompressed and remain at the same high quality at which they were recorded.

You can add geo-tagging to the videos you take with the camera. This will enable you to plot your videos against geographic locations in websites like YouTube and applications such as Google Earth.

To make sure your videos are tagged you have to enable Location services: click on Settings then General then make sure Location Services is switched on.