My iPhone 3GS f*cked up completely. Just wouldn't turn on, iTunes refused to recognize it, I couldn't even format the damn thing. And yet I was still able to rescue my photos, as the computer recognized it as an external drive. Would have lost them otherwise, as I hadn't backed the phone up for 6 months. More recently, when I upgraded from the 4 to the 5, all the photos that were in the camera roll of the old phone ended up on the new phone, as iTunes had backed up (almost) the whole phone. Ones that were in abums though, I lost. Apparently they're not transferable. Hope that helps.