The reason photos need to be able to go back to the iPhone in original size

Question

I have been looking around to try and find a way to get photos that have been pulled from the iPhone then resynced up to the iPhone to retain their original size, but it appears that there's no workaround for this. That is a very big problem for me. I'm an iPhone photographer and I've taken nearly 4000 photos on my phone. Every week or two I'll resync up my phone to the PC, dump the images to the PC then re-sync them up to the phone organized into folders by date. So far so good.
The problem comes when I need to go back and re-edit some of those photographs. I no longer have access to the original sized images on my phone, and my photography work requires that all editing is done exclusively on the iPhone, but I need to maintain the maximum possible resolution on those images. Unfortunately once I sync the photos, I can no longer go back and re-edit them in their full resolution. I'm forced to deal with small images now that do not meet my resolution requirements.
I can understand resizing the images to a size that's more practical for display on the iPhone since under normal circumstances there's no reason to have a 1600x1200 image on a phone that can only display 480x320. But this is really a serious issue for me as I don't have them on there simply for viewing, but I have them there for editing and manipulating. With the advent of the App Store, and all the Photography apps that are on the market, the iPhone is actually a very powerful tool for artistic expression and to have it forceably limited to a low-resolution import really is absurd.
This may not be an issue for the majority of iPhone users, but for me it is critical. The resizing of photographs needs to be an OPTION, not a REQUIREMENT so that people like me can utilize the iPhone to its maximum potential. This limitation takes it, in my view, from being a serious tool, to a casual toy.
My only other option is to not sync the photos up to the PC (aside from simply copying them over as a backup and leaving them on the phone) and have an un-organized camera roll of 3-4000 photos. This simply isn't very practical.
Thank you, and I'd like to hear your comments on this. (Actually, I'd like to see Apple fix this in their next update...)
-Marc

Answer 1

Marc Bublitz wrote:
I thought that originally too, but that's all changed with the pool of apps that are out there now. So now what I'm trying to do is to prove that technology is progressing to the point where a tiny, handheld phone can produce images that are nearly as good as photos taken with much more expensive and bulky equipment. I've got my share of expensive bulky camera equipment, but I'm finding that I'm having much more enjoyment out of using my iPhone from initial capture, to editing, to publishing, and achieving results that are nearly as good.
I do think you're working under a bit of a handicap. For example, lens quality. Here's an iPhone photo example of some wild turkeys in the neighborhood masked by flare that would be much better controlled on an SLR lens (click to enlarge - the flare is obvious, the turkeys are not):
At the same time, working under a handicap can definitely spur creativity, similar to the oft-cited example of swapping out your zoom lens for a prime to force yourself to pay attention to composition.
It's an interesting concept - I wish you luck!