National Geographic Photographer Praises iPhone 5s Camera

National Geographic photographer Jim Richardson took his iPhone 5s to Scotland and, after taking 4,000 photographs, called the camera on the device "very capable" with pictures that "didn’t look like I was having to settle for second best because it was a mobile phone".

Apple's Phil Schiller tweeted a link to the article this evening, commenting "iPhoneography".

With intense use (I’ve made about 4,000 pictures in the last four days) I’ve discovered that the iPhone 5S is a very capable camera. The color and exposures are amazingly good, the HDR exposure feature does a stunningly good job in touch situations, the panorama feature is nothing short of amazing—seeing a panorama sweeping across the screen in real time is just intoxicating. Best of all it shoots square pictures natively, a real plus for me since I wanted to shoot for Instagram posting.

Once I figured out what the camera could do well I began to forget all the things it couldn’t do at all.

While the iPhone 5s still uses an 8-megapixel camera, it utilizes a sensor that has a 15 percent larger surface area, which means it will produce higher quality photos in low-light conditions. It also has a 5-element lens with an aperture of f/2.2, an improvement over the iPhone 5's f/2.4 aperture and the pixels are larger, at 1.5 microns, for better light absorption. All in all, the iPhone 5s has a 33 percent increase in light sensitivity.

Interested readers can follow Jim Richardson's Instagram page at @jimrichardsonng or #proofscotland from the Instagram iOS app. The full post from National Geographic's Proof blog has more images as well.

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Top Rated Comments

Chuck-Norris Avatar
155 months ago
the best camera to have when taking pictures, is the one you have with you.
Score: 49 Votes (Like | Disagree)
imaginex20 Avatar
155 months ago
4,000 photos? Did Apple give him a special edition 128 GB model???

I guess you fail at simple math. If each picture is about 8mb x 4000 = 32000 or 32 gigs. 64 gig iPhone can easily handle...
Score: 26 Votes (Like | Disagree)
chumawumba Avatar
155 months ago
Amazing how great their products are! :)

Im not surprised you said that, considering your username is applefan
Score: 26 Votes (Like | Disagree)
4lorn Avatar
155 months ago
Instagram, huh...?

"Oh cool!" I thought "Finally a review by someone who knows something about photography, not another Instagram selfie poster"

Sigh...
Score: 24 Votes (Like | Disagree)
applefan10466 Avatar
155 months ago
Im not surprised you said that, considering your username is applefan

Lol yep, I love my apple products.
Score: 20 Votes (Like | Disagree)
longofest Avatar
155 months ago
I can't believe a professional said this:

Best of all it shoots square pictures natively, a real plus for me since I wanted to shoot for Instagram posting.

I think I just threw up in my mouth a little bit. :eek:
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)