I'll say one last thing on this topic, because I feel that my earlier statements captured my opinion precisely enough.

When I made those statements, they weren't from a perspective of judging the quality of a photo on an emotional nor artistic level.

Cris' photos, shot with an iPhone are very nice. I don't think anyone will dispute that. And the iPhone can certainly make some very nice pictures in many other circumstances.

This doesn't change my opinion of the iPhone's camera nor how I judged it against other camera-only devices. I'll continue to use the camera on my iPhone 4 and hope that Apple stays focused (no pun intended) on imager quality and features in upcoming iPhone models.

That out of the way, here are a few things that I'd love to see in a new design.

The camera lens moved to where the Apple logo is now on the iPhone 4 (instead of being at one corner). Two LEDs for flash, each farther away from the lens than the single one is now placed. If the volume button remains in the same position as it is currently, provide capacitive touch sensitivity on it, so that when using it with the camera app simply touching lightly it will focus and meter (on the already selected zone for example).

The above will make using the volume button for photos a lot more useful and practical. As software features, allow use of the LEDs as modeling lights which some 3rd party camera apps already have. Allow reducing the size of the meter/focus area.