The best camera in the world… just got even better.
All of my iPhone images I’ve posted in the past 2 years have been from my iPhone 4s. If you've followed me on Instagram or Facebook you would know that I love creating iPhoneONLY art.
I also try to document our personal story wherever we go.
I believe the best camera in the world is the camera that is always in your pocket. For me (and probably you) that's my iPhone. Here are the 3 reasons why I’m excited about the 5s and why you can be too…
1. The New Larger Sensor | Better Lighting in Dark Settings
Many people including myself were a bit upset that the iPhone 5, iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s all still have only an 8 megapixel camera like the iPhone 4s. Admittedly, that’s a huge reason why I didn’t upgrade to the 5 from my 4s immediately. My 4s takes incredible pictures. Why did I need just a slightly better camera if they are both 8 megapixels?
The answer for me now is that the iPhone 5s has made HUGE improvements to its sensor. The new sensor which is the part of the camera that actually records the light is 15% larger. This will allow a 33% increase in overall light sensitivity which means you can take better pictures in darker situations. THIS IS GREAT! I love the following description of it…
“Think of this as holding a thimble in a rain storm to try to catch water. The bigger your thimble, the easier it is to catch more drops in a shorter amount of time. This will also aid light gathering and should improve both color saturation and noise (or grain) levels in images.” – MATTHEW PANZARINO
BIGGER SENSOR = BIGGER PIXELS
BIGGER PIXELS = CATCHES MORE LIGHT
MORE LIGHT = BETTER QUALITY
For all of you techy people…The new 5-element lens in the iPhone 5S has a lens with a f2.2 aperture, which is a 1/4 stop improvement over the f2.4 aperture in the iPhone 5. This combined with the larger sensor size will team up to maximize the low light shooting capabilities. The iPhone 5S also now has autofocus matrix metering with 15 focus zones. This will help with getting sharp photos with greater detail when using autofocus and autoexposure in difficult low light situations like concerts, night time and portraits indoors.
2. The Faster more Robust A7 Chip | Faster more intelligent camera
Built into the A7 chip is a faster and even more souped up ISP “image signal processor.” The ISP is the brain in your iPhone camera that thinks about and decides how to process colors, exposures, contrast and tones, etc.
The iPhone 5S will take advantage of the new and improved ISP in the A7 chip and give you up to 2x faster autofocus and faster photo capture. Not to mention the sweet new feature of shooting HD video at 120 frames per second and the option to play it back in slow motion. (I’m really excited to play with this feature!)
3. Continuous Burst Mode | Better Capture of Actions & Expressions
Previously Apple’s built in iPhone Camera app has been pretty slow and has not been my first app choice for shooting photos. The new and improved burst mode lets you capture multiple shots of an action by snapping 10 photos per second all at full resolution. This is a HUGE leap from the clunky, slow camera app on my iPhone 4s. Apps like Camera+ have a burst mode but the image quality is saved at a reduced resolution on the 4s.
Apple says:
“The ISP and faster sensor also make burst mode possible, which is great when your subject is in motion. Burst mode continuously captures 10 photos per second, letting you take hundreds of images so you don’t miss a moment. Intelligent software algorithms work behind the scenes to analyze all the shots in real time, comparing sharpness and clarity and even detecting when someone’s eyes are closed. Then iPhone suggests individual photos or a sequence of photos that you might like best.”
Simply put, you can fire away in burst mode and your iPhone 5s will intelligently pick the clearest, sharpest and best photos out of the bunch for you to use.
Additional Noteworthy Features:
Auto Image Stabilization – kicks in when you need help to reduce noise and motion from shaky hands or moving subjects.
True Tone Flash – The flash is definitely better but that doesn’t excite me entirely. I strongly recommend avoid using the flash unless absolutely necessary because it will almost never look as flattering as finding soft light. I discuss this much more in depth in my forthcoming “iPhoneONLY Photography” book.:)
So what about you, are you going to upgrade and if so why?
[box] To learn more about iPhone photography, I'm excited to let you know I'll be releasing an iPhone ONLY photography book soon. (Release date TBA. Hint Hint… way before the holidays.)
To keep up with the latest release date and to get an exclusive first look at the book, sign up below for my free Newsletter to also get tips, tricks and a look behind the scenes on shoots.
SIGN UP FOR MY NEWSLETTER
[/box]
