For a lot of us, our favorite iPhone or iPad is going to be the best digital camera that we have on hand. You know what they say: "the best camera is the one you have with you," after all. And when you have your iPhone in your hand, you are able to quickly capture selfies, portraits, panoramas, 4K digital video, high dynamic range (HDR), action shots with burst, and so much more.

The Camera app on your iPhone, and even the iPad, will help you capture all of life's whimsical moments, whether they're planned or completely spontaneous. Here is a full guide on how to use the Camera app on your iPhone to its full potential.

How to quickly access the Camera on iPhone and iPad

When you want to take a photo of the moment, you'll want to be fast to make sure that the particular scene doesn't escape you. Thankfully, when you use the native Camera app, getting to it can be done quickly and easily since there are a few different ways to do so.

The easiest way is to start the Camera app from the Lock Screen since there's a button right there for it. You can also use the Control Center Camera toggle, or even use Haptic Touch to get right to a selfie, video, Portrait mode, or Portrait selfie.

For those who enjoy using voice commands, you can even tell Siri to help you take a picture.

How to take photos, bursts, panoramas, and more

Even though it looks barebones compared to third-party camera app replacements, the native Camera app is capable of taking a wide variety of different photo types. You can take a regular, standard photo, but you can go a step further with burst mode for action shots, Portrait mode and Portrait selfies, HDR photos for landscapes, square photos for the Instagram, timed photos for group shots, panoramas, and a ton more. Plus, the iPhone has a built-in LED flash to help you with in dim light, which is always useful to have.

For all of the other stuff, take a look at our guide on how to shoot photos, selfies, burst, and more on your iPhone.

How to take and share Live Photos

One of the fun things about the iPhone is the ability to take Live Photos. These are more like moving photos — kind of a hybrid between a JPG image and a MOV file. You know in Harry Potter, where they have those photos that are animated? Yeah, it's kind of like that. With a Live Photo, what you capture the moment you hit the shutter button is the mid-point of the Live Photo, because it will also record the 1.5-seconds before and after that point.

If you want to master the art of Live Photos and how to take, view, and share them, check out our full Live Photos guide.

How to lock focus, bias exposure, enable grid, and geo-locate your Photos

You know how you can tap on the screen in the Camera app to set the focus point for your shot? I bet you didn't know that you can also do some advanced things like lock the focus point, change the exposure, and even enable a grid to make it easier to get the perfect composition. Enabling these features is not as obvious as the various photo modes, but don't worry! We show you exactly how to lock focus, adjust exposure, enable the grid, and even turn on geo-location for your iPhone photos.

How to record video, slow-mo, and time lapses on your iPhone

Your iPhone isn't just a great camera for still photos, but it is a powerful video recorder too. With the iPhone, you're able to record standard video up to 60 fps, and some of the more recent models, like the iPhone 12, are capable of 4K recording at 60 fps.

Check out our full guide on how to record video with your iPhone or iPad for all of the basics, plus shooting in slow-mo, making time lapse videos, and more.

How to use the Telephoto lens on your iPhone

Ever since the iPhone 7 Plus, Apple has added a telephoto lens on the more expensive flagship devices. The telephoto lens allows you to get at least 2x optical zoom, and it can go up to 10x digital zoom, so you can get up close and personal with your photographs. So if you have at least an iPhone 7 Plus or later, here's how to use photographic zoom with the telephoto lens.

Once you have zoomed in enough with the telephoto lens, shooting a photo is just like snapping a regular photo — just tap that shutter button and voilà!

The telephoto lens also made Portrait mode possible because of the multi-lens system. However, recent advancements in software has made it possible for iPhones with single-lens camera systems (like the iPhone SE (2020)) to get Portrait mode as well, with some limitations.

How to shoot RAW and manual-mode photos

If you have an iPhone 12 Pro or iPhone 12 Pro Max, then you have the ability to shoot in Apple's new ProRAW format. Think of it like a hybrid between true RAW and a JPEG/HEIC image. It uses Apple's signature computation photography features with a 12-bit RAW DNG file that has 14 stops of dynamic range. Editing a ProRAW image gives us as much of the pure data as possible, so we have even more control of what happens in the post-editing process. But ProRAW image files can be large — up to 25MB each, so use them sparingly.

If you don't have an iPhone 12 Pro or Pro Max, then you'll have to know how to use a third-party app to shoot in RAW format on iPhone 11 and earlier. We have some manual camera apps that we highly recommend for shooting in manual or RAW modes.

How to quickly edit and and share photos and video from the Camera app

While there's a dedicated Photos app on your iPhone and iPad for all of your post-processing needs, sometimes you just want to make a very quick edit or share immediately after snapping a photo in the Camera.

This is actually possible right in the Camera app, and all you need to do is tap on the thumbnail of the photo you just took. You can then access your Camera Roll, make basic edits, and share your results with friends and family. Or if you just aren't satisfied with a photo, deleting it has never been faster!

How to use the Camera app on an iPhone 11 and later

If you have an iPhone 11 series or later, then you have some extra controls and features in the Camera app that aren't available on older models. This includes the new dual and triple lens camera systems with the Wide, Ultra Wide, and Telephoto lenses, Night Mode, QuickTake videos, wide-angle selfies, photo capture outside the frame, Deep Fusion, "slofies" (slow motion selfies), and more. To make sure that you don't miss out on any of these awesome new Camera features, check out our full guide on how to use the camera on iPhone 11 and later.

Questions?

That about covers everything you need to know about how to use the Camera app on your iPhone or iPad. If you have any questions, make sure to drop them in the comments below and we'll do our best to help.

With the Camera app app for iPhone and iPad, you can take photos. You can also take flash photos, high dynamic range photos, timer photos, and selfies. You can even use the volume buttons or a headset remote to trigger the shutter. All that, and more, with just a few taps.

• How to take a photo
• How to use the volume button to take a photo
• How to use a headset to take a photo
• How to take and select 'burst mode' photos
• How to set the flash
• How to set the timer
• How to take a selfie
• How to take a square photo
• How to take a panorama
• How to use live photo filters

How to take a photo

1. Launch the Camera app from your iPhone or iPad's Home screen.
2. Tap the Shutter button.
3. Tap the Thumbnail button to preview and edit your photo.

Your photo will now be taken and saved to the Camera Roll/All Photos album. You can access it at any time by launching the Photos app.

How to use the volume button to take a photo

If you prefer a hardware button for your shutter, you're in luck. You can snap away with the volume buttons.

1. Launch the Camera app from the Home screen.
2. Frame the scene you want to take, just as normal.
3. Press the hardware volume up button to activate the camera shutter and take a picture.

How to use the headphone remote to take a photo

Because many headsets now come with control modules, which include volume up buttons, they can also be used to trigger the camera shutter. If the headset has a long cord or is wireless, you can use it to trigger the camera shutter over a longer distance.

1. Launch the Camera app from the Home screen.
2. Frame the scene you want to take, just like normal.
3. Press the hardware volume up button on the headset to activate the camera shutter and take a picture.

How to take and select 'burst mode' photos

1. Launch the Camera app on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Frame the scene that you want to capture as normal.
3. For iPhone XS and earlier, just tap and hold the shutter button to do Burst mode capture.
4. On iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro, press and swipe to the left in quick succession for Burst mode capture.

5. iOS will select what it thinks the best picture out of the bunch. If you don't like what it chose, you can pick your own.
6. Tap on the thumbnail in the bottom left corner after your burst capture.

7. Tap on the Burst mode stack that you want to view.
8. Tap Select...
9. Tap the blue checkmark on the photos you want to keep.
   • A gray dot appears below the thumbnail scrubber for the images with the best focus and composition.
10. Tap Done after making your decision on what to keep.
11. Tap Keep Everything if you want to keep all images in the stack, or Keep Only (number) Favorites to trash the ones you didn't pick.

12. After all that, the selected photos are ungrouped and in your Camera Roll.

How to take burst photos on iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro

How to set the flash on your iPhone or iPad

1. Launch the Camera app on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Tap the Flash toggle in the upper corner.
3. Select whether you want it on Auto, On, or Off. On an iPhone 11 or iPhone 11 Pro, you may need to tap on the arrow at the top to bring up the Auto, On, or Off options.

Keep in mind that if you are using an iPhone 11 or iPhone 11 Pro and have Flash toggled to On or Automatic, then Night Mode will not kick in since it will utilize the flash instead.

How to use additional controls in the Camera app on iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro

How to set a timer on the camera for iPhone and iPad

1. Launch the Camera app on your iPhone or iPad.
2. On an iPhone 11 or iPhone 11 Pro, tap the arrow at the top of the screen or swipe up from above the shutter button. If you're using an iPhone XS or earlier, skip this step.

3. Tap the Timer button.
4. Choose either 3 seconds or 10 seconds.

5. Tap the camera shutter button to start the countdown.

On an iPhone, the screen will blink with the countdown. A number countdown also shows up on the screen, and the device provides haptic feedback (if available) when the capture is being taken.

How to use additional controls in the Camera app on iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro

How to switch from the rear-facing to front-facing camera on your iPhone or iPad

1. Launch the Camera app on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Tap the Flip camera button to switch between the front-facing FaceTime and rear-facing cameras.
3. Tap the Shutter button to capture a photo or start taking a video.

How to take a square photo with your iPhone or iPad

1. Launch the Camera app on your iPhone or iPad.
2. On iPhone 11 or iPhone 11 Pro devices, tap on the arrow at the top of the screen or swipe up from above the shutter button. If you're using an iPhone XS or earlier, skip this step.

3. Tap the aspect ratio button.
4. Select Square.

5. If you are using a non iPhone 11 device, just swipe left to change the mode to Square.

How to use additional controls in the Camera app on iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro

How to take a panorama with your iPhone or iPad

1. Launch the Camera app on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Swipe left twice to change modes to Pano.
3. Tap the arrow button to change the capture direction, if desired.

4. Tap the shutter button to start taking a panoramic photo.
5. Turn or pan your iPhone or iPad to capture as much of your surroundings as you like. Try to keep the point of the arrow in line with the yellow guide. The app will also give you feedback if you're moving too fast or too slow.
6. Tap the shutter button again to end the panorama.

The Camera app doesn't currently support full 360º panoramas. You can take up to a 240º panorama in one shot, so keep that in mind. You obviously don't have to use the entire 240º if you don't want to.

How to use live photo filters with the Camera on iPhone

1. Launch the Photos app on your iPhone or iPad.
2. On an iPhone 11 or iPhone 11 Pro, tap the arrow at the top of the screen or swipe up from above the shutter button. If you're on iPhone XS or earlier, skip this step.

3. Tap the filter button — it looks like three staggered circles.
4. Select the filter you want to use.

5. Tap the Shutter button to take your photo with the filter applied.

How to use additional controls in the Camera app on iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro

Questions?

Have any other questions about taking photos, selfies, bursts, and more with your iPhone or iPad? Leave 'em in the comments!

Updated July 2020: Updated for iOS 13.6 and iOS 14 (in beta).

What you need to know

• It was found that iPhone owners had unlimited original quality photo storage.
• Google now says that was a bug, rather than a feature.
• It's working to fix it, too.

Sometimes bugs happen. And sometimes those bugs give millions of iPhone owners the chance to upload original quality images to Google Photos for free. But bugs don't usually live forever and Google has confirmed that it's working to squash this one.

One Redditor noticed last week that the iPhone camera app's use of HEIC files meant that the Google Photos app thought they were already compressed. As a result they were uploaded and classed as a free "High Quality" image. But they were actually the "Original" quality that people would normally need to pay for.

Unfortuantely, none of that was by design and now Google has confirmed to Android Authority that this is a bug and not expected behavoir. "We are aware of this bug and are working to fix it," the company said.

Presumably that fix will also be retrospective, informing iPhone owners who already have photos uploaded that they'll need to pay up. Or else.

It's notable that recent Android phones also support HEIC image capture, so it's likely Google will want to close this loophole for any phone that could have taken advantage of it, too.

The iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro have a lot of updates centering around the camera systems, and not all of them involve the hardware. On Apple's latest iPhones, the Camera app works a little differently, introducing new features, including the new quick video feature.

By holding down the camera's shutter button, you can start taking a video without even moving to video mode in the app first. This new feature necessitates a change in how burst photos are taken.

Here's how to take quick videos and burst photos on the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro.

• How to take a quick video
• How to take burst photos

How to take a quick video on iPhone 11

1. Open Camera on your iPhone.
2. Tap and hold on the shutter button with the camera in Photo mode. Your video recording will now begin, and lifting your finger at this point will cause the video recording to stop.
3. Swipe the recording button to the lock icon on the right. This will keep your recording going even when you lift your finger from your iPhone.

Something to keep in mind about quick video: it doesn't record in 4K. No matter what resolution you've set for taking video on your iPhone, whether above or below 4K, quick videos on the iPhone 11 series of phones will always record at a resolution of 1920 X 1440.

How to take burst photos on iPhone 11

1. Open Camera on your iPhone.
2. Press and swipe the shutter button to the left. This has to be done quickly so you don't start a quick video recording.
3. Lift your finger from the shutter button to stop taking your burst photo.

Questions?

If you have any questions about taking a quick video or burst mode photos on your iPhone 11 or iPhone 11 Pro, let us know in the comments.

What you need to know

• Jay Freeman is well known in the jailbreaking community.
• He's been testing his iPhone 11 Pro Max.
• Its viewfinder is up to 66ms slower than an iPhone XS.

Infamous jailbreaker Jay Freeman has been suffering from motion sickness when using the Camera app on his iPhone 11 Pro Max. And he thinks it's all down to how much slower the preview is.

Freeman went about testing his theory by using multiple iPhones to capture a running timer on yet another iPhone. As that timer ran, he noticed that the timer was delayed when seen through the iPhones viewfinder. You'd expect that, but the difference between how far the iPhone XS and iPhone 11 Pro Max delayed things appears to be causing the motion sickness.

As Freeman points out, the iPhone 11 Pro Max is anything up to 66ms slower than the iPhone XS which itself delays the feed by around 100ms. As it turns out, that's just enough to bring on motion sickness.

It's important to note that the iPhone 11 Pro Max was running iOS 13 and the iPhone XS was running iOS 12.4, so it isn't clear whether this is down to the newer hardware of something software-related. Freeman did test multiple cameras, too.

This is the first time we've heard of an iPhone causing motion sickness in this way, but users of DSLR cameras have complained of similar things using electronic viewfinders in the past. The cause is believed to be the delay between what your eyes are seeing and your ears are hearing, but we're not doctors. We've never played one on TV, either.

Since my first iPhone, more than 10 years ago, I've tried to capture some of the amazing live music experiences I've been lucky enough to enjoy. Until the iPhone 7 Plus, no live music pics were even worth keeping. Everything was grainy, noisy, and just flat. With iPhone 7, however, things got a little better, and every iPhone thereafter incrementally better, but nothing to start a digital magazine for. Mobile phone photography on iPhone just never seemed to quite meet my standards for capturing the action and depth I see when watching bands at my favorite local venues.

The conditions are practically impossible, even for the most trained photographers with more advanced cameras than any iPhone ever had. Dim lighting plus wild movement equals noise, grain, and blur where you don't want blur. Using the iPhone's flash is out of the question. Not only does it piss off band members and audience participants, but it washes out the visuals, making the vibrant glow of the room look like a dirty mess.

So with Night mode on iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max, of course I had to put this technology to the test. Could this hardware/software computation handle one of the worst possible lighting conditions for taking actions shots?

Sort of.

What I learned from testing is that Night mode on the new iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro absolutely shows a marked improvement over any previous iPhone. If you're at a bar or club with your friends and you want to capture those beautiful moments, those memories you never want to forget, the way your significant other looks in candlelight, Night mode is beyond extraordinary. It's going to change the way we take pictures, and where, and when.

Midnight on New Year's Eve? Baby's first birthday? A lovely evening walk on a winter night? All of it can be captured with beautiful results on the camera you have in your pocket.

If, however, you're hoping to be the next photographer for Rolling Stone with your iPhone 11 Pro, it's not going to happen this year. There's still some work to be done before mobile phone cameras are capable of capturing that dimly lit action.

While Night mode did a fantastic job of sharpening up most of the action shots at the live music event I took pictures at, better than ever before, faces struggled the most. Of course, when you're shredding metal like Bruce Dickinson, you're going to move your face around a lot. So it's not a surprise that Night mode can't keep up. It is, after all, opening up that shutter for a few seconds, which makes it difficult to capture stillness that isn't there.

What I'd love to see Apple work on next is balancing Night mode with action. If Night mode takes a bunch of shots from different angles and stitches together what it considers to be the main subject of the composition, I could imagine a day when Night Action mode first, takes one single still image — that'd be the one that snaps the exact moment you want, identifies the face, and keeps the sharpest parts of facial features — and then uses the same computational software to stitch together the rest of the scene. So the face would be based on one original non-stitched picture, while the rest of the image would be Night mode smooth.

For now, however, I think Night mode is best used for less active movement (you definitely don't have to remain totally still ... just more still than rocking out on stage), while using the iPhone 11 or iPhone 11 Pro without Night mode (plus hiking up the brightness) would be for those chaotic dim-lighting action shots, even if they are a little noisy and grainy.

The images used throughout this article have been edited in post. The images in the gallery below include everything I took without any post-editing work so you can see exactly what I ended up with at the end of the night, bad composition, overexposure, and all.

Because of the new camera setups in the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro, Apple's newest phones feature a number changes to the camera apps compared to other phones on iOS 13 and later. There are new controls to access, a new way to move between multiple cameras, features like quick video and more.

Here's how to use the Camera app on the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro.

• How to quickly move between wide, ultra-wide, and telephoto cameras
• How to take a quick video
• How to take burst photos
• How to use additional controls in the Camera app
• How to set up photo capture outside of the frame
• How to edit images with data from outside the frame
• How to switch between close and wide-angle selfies
• How to take a slofie

How to quickly move between wide, ultra-wide, and telephoto cameras

1. Open the Camera app on your iPhone.
2. Tap 0.5x, 1, or (if you have an iPhone 11 Pro) 2 to instantly switch between cameras.

3. Tap and hold on the camera selection buttons to cause the zoom dial to appear.
4. Drag the zoom dial back and forth to smoothly transition between the wide, ultra-wide, and telephoto cameras, as well as their digital zoom levels.

How to take a quick video

1. Open Camera on your iPhone.
2. Tap and hold on the shutter button with the camera in Photo mode. Your video recording will now begin, and lifting your finger at this point will cause the video recording to stop.
3. Swipe the recording button to the lock icon on the right. This will keep your recording going even when you lift your finger from your iPhone.

How to take burst photos

1. Open Camera on your iPhone.
2. Press and swipe the shutter button to the left. This has to be done quickly so you don't start a quick video recording.
3. Lift your finger from the shutter button to stop taking your burst photo.

How to use additional controls in the Camera app

1. Open Camera.
2. Swipe up on the viewfinder or tap the arrow at the top of the screen. This will expose a new control panel just above the shutter button.
3. Tap the flash button.

4. Tap either Auto, On, or Off.
5. Tap the Night mode button if it appears.
6. Slide the Night mode dial left or right to determine how long Night mode should take to capture an image or to turn Night mode off.
7. Tap the Live Photos button.
8. Tap Auto, On, or Off for Live photos.

9. Tap the aspect ratio button. It will have a number on it.
10. Tap Square, 4:3, or 16:9 to choose which of those aspect ratios you want to use.
11. Tap the timer button.

12. Tap Off, 3s, or 10s.
13. Tap the filters button.
14. Tap on one of the available filters.

How to set up photo capture outside of the frame

Turning on these settings will allow you to capture photos with multiple cameras. For instance, if you take a photo with the standard wide camera, but want to zoom that image out a bit, you can, because the ultra-wide will have also taken that image at the same time.

1. Open Settings on your iPhone.
2. Tap Camera.

3. Tap the switches next to Photos Capture Outside the Frame and Videos Capture Outside the Frame to turn on the ability to capture images and videos outside of your current frame.
4. Tap the switch next to Auto Apply Adjustmentsfor composition adjustments to be applied to your images automatically.

A couple of notes about this feature. First, capturing photos and videos outside of your current frame requires you to use Apple's HEIC and HEVC image and video formats instead of JPG. Second, when you capture outside of your frame, you have 30 days to use the image captured outside of the frame to make corrections before the extra data is deleted. The original image that you take will remain intact.

How to edit images with data from outside the frame

Note: at launch, we have found that this feature can behave a little inconsistently. It works best after you've given your image a little time to process, so it's best done in the Photos app.

1. Open Photos on your iPhone.
2. Tap the photo you've taken.
3. Tap Edit. If there is data from outside of the frame with which you can edit, you'll see a rangefinder icon with a star.

4. Tap the crop button.
5. Pinch in on the image to zoom out to as much of the ultra-wide view as you want.
6. Tap Done.

How to switch between close and wide-angle selfies

1. Open Camera on your iPhone.
2. Tap the perspective flip button to activate the front-facing camera.

3. Tap the arrows button to manually switch between close and wide-angle selfies.
4. Rotate your iPhone to one side to automatically switch to wide-angle selfies.

How to take a slofie

1. Open Camera on your iPhone.
2. Tap the perspective flip button to activate the front-facing camera.

3. Swipe the mode dial to the right until you're on Slo-mo.
4. Take your Slofie.

Questions?

If you have any more questions about the iPhone 11 Pro's camera, let us know in the comments.

With iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Max, Apple has added Night mode, which uses a combination of the triple-lens system and computational software to pull in as much light as possible from the world around you to brighten up photos taken in dark lighting. It's not turning up the brightness setting. Far from it. Thanks to some behind-the-scenes technology, the shutter stays open longer to pull in the extra light. At the same time, the camera is capturing a bunch of angles to find what needs to be sharp, like a person's face (or a plate of food, or your pupper). The software analyzes all the angles captured and builds a singular photo out of it. This is how you get brighter shots without all that noise.

Night mode is actually already enabled by default. It happens automatically. If however, you want to manually adjust the effect or even turn Night mode off entirely, you have choices. Here's how it works.

• How to use Night mode
• How to manually change the level of Night mode effect
• How to turn off Night mode

How to use Night mode on iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro

When you open the Camera app on the iPhone 11 or iPhone 11 Pro in a dimly lit room, you'll automatically see the Night mode button highlighted. Hold your hand as steady as possible and tap the shutter button to take the picture. Depending on how dark it is, it'll take a few seconds to complete the process, so hold still!

1. Open the Camera app on the iPhone 11 or iPhone 11 Pro.
2. Prepare your composition for the photo you want to take.
3. Tap the Shutter button.
4. Hold your hand still while the photo is being taken. You'll see a timer letting you know how long the shot is taking and how far along you are.
5. Tap the photo thumbnail in the bottom-left corner to see how it turned out.

When you tap the shutter button in Night mode, a timer slider appears to show you the number of seconds it will take to capture the image. The timer will count down as you hold the camera steady. If you're shaking too much, the camera will notify you and remind you to hold still.

How to manually change the level of Night mode effect

Night mode automatically turns on and automatically decides how much effect to use, depending on the lighting in the room. If you want to increase or decrease the level of the effect, you can do so manually, but don't expect great results. That automation is there for a reason.

1. Open the Camera app on the iPhone 11 or iPhone 11 Pro.
2. Prepare your composition for the photo you want to take.
3. Tap the Night mode button when it appears.
4. Swipe the timer dial to the right or left to choose between turning Night Mode off, keeping it at its default time, or its maximum time (often 9 or 10 seconds).

5. Tap the shutter button to take your photo. Keep your hand still while the timer counts down.
6. Tap the photo thumbnail in the bottom-left corner to see how it turned out.

If you drag the slider all the way to the maximum exposure time, but you're holding your iPhone in your unsteady hand, you may not get a very good shot. Remember that Night mode uses an open shutter to capture more light, which means any movement is also captured. If there is too much movement from your unsteady hand, there won't be anything sharp for the camera to stitch together.

How to turn off Night mode on iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro

Night mode happens automatically in dimly lit rooms. It's like having auto-flash turned on. Your iPhone 11 or iPhone 11 Pro will determine whether Night mode should be on and how long each exposure should be. If you don't want to use Night mode, however, you can disable it.

1. Open the Camera app on the iPhone 11 or iPhone 11 Pro.
2. Tap the Night mode icon in the upper-left corner, next to the flash icon. The icon will turn gray when it's off.
3. Take your picture.

Any questions?

Do you have any questions about using Night mode on iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Max? Put them in the comments and we'll help you out.

The Camera app on your iPhone or iPad is simple but powerful. It can automatically focus and refocus, expose and re-expose, on whatever part of the image you like. You can even bias the exposure with a swipe. If you want to better frame your shots, you can turn on the grid. And you can turn geolocation on and off to either track your photos or protect your privacy, whatever you prefer.

• How to lock the focus and exposure
• How to bias exposure
• How to enable grid lines
• How to enable GPS geo-location

How to lock the focus and exposure

1. Launch the Camera app from your Home screen or Lock screen.
2. Tap the screen to choose the part of the image you want to focus on and expose.
3. Tap and hold on your focal point until you see an AE/AF Lock banner appear at the top of the screen, to lock exposure and focus.
4. Tap the shutter button when you're ready to take your photo.
5. Tap anywhere on the screen to unlock the focus and exposure again at any time.

How to bias exposure

You can swipe up or down to bias the exposure and make your photos brighter or darker. You might want to do this, for example, to reduce "noise", better capture a fast-moving target, or simply to better match your mood or the mood of the scene.

1. Launch the Camera app from your Home screen or Lock screen.
2. Tap anywhere on the live preview in order to bring up the focus point.
3. Tap and hold on the exposure button that appears next to it (it looks like the Sun). You'll now see a slider that allows you to adjust the exposure.
4. Drag your finger up or down in order to bring the exposure bias up down — in other words to make the photo lighter or darker.

You can bias exposure from -8 to +8 f-stops.

How to enable grid lines

If you need a little help establishing the "rule of thirds" for your photos, you can turn on the camera grid in Settings.

1. Launch the Settings app from the Home screen of your iPhone or iPad.
2. Tap on Photos & Camera. You have to scroll down a bit to find it.
3. Tap the switch next to Grid to turn it on. It's about halfway down, under the Camera section.

How to enable GPS geo-location

Geotagging is great if you want to keep track of where you took your pictures, like on a photo walk or a vacation, but if you want to protect your privacy and keep your location undisclosed, you can do that too.

1. Launch the Settings app from your iPhone or iPad Home screen.
2. Tap on Privacy.
3. Tap on Location Services.

4. Tap on Camera.
5. Choose either While Using the App or Never.

You can change your mind as often as you like, turning geotagging on when you want to use it, off when you don't.

Questions?

If you have any questions about iPhone, let us know in the comments.

September 2019: Updated for iOS 13 and iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro.

While our iPhones and iPads can take some amazing still photos, you can also use them for great video footage too! With your iOS device, you can record standard video at a smooth 60 fps, and newer models can even do 4K quality at up to 30 fps. Apple also gives you the ability to do slow motion video or time lapse (if you have the gear and patience). Here's how to make the most of your iOS Camera, especially with some upcoming changes in iOS 13.

• How to shoot video with your iPhone or iPad
• How to change video resolution and frame rate on your iPhone or iPad
• How to shoot slow motion video on your iPhone or iPad
• How to change the slow and normal-speed points for your slo-mo iPhone video
• How to switch between 120 fps and 240 fps slo-mo
• How to create a time lapse video on your iPhone or iPad
• How to take a still photo while capturing video on your iPhone or iPad
• How to edit videos in iOS 13

How to shoot video with your iPhone or iPad

1. Launch the Camera app on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Tap on Video or swipe right to switch to Video mode.

3. Tap the red Record button to begin filming.
4. Tap on the red Stop button to end the video.

5. Anything captured automatically gets saved to your device's Photo Library.

With the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro, there is now a new Quick Video Capture feature. To use it, just press and hold the shutter button. You can also swipe the shutter button to the right to lock it in place and continue recording even when you lift your finger from the button.

How to take a quick video on iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro

How to change video resolution and frame rate

This part depends on what model device you are currently using. Your options include standard 720p HD all the way up to 4K from 24 fps to 60 fps. Additional options depend on which device you're using as well.

1. Launch Settings on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Scroll down and tap on Camera.

3. Select Record Video.
4. Tap the frame rate and resolution that you prefer.
   • Newer models may also have additional options, such as Auto Low Light FPS and Lock Camera. This automatically reduces the frame rate from 30 fps to 24 fps to improve low-light video, and prevents switching between cameras while recording, respectively.

Standard options include 720p or 1080p at 30 fps. Newer devices can do 1080p HD at 60 fps, and 4K at 24, 30, or 60 fps (High Efficiency).

How to shoot slow motion video on your iPhone or iPad

Slow motion video has been around since the iPhone 5s. With a slow motion video, you're able to shoot at a high FPS (frames per second), then go back in after the recording to slow down or speed up specific parts of the video. This is especially fun to shoot when you deal with super fast action shots, like explosions and other effects.

1. Launch the Camera app on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Either swipe right twice (assuming you're on the Photos mode by default) or tap on the word Slo-Mo in the bottom left.

3. Tap on the Record button to begin recording your slow motion video.
4. Tap the Stop button to end the recording.

How to change the slow and normal-speed points for slo-mo video

The fun part about recording a slo-mo video is the fact that you can change which part you want to be normal speed, and then what part is in slow motion. It's easy to do!

1. Launch Photos on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Locate the slo-mo video you want to edit.
   • To make things faster, you can always scroll down in the Albums section and locate Slo-mo for faster reference.

3. Tap on the slo-mo video to view it.
4. Tap on Edit. This brings up a timeline where the slo-mo portion is expanded.

5. Just touch and drag the sliders at both ends to indicate when the video should ease into and out of slow motion.
6. When you're satisfied with your adjustments, tap Done to save it.

If you change your mind later and want to change it back to the original setting, just follow steps 1-4 above. But when editing, just tap on Revert to convert it back to the original.

How to switch between 120 fps and 240 fps slo-mo

Newer iPhones and iPads are able to record slo-mo video at either 1080p at 120 fps or 720p at 240 fps. Keep in mind that you will need more light if you choose to have more frames.

1. Launch Settings on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Scroll down to find Camera and tap on it.

3. Select Record Slo-mo.
4. Tap on the option you want.
   • The newer your device, the more options you'll have. For example, the iPhone XS can also record at 1080p HD at 240 fps (High Efficiency).

How to create a time lapse video on your iPhone or iPad

Time-lapse videos are those cool ones where you can see how much time has passed since the camera started filming. If you've ever seen videos of buildings coming together or the sun flying across the skyline, that's an example of a time lapse video. It's highly recommended that you use a tripod (we have a few suggestions) and even do this type of video with a secondary device that you don't need immediately, because it's going to take a bit of time to get a good video with this mode. Oh, and don't forget to rotate your device into landscape mode for best results for time-lapse videos (and most of everything else too).

1. Launch the Camera app on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Swipe right three times, or just tap on the word Time Lapse once it shows up after the first swipe.

3. Tap on the Record button to begin capturing your footage.
4. For time lapse videos, the longer you record, the better the result will be. So sit back and relax while the iPhone or iPad does its thing!
5. Tap on the Stop button to stop filming.

How to take a still photo while capturing video on your iPhone or iPad

Ever record video but wished you could have captured a great photo opportunity at the same time? Don't worry, iOS has you covered.

1. Launch the Camera app on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Switch to the Video mode and start recording (here are the steps once again).

3. Tap on the all-white shutter button to the left of the Stop button to take a picture.

When you take a photo while recording video, there is usually some kind of feedback to let you know that it took a photo. Your screen may flash white for a quick second, or you may feel haptic feedback on the screen as you tap the button. You can tap on the photo button as many times as you need, and all still images are saved automatically to your Photo Library. The video recording is uninterrupted.

How to edit videos in iOS 13

Previously, iOS would only allow you to trim the length of a video. But in iOS 13, you can now apply any of the photo editing tools that are built-in to your videos!

1. Launch the Photos app on your iPhone or iPad with iOS 13.
2. Find the video that you want to edit and tap on it to view.
3. Tap on Edit in the top right corner.

4. In the editing mode, just select the tool that you want to use and make your adjustments as you would with a photo.

5. When you're done and satisfied with the changes, tap on Done to save.

Any edits that you make to videos are non-destructive, so you can always go back to the original if you so choose.

Questions?

Our iPhones and iPads are great cameras, whether we want still photos or high-quality video recording. If you have any questions about video recording on your iPhone or iPad, let us know in the comments!

September 2019: Updated for iOS 13 public release. Added info regarding video capture with iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro.

Sometimes shooting the perfect image can be tricky, especially if you're going at it from a strange angle. Lucky for us, Apple makes shooting with your iPhone easier with various tips, tricks, and on-screen helpers: one of them being the level feature, which is available on iPhone and iPad running iOS 12 and later.

While the level feature doesn't appear when you aim at most objects, it will appear if you aim directly up or down. Once the cross-hairs are even, you'll know you're in perfect alignment with your subject, giving you that crisp, even shot.

But before you go level-crazy like I did when I realized this feature was a thing, you'll have to properly enable the feature. Here's how!

How to enable the level feature in the Camera app

Before you go level-crazy like I did when I realized this feature was a thing, you'll have to properly enable the feature, which is actually tucked away in the Grid display.

1. Tap to launch Settings from your home screen.
2. Tap the Camera Menu. You might have to scroll for a moment to find it.
3. Tap the toggle beside Grid to enable the grid in your camera app. It should turn green.

How to use the level feature in the Camera app

Once the grid feature has turned on, the level feature will be available, too — but only if you're aiming directly up or down.

1. Tap to launch the Camera app from your home screen.
2. Aim directly up or down to enable the level feature.

Once the crosshairs are even, you'll know that your image is totally and completely level.

What do you think?

Are you a big fan of using helping hands like this with your iPhone? Maybe you prefer to be a little bit more free with your shooting and forgo that pesky grid? Let us know what you think and how you shoot in the comments down below!

iOS 12 has unleashed a bunch of exciting new updates and features for your iPhone and iPad, but one thing people have always been pumped about are updates to the Camera app!

Though there weren't a ton of announcements in regards to the Camera with iOS 12, there are a few things to take note of. Here's everything you need to know about the Camera in iOS 12!

What's new?

One thing of note is that your Camera will launch up to 70% faster with iOS 12. Oh, and you know QR codes? Yeah, the Camera app will be updated to automatically scan QR codes easy-peasy.

Portrait Lighting is also getting an update: Portrait Lighting will look a little bit more natural as you try to edit and shoot your images. The Camera now generates a mask when it detects a person and intelligently and elegantly separates the person from the scene.

Apple has also designed a new API for third-party developers which allows for the breakdown of layers in a photo, such as separating the background from the foreground.

What about Animoji and Memoji?

While Memoji and Animoji aren't necessarily directly related to the Camera app (and they're even less relevant if you don't have an iPhone X…) it is worth noting there are some updates when it comes to filters.

For more information about Animoji and Memoji, check out our Everything You Need to Know about Animoji And Memoji) guide.

What do you think?

Are you excited for all of the new features that'll come alongside the iOS 12 update?

Let us know what you're most excited about in the comments down below!

Apple's latest flagship iPhone, the iPhone X reinvents quite a few stock iPhone features, but its new camera system is one of its best. Packed full of sensors, it includes the front-facing TrueDepth camera, a new f/2.4 telephoto 52mm-equivalent lens, f/1.8 wide-angle lens, True Tone Flash with Slow Sync, a reinvented ISP, and Portrait Lighting features.

Here's everything you need to know about its camera system (and why you're going to love it).

• How does the TrueDepth camera system work?
• What are the rear camera improvements to the iPhone X?
• What is Slow Sync Flash?

How does the TrueDepth camera system work?

The iPhone X's front-facing TrueDepth camera replaces the FaceTime camera of iPhones past: It's primarily used to authenticate Face ID, but Apple has also built it to serve as an excellent front-facing camera system.

The TrueDepth camera includes an infrared camera, flood illuminator, proximity sensor, ambient light sensor, speaker, microphone, 7-megapixel traditional camera, and dot projector (which throws up to 30,000 points on your face during a scan). When you use the camera system for a selfie, Face ID scan, or otherwise, that data is scanned and processed locally on Apple's A11 Bionic chip with Neural Engine — and, if using a camera app, the image signal processor (ISP). None of that data ever goes up to iCloud or any other online server; it's kept solely on your iPhone.

All of these sensors, cameras, software, and chips also make for an amazing front-facing camera: Like the rear camera system, it shoots in wide color; it also has automatic digital image stabilization. But the best part is exclusive to the TrueDepth system: The iPhone X can shoot selfies with Portrait mode and Portrait Lighting.

On its own, the iPhone X's 7-megapixel front-facing camera is a pretty nice front-facing kit. But add in the other components of the TrueDepth system, and it goes from being "pretty nice" to "fantastic."

Selfies abound with the iPhone X.

When you snap a photo with the front-facing camera, the iPhone X uses the TrueDepth's system to create a depth map of your face and the surroundings; the various sensors provide a superior scan to the dual-camera measurements done by the rear camera, allowing for crisp and quick selfies with great focus and depth of field.

iMore Editor in Chief Rene Ritchie went hands-on with Portrait mode selfies:

Portrait Lighting is a nice addition to the front-facing camera, but where I suspect it will get the most use is in Stage Light Mono: The black-and-white spotlight mode seems custom-made for epic selfie shoots.

That TrueDepth system uses a variety of sensors to grab a depth map of your face, collecting data in three dimensions. While third-party apps won't gain access to the full depth map available to Face ID (for obvious privacy reasons), programs can get general depth information from the camera, allowing them to create more detailed filters and backgrounds.

Snapchat, for instance, has developed mask filters for various selfies: They sit on top of your face in real-time, moving when you move and changing when you change your facial expression (whether that's raising your eyebrows or opening your mouth). Panda Snaps all the live-long day!

Clips, too, offers Portrait selfie backgrounds called Scenes; with them, you can place yourself in a hand-drawn metropolis or in a Star Wars spacescape.

What are the rear camera improvements to the iPhone X?

In any other year, the TrueDepth camera would be improvement enough for a new smartphone. But Apple has also dramatically improved the rear-facing camera system for the iPhone X.

Like the iPhone 7 Plus and 8 Plus before it, the iPhone X has two 12-megapixel camera systems: One is a f/1.8 wide-angle lens system, while the other is a f/2.4 52mm-equivalent telephoto lens system (a marked improvement from the f/2.8 56-equivalent system in the 7 Plus and 8 Plus). These rear cameras sport tech typical of an iPhone camera: custom ISP, advanced pixel processing, wide color capture, and a True Tone Flash. But both camera lens systems also sport optical image stabilization (OIS) for clearer, more stable stills and video — even in low-light scenarios while the subject is moving. (This is a first for the telephoto system, which previously only had digital stabilization in the 7 Plus and 8 Plus.)

In addition to the hardware improvements, the iPhone X's ISP has been completely rethought to apply machine learning to the photographic process. Here's Rene on the iPhone X's image signal processor:

This results in sharper images, faster capture speeds, and special features like Slow Sync Flash (more on that in a moment). And best of all, they apply across the board to both photography and video capture.

The iPhone X gains the same videographic improvements as the iPhone 8 series, including shooting 4K video at 24, 30, and 60 frames per second, the HEVC/H.265 compression option that saves space while capturing, and the super slow-motion 240FPS at 1080P option.

Thanks to the ISP, you can also capture video longer without worrying about the phone overheating. I shot over 70 minutes of 240FPS footage over a three hour period with the iPhone X not so much as getting warm, let alone flashing a temperature warning.

What is Slow Sync Flash?

The iPhone X's rear camera comes with a quad-LED True Tone Flash: It evens out your photo so that your subject isn't washed out. In addition, Apple has packed in a new software feature — Slow Sync Flash — that combines the True Tone flash with your iPhone's image signal processor (ISP) to slow down the shutter speed while firing the flash.

Why is this important? If you're shooting in low light, three things are important to expose your image properly: A large aperture (the size of the opening that hits your camera's sensor), ISO (your iPhone's light sensitivity), and a slower shutter. A slow shutter lets more light into your camera when you press the capture button, thereby making your image brighter.

Because the iPhone's lens apertures are fixed (f/2.4 for the telephoto lens on the iPhone X, and f/1.8 for the wide-angle lens), your iPhone automatically tweaks ISO and shutter speed whenever you shoot an image with the Camera app to try and get you the best image possible. (If you use a third-party manual camera app, you'll be able to adjust these values manually.)

In older iPhones, when you turned on the Flash setting, your iPhone would match the shutter speed with the brightness of the flash; as a result, the subject in front of the flash would be evenly exposed, but anything not covered by the flash would be overly dark.

Two Slow Sync Flash photos, taken in Portrait mode with the rear camera.

Slow Sync changes that by having the flash fire in intervals, letting the ISP expose the subject and background differently: The result is a photo with more detailed backgrounds, even at night.

Slow Sync Flash can also be used to express movement in flash photography: Have you ever seen an image with the subject in focus while trailing lights fill the background? That's one side-effect of Slow Sync in professional cameras. Digital Photography School has some great examples of this technique, if you're curious.

Bottom line

The iPhone X is the first smartphone that can be rightly called a "smart camera": It's smarter about taking photographs, framing shots, depth mapping, slow-motion video, and saving images without stealing your storage space. It's already become our favorite camera to shoot with here at iMore HQ, but what about you, folks? What do you think about the iPhone X's camera and Slow Sync flash? Let us know in the comments.

See iPhone X at Apple

Updated November 2017: Rewritten to include more information on the TrueDepth camera, Slow Sync flash, and new photos.

One of the new features of macOS 10.13 High Sierra and iOS 11 is the addition of two new media formats:

• High-Efficiency Image File Format (HEIF) for photos.

• High-Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC), also known as H.265, for videos.

HEIF is intended to be a successor to JPEG, while HEVC will supplant H.264. Both of these new formats are industry standards and though they may not be in wide use at the moment, they will be real soon now for three big reasons:

1. Add anything new to iOS and it quickly gets disseminated to tens of millions of iOS devices. Note Apple's comments about how it became the largest augmented reality platform overnight once AR technology shipped as part of iOS 11. We all suddenly had the chance to enjoy a T-Rex galavanting unencumbered around a basketball court.
2. The two new formats have much better compression algorithms than JPEG and H.264, so photos and videos encoded with these formats will take up much less space on iCloud Photo Library and on flash-memory constrained devices like iPhones and iPads.
3. Even though the new file formats compress photos and videos to a much greater degree, there is no loss of visual quality.

So... better quality and dramatically smaller file sizes? Sold! Where do I sign?

HEIF and HEVC are the future of digital photos and videos

The good news is that any photos or videos shot with recent iPhones (the 7 series or later) and iPads (the 10.5-inch and 2nd generation 12.9-inch Pro models) that are running iOS 11 will use these new media formats by default.

You have the option of continuing to use JPEG and H.264 formats on these devices if you want. But because Apple has already built in a mechanism to convert a HEIF file to JPEG when it is shared (for example, through email or Messages) there's no real good reason to use the less efficient JPEG format. It's a little dicier when it comes to sharing H.265 videos on some older devices, but the easy solution is to upgrade to macOS High Sierra and iOS 11 and work with the video in its new format.

So we have a rosy future ahead, with the ability to stretch our storage a bit farther without an increase in cost, leaving all the more room for AR T-Rexes to fill.

All of this, of course, begs the question: OK, so how do I convert all my old JPEGs to HEIF and H.264 videos to H.265? If saving space with no loss of quality is a good idea for new photos and video, isn't it an even better idea for the thousands of photos and videos I already have that are sucking up precious storage space?

Converting could be awesome, but right now, it's not

The internet is full of websites that offer to convert a file based on one format into another. You can find them with a simple search. Here are two that I came across, both of which offer the ability to convert your JPEGs to HEIF and H.264 videos to H.265.

• Cloud Convert
• A Convert

And there are apps that'll do likewise. But because HEIF and HVEC are only now emerging as future mainstream formats, many of these websites and apps either can't handle the new formats at all, or have some detrimental byproducts, such as removing EXIF data (that is, data about a photograph, such as location and camera settings) during the conversion process.

One website, JPEGtoHEIF lists step-by-step instructions for converting a JPEG to a HEIF, but it's not for the faint of heart. If you understand terms like Homebrew, Git, cmake, and FFMPEG, you should give it a try and tell me how it worked out for you. But, if those sideloading programs kinda give you the shakes, do like I did and take a pass on that one.

Nevertheless, I'm the curious sort. So I did a little digging for some Mac apps that handle conversion while also safely hide the command line from me.

How I converted H.264 to H.265 and what my cat thought of the whole process

Handbrake, a free, open-source video transcoder, can convert H.264 files into H.265 format. I tested it with — what else? — a video of my cat playing with the business end of a laser pointer. The H.264 video was about 16 seconds long, 21.4 MB in size, and had a .m4v file extension. It took just a minute or so for Handbrake to convert it to the H.265 format. After conversion, the file was 5.4 MB in size (a 75% reduction in size compared to the original) and had a .mp4 file extension.

Great! So it worked... but not really.

The H.264 file would not open in QuickTime Player and only the audio played when I opened it with iTunes. So I tried it using VLC, a free video player that can handle a lot of different formats. To my eyes, there was no discernable difference in quality compared to the H.264 version (and the cat didn't corral the laser in either version of the video, I know you wanted to know that).

When it came time to drag the H.265 video into the Photos app so I could check on the status of the EXIF data, Photos wouldn't take it. Even sneakily changing the file's extension to .m4v didn't work. I used a couple of other apps to try to dig out the EXIF data to no avail.

So, I re-transcoded it using Handbrake back into H.264 format. Again, it took just a minute or so and created a file that, at 6.5 MB in size, was slightly larger than the H.265 version. I was able to successfully import it into Photos with a drag and drop (even though it retained its .mp4 file extension), but the EXIM data — specifically, the date and location of the video and the camera information — was missing.

The mess I made converting a JPEG photo to HEIF

Image2HEIF costs a few bucks on the Mac App Store and will convert images in various formats (BMP, GIF, JP2, JPG, and PNG) into HEIF.

The app description makes it clear that "original EXIF/metadata is not transferred to converted .heic image". So no important information is saved like date, location, or camera settings. In addition, while I successfully converted three different JPEG files and saw no discernible drop-off in quality, the file size was not reduced by a significant amount. In fact, in two of the three cases, the HEIC files were slightly larger than their JPEG originals.

Just for fun, I converted a 3 MB JPEG file into a 20.9 MB PNG format using Preview's export command. Then I ran the PNG file through Image2HEIF and it produced a 2.9 MB HEIF file. So, you know, what's the point?

To make things even more difficult, all of the HEIF files were locked when I opened them with Preview, and when I tried to unlock them, I was informed that the file didn't support editing, so I was offered the chance to duplicate it into a TIFF format to edit. I could, however, just import and edit them in Photos.

Stop to think whether you should

In the movie Jurassic Park, the mathematician played by Jeff Goldblum has a rather close encounter with a T-Rex (of the non-AR variety), brought back to life through advanced genetic engineering. He delivers a very succinct ethics lecture to the project leader and his quest to bring dinosaurs back to life: "Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should."

I'm not saying that a JPEG converted to HEIF is going to rampage through your neighborhood, drink all the water in your swimming pool, tear the roof off of your house, and swallow you whole. But it could do something that you might not like. At the very best, it's a time-consuming process that doesn't really reduce the file size that much.

Based on my limited testing, it's probably not worth the effort for most folks to convert a bunch of videos and photos to the new HEVC and HEIF formats just to save some storage space. A lot of time and effort would be involved to make the conversions — not to mention having to recreate lost EXIM data. For me, with the current level of technology available, it's not worth the tradeoff.

At some point, the formats will become more mainstream and Apple will likely build something into Photos and/or iCloud that will help take care of this. In meantime, I'm going to stick with what I've got.

Any questions?

If you've tried converting photos or videos to the new formats, tell us about it in the comments below.

By default, the Camera app on your iPhone and iPad records geographic data, along with a bunch of other metadata, which basically tells you where the photo was taken. This is perfect for when you want to look for photos you took while on holiday in Italy, but it isn't always great when sharing photos with the public, like you would on Facebook or Instagram.

• Why you would want to disable geotagging
• How to disable geotagging in the Camera app
• Best apps for removing photo data

Why you would want to disable geotagging

Basically, you'd want to disable geotagging because that photo can then be tracked to a certain location. If you plan on sharing certain photos online, then those photos could be traced to your location. That's fine if you went on vacation and decided to upload the photos afterward — you're not there anymore. But if you're sharing photos of your new house or baby's first steps, you would necessarily want anyone being able to track you down just because you posted a picture.

It may sound a little like fear-mongering, but with the wealth of information and resources available to those who may want to do you harm, it's best to protect your personal data on all sides.

How to disable geotagging in the Camera app

1. Launch Settings from the Home screen of your iPhone or iPad.
2. Tap Privacy. You'll have to scroll down a bit to find it.
3. Tap Location Services.

4. Tap Camera.
5. Tap Never.

Best apps for removing photo data

If you don't your photos being traced back to you in any way, you can strip all of the metadata using a third-party app. Basically, these apps integrate with Photos and allow you to actually see all of the metadata that each photo you take records. When it comes time to share the photo, you can choose to share it without any metadata. Here are some apps that can help you out with that:

• Halide
• Metapho
• Photo Investigator
• ViewExif
• Koredoko

Questions?

Let us know in the comments below!

A funny thing happened when I picked up my iPhone 7 Plus back in September of 2016. I put down my Canon 5D Mark II. And I haven't picked it up since. It's not that the camera in my pocket has a sensor as light-sensitive or lenses anywhere nearly as flexible and powerful. But, thanks to the Portrait Mode and optical zoom enabled by its dual camera system and image signal processor, it can take photos every bit as meaningful and emotional.

And, with iOS 11, it's about to get even better.

Years ago, the cliche was Nokia had the glass, Apple had the silicon, and Google had the servers. In other words, a Lumia could capture great images, Apple could calculate great images, and since Google never new what hardware was available on any given device, they'd just suck everything up to the cloud and make the best they could from it there.

Now, though, Apple is fielding fusion lenses and doing local computational photography, where machine learning, computer vision, and a lot of smart programming start to produce images beyond what any one of those processes could do alone. (And since it's done on-device, you don't have to give up all your private photos to Apple just to reap the benefits of the processing — your valuable data stays yours.)

Portrait Mode Plus

Portrait Mode on iPhone 7 Plus is the first mass-market application of fusion and computational photography that I'm aware of. On iOS 10, it came with fairly strict lighting requirements. On iOS 11, though, better optical and software-based stabilization, and shoots with high dynamic range (HDR), which dramatically improves low-light and high contrast performance. For extreme low-light situations, iOS 11 will even let you do Portrait Mode with the LED flash.

Noise is still an issue, but Apple does a lot with the "grain" to mitigate it. So much so that I often don't notice the noise at all at first — I'm too busy marveling at the subject.

It's more than just faces now as well. Though, obviously, "portrait" is in the name, since launch you could also capture flowers, coffee cups (so many, sorry!), and more. Now it feels like it's working even better. For example, grabbing onto a chain link fence and blurring the background behind it.

Apple has also switched from the ancient JPEG (joint photographic experts group) format to the new HEIF (high-efficiency image format) in iOS 11. The efficiency in the name works out to about 50% space-savings over JPG in your library. It comes at the expense of slightly longer encode times but nothing in life, and certainly nothing in imaging, is free. For photos on iPhone, though, the process is already so fast I've never noticed a difference.

What's even cooler about HEIF is that it can stores multiple image assets in the same container.

For example: In iOS 10, when you shot on an iPhone 7 Plus in Portrait mode, the Camera app would spit out two images — one normal, and one with the depth effect burned in.

With HEIF, the depth data for Portrait Mode is retained but bundled into the same file. (HDR data, which is taken from multiple exposures, starts being processed at the ISP-level in the chipset, so that's burned in before it can be bundled into HEIF.)

The advantage to that is most apparent in photo editing, where filters can now apply different effects based on the depth or motion data. Not just on iPhone 7 Plus either. As long as the effect information is bundled into the HEIF, iPad and Mac can get every bit as "depthy" with it.

So, for example, the new filters in Camera and Photos, can apply different shades and tones based on the depth data in the photo.

Those filters have been rethought not to duplicate what you typically see on social networks but what you'd find in more classic photography: Vivid, Vivid Warm, or Vivid Cool, which play on vibrancy; Dramatic, Dramatic Warm, or Dramatic Cool, which toy with contrast, and Silvertone which rounds out the previous Mono and Noir filters with something a little more high-key.

Silvertone is probably my favorite of the new "depthy" bunch.

Livelier Photos

Apple's been steadily improving Live Photos as well over the last couple of years. First and foremost, the quality you get from the 1.5 second before and after animations are much-improved. So much so that Apple can start to offer some really cool new effect options.

Namely, Loop, Bounce, and Long Exposure.

Loop takes the 3 seconds of Live Photo animation and fades from end back to beginning, so the video plays over and over and over again, in an endless cycle.

Bounce takes the animation, plays it forward, then plays it back, like a perpetual ricochet.

Long exposure takes the animation and shows all frames at once, so motion blurs and light stretches out across the frame.

HEIF also works with Live Photos. Instead of a separate JPG and MOV (movie) file, you now have both the still/key photo and the video bundled into one file. That means those effects are also non-destructive, and you can go from bounce to loop and back again any time you like.

In all cases, the effects are intelligent and try to lock position on static elements so the moving elements become even more dynamic in contrast.

Sure, these types of effects have been available in apps like Instagram and Snapchat for a while, but they were also stuck in those networks. If I wanted to make a fun bounce, I had to do it in Instagram and either share it with everyone or with friends on Instagram.

By adding effects into Live Photos, I can share them outside of my social networks — including with family and friends that want no part of the Facebook or Snapchat scenes.

That bounce of my friend and I tapping champagne glasses at my birthday? That went straight to them over iMessage. Securely. Privately. Not for the world or for the giant data harvesting companies. Just for us.

And, come iOS 11, you'll be able to do that with any not-for-networks photo now too.

Three screens, no waiting

There's a lot more coming to Camara and Photos in iOS 11 as well. QR scanning, for example, will let you quickly capture and act on codes. Memories, which was a surprise hit with mainstream users last year, is getting several new types, including: pets, babies, birthdays, sportsball, outdoor activities, driving, night life, performances, anniversaries, weddings, "over the years" (aka "this is your life", "early memories" (aka "glory days"), visits, gatherings, and the one that scares and delights me almost as much as pets — meals.

There's even a stealthy level that fades in when you've got Grid enabled and you go to take a top-down photo of your food, coffee, everyday carry, etc. It's a glorious touch that helps the already composition-obsessed absolutely nail the shot.

Apple's still keeping manual controls, and more interesting explorations of depth effect, for example, for developers and third party apps, but that's also helping keep Camera and Photos focused, which is a good thing. Apple's also sticking with its mission to capture natural, true-to-life photos. The camera app isn't pre-crushing the blacks and boosting the saturation. It's letting you choose to do that on your own afterwards, if and how you really want to.

That's where the editing features come in, which I'll cover in my next article. You can shoot good photos on iPad Pro now, but you can edit fantastic photos across iPhone, iPad, and Mac. That means, whether you're on the go, easing back on the sofa, or at full-attention at your desk, the same tools are available on the same photos, ready and waiting for you to work and play.

Taken together, it continues Apple's relentless drive to help more people capture better photos and preserve important memories under a wider range of conditions than ever before.

iOS 11, a free update coming this fall, won't give you a photographers eye or experience, but it will maximize what you can do with your eyes and experience. It won't magically give you the sensor or glass of a high-end DSLR, but it will give you the feeling you get from taking photos with one, at least at a small, intimate scale.

It makes everyday photography a little less everyday. And, when it comes to a modern pocket camera, that's exactly the type of feeling you want.

Our Macs are getting slimmer all the time, but the photo and video files we pack them with aren't on the same diet. Well, until iOS 11 and macOS High Sierra debut, that is. Both new operating systems will support two codecs designed to double the amount of compression that can be applied without losing quality.

Here's what you need to know about HEVC and HEIF and how they work in High Sierra.

What are HEIF and HEVC?

HEVC stands for High Efficiency Video Codec, and HEIF is High Efficiency Image Format. HEIF works as a still image container for the HEVC codec, which is the successor to H.264. In fact, HEVC's other name is H.265, but Apple is going with HEVC.

What does HEVC do better than H.264?

HEVC is designed to save space and bandwidth, which will be more and more important as more 4K and HDR video becomes available to stream. Apple says the standard can compress 4K video files to 40% of the size without losing quality, which will let iOS 11 and High Sierra users store more of their own videos before running out of drive space. Alternatively, you can keep an HEVC video file about the same size while doubling the amount of data, which will decrease the bandwidth needed to move 4K and HDR video around.

• How HEIF and HEVC will keep you from running out of space on your iPhone

What about HEIF? What's its benefit?

HEIF has an added benefit too: It can store groups of images as a single file. This is especially handy for things like burst photos or keeping an edited image and the original in the same file. It's also a natural fit for Live Photos (including the new Live Photo options debuting in iOS 11), which act as one photo in your library, even though they contain multitudes.

Remember, Apple's computational photography approach in iOS means the camera is capturing multiple frames every time you press the shutter, then combining those for a better-looking result. Tricks like long exposure effect in iOS 11's Live Photos and the iPhone 7 Plus' Portrait Mode work the same way. HEIF containers can keep all that data wrapped up, fully intact, to send back to your Mac running High Sierra for more editing.

Are these replacing H.264 and JPEG?

No, not yet. They're the next generation of those standards, but when you export a video to post to YouTube, it's going to be H.264. If you email a friend a photo, it's going to be a JPEG. Right now these are under-the-hood improvements that shouldn't break compatibility or cause formatting headaches for end users. You'll use your devices and apps in the same way you always have.

Will HEVC video look better?

If you compare an HEVC and a H.264 video side by side, yes it should. AppleInsider recently transcoded a movie trailer with H.264 and H.265 encoders in HandBrake and found the HEVC (or H.265) video had fewer compression artifacts and smoother movement. HEVC compensates better for faster motion, for example, which should be especially welcome news to fans of action films and sports, once more content starts streaming in that format.

Will every device with iOS 11 capture photos and videos in this format? And that's how they're stored on the Mac?

Not all the devices. To capture HEIF and HEVC files, you'll need an iOS 11 device with an A10 Fusion chip or better: iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, 10.5-inch iPad Pro, or 12.9-inch iPad Pro from 2017. All Macs running High Sierra can encode and decode those files, so when you transfer them to your Mac, they'll stay in the same format until you decide to export them as something else.

Redmond Pie has a full rundown of the hardware requirements for HEVC and HEIF support in iOS 11 and High Sierra. It's definitely worth a look if you have older hardware. But at the end of the day, these are under-the-hood format changes that shouldn't directly impact your workflow.

I heard newer Macs have an advantage with HEVC?

You heard right. Newer Macs, including the late 2015 27-inch 5K iMac, the 2017 21-inch iMac, and MacBooks and MacBook Pros from 2016 and 2017, will support hardware acceleration for coding and decoding HEVC video. The Kaby Lake chips in the 2017 laptops also support HEVC decoding. Hardware acceleration means faster encoding times in pro apps like Final Cut and Motion, and longer battery life when you're playing back HEVC video.

Older Macs running High Sierra will still be able to play back HEVC video, but the process is a little hardware intensive,

Could HEVC help 4K video come to the iTunes Store and Apple TV?

That's very likely the roadmap. Right now, the iTunes Store and the Apple TV max out at 1080p content, but when Apple does make the jump to 4K, HEVC will reduce the bandwidth needed to move those files around.

Apple isn't super late to this party just yet. Right now, Netflix and Amazon have some 4K and HDR content available to stream, but you're usually stuck using the built-in Netflix app on a 4K smart TV. Amazon's Fire TV set-top box supports 4K videos over Amazon Prime Video, if it's connected to a 4K TV.

Tim Cook did hint at more Apple TV news coming later this year, so maybe a new Apple TV box is in the works. Now that Apple's dabbling in its own TV shows, that would be a natural place to start. After all, Netflix and Amazon's original series make up the bulk of their own 4K offerings.

Will third-party image and video editors support HEVC and HEIF?

It's not an open-source standard, so software makers woud have to license the patents to use the codec. H.264 worked the same way, but right now HEVC is more expensive. Of course, Apple tends to drive adoption, as it did with H.264.

Settling on a 4K codec isn't so easy. Google currently uses V9 for 4K video on YouTube, but Apple's Safari browser doesn't support V9. The Alliance for Open Media is working on a codec called AV1 which should be out by the end of this year, but Apple hasn't yet committed to natively supporting that either.

More questions?

The High Sierra betas don't fully support HEVC and HEIF just yet, so the picture is still coming together. If you have more questions, let us know in the comments.

One of the coolest features of the iPhone 7 Plus is it's dual cameras that give you 10x digital zoom – or 6x digital zoom if you're shooting video – and 2x optical zoom as you're snapping your photos, but filming with this dual camera can be a lil' bit tricky, and not necessarily in the way you think.

If you haven't noticed it before, there's almost a flicker that appears on screen as you're capturing your video. This is because the lens switching produces a slight movement, which could ultimately mess up a video depending on what you're trying to shoot.

While not everyone is super bothered by this, there is a really easy way to stop your iPhone's cameras from automatically switching while recording video.

Here's how you can lock your iPhone's camera lens!

How to lock your iPhone's camera lens when filming video

1. Tap on Settings from your home screen
2. Tap Photos & Camera. You may have to scroll a wee bit to find it.

3. Tap Record Video. It'll be under the Camera section.
4. Tap Lock Camera Lens.

Your iPhone's camera lens should no longer switch automatically as you record your video and will stop you from shooting under a 2x zoom for the most stable, smoothest video possible!

How do you shoot video with your iPhone?

Do you prefer your camera lens to be locked? Or are you more of a fan of letting it do it's own thang? Let us know what you think in the comments below!

There's a full-blown Photos app app for all your basic post-processing needs, but if you're in a hurry, you can do a lot right in the Camera app. With just a tap of the thumbnail, you can call up the embedded photo and video editor, tweak your shots, share them right away, or even delete them if you don't want to keep them.

How to quickly edit and share photos and videos

1. Launch the Camera app from your Home screen or Lock screen and take a photo.
2. Tap the thumbnail button at the bottom left.

3. Choose an action.
   • Tap the Share button to access AirDrop, messaging and social functions, and action options.
   • Tap the Favorite button (it looks like a heart) to save a photo to your Favorites album.
   • Tap the Edit button to access red-eye removal, filters, cropping and trimming, light and color tools, Markup and more.
   • Tap the Trash icon to delete the photo or video.
   • Tap the photos Scrubber bar to select a different photo.

Questions?

Let us know below.

September 2019: Updated for iOS 13.

Taking a picture with the built-in Camera app is easy as pie. But, did you know that Siri can help get things started? The digital assistant can even help you take a Selfie (for reals this time). All you have to do is know what to ask.

• How to take a picture
• How to take a video
• How to take a selfie
• What Siri can't do with the Camera app

How to take a picture

You can ask Siri to open the Camera app to one of the three available photo options.

1. Press and hold the Home button on your iPhone or iPad to launch Siri or say, "Hey Siri."
2. Say, Take a picture, Take a square picture, or Take a panoramic picture. The Camera app will open to the setting you asked for.
3. Take a picture.

How to take a video

You can ask Siri to open the Camera app to one of the three available video options.

1. Press and hold the Home button on your iPhone or iPad to launch Siri or say, "Hey Siri."
2. Say, Take a video, Take a slow motion video, or Take a Time-Lapse video. The Camera app will open to the setting you asked for.
3. Record a video.

How to take a selfie

As of iOS 10, Siri will actually open the front-facing camera so you can take a Selfie.

1. Press and hold the Home button on your iPhone or iPad to launch Siri or say, "Hey Siri."
2. Say, Take a selfie. The Camera app will open to the front FaceTime camera.
3. Record a video or take a photo of your beautiful, smiling face.

What Siri can't do with the Camera app

There are a couple of things your Camera app can do that Siri has not yet figured out, like trigger the flash, enable Live Photos, set a timer, or turn on HDR photos. Siri also can't turn on Live Filters, lock AutoFocus, zoom in, turn the viewfinder grid on or off, or change the video quality. But hey, it's a start.

Any questions?

Are there any other activities you wonder if Siri can do with the Camera app? Let us know in the comments.

Camera test time! I've been shooting with iPhone SE as my primary camera for well over a week now and I've been very impressed. The combination of that 12-megapixel iSight camera and the tiny size has made it, well, the perfect pocket camera. It's effectively identical to an iPhone 6s, but I'm used to shooting with an iPhone 6s Plus, which also includes optical image stabilization (OIS) to smooth out my shaky hands. So, I wanted to see what, if any, difference I could detect in real world conditions. I also wanted to see how much better, if at all, the iPhone SE camera performed compared to iPhone 6, iPhone 5s, and iPhone 5 — the most common phones people might be looking to upgrade from. So, I started testing!

If you're looking for how Apple's 12-megapixel iSight compares to Samsung's, you can check out our iPhone 6s vs. Galaxy S7 shootout. If you want a bunch of other phones as well, you can check out Android Central's massive phone shootout. I'm only shooting with iPhones... for now.

Panoramas

iPhone SE, like iPhone 6s, can shoot monstrous 63 MP panoramas (compared to 43 megapixel panos on older generation iPhones). It can also dynamically adjust to changing lighting conditions like, oh, shooting at the sun!

Outdoor daylight

Here's how regular 12-megapixel snaps look compared to the 8 megapixel snaps of previous generations. iPhone SE and iPhone 6s both do advanced local tone mapping and noise reduction, but outside, in daylight, is pretty much as ideal as it gets for any camera.

Indoor light

iPhones 6, iPhones 6s, and iPhone SE all have phase detection auto-focus. That means there are "focus pixels" in the sensor that do a better, faster job of locking onto what's in front of the lens than older, contrast based systems. The end result isn't different, it just takes less time to get there.

Indoor macro

Macros are one of those things where, for me, the bigger the viewfinder the better. Give me a 9.7-inch iPad Pro and I'll frame exactly what I want and make sure it's absolutely, positively tack sharp before I snap it. So here, while iPhone SE has as good an iSight as iPhone 6s Plus, the smaller screen and my poor vision combine to make it harder to see the details I want to make sure get focused on.

Outdoor night

Low-light photography is the current holy grail, or white whale, or whatever object of obsession you prefer. If you go with the maximum aperture to get it, you risk distortion. If you hold the aperture open longer, you risk motion blur. If you crank the ISO, you get noise. Apple uses the image signal processor (ISP) in the A-series chipsets to try to get the best low-light possible with the minimum aberrations possible. The A9 in the iPhones 6s and iPhone SE is the current state-of-the-art.

Indoor night

The iPhones Plus, of course, also add optical image stabilization (OIS), which allows the aperture to stay open a little longer, drink in a few more photons, and hopefully produce a better image.

Selfie night

Unlike the iSight camera on the back, iPhone SE didn't get the new 5 megapixel FaceTime camera on the front. Which is, bluntly, super sad really harshens my selfie game. The A9 does provide for better image processing, but ultimately you dance with the glass that brang you. (Translation: Even the best ISP in the world is still working on the data provided by the sensor. Less data, less to work with.)

More to come!

I'll be adding more photos as I take them, as well as full-res crops, so check back soon!

Hey, iMore! By now you've probably already seen Rene's mammoth iPhone 6s Plus review. My written review of the iPhone 6s (far less mammoth) is almost ready, but I wanted to chat a bit about my video review, which premiered today alongside Rene's written review.

First of all, I hope you guys watch and enjoy it—it was a ton of fun to make. And yes, it was made entirely on the iPhone 6s Plus: shot, edited, and produced! In fooooooooour kaaaaay.

How'd we do it? Read on.

The plan

While Rene and I were in New York, shooting our iPhone 6s and 6s Plus preview, we joked about making our official review videos on the devices we were reviewing. "It'd be a good real-world test of that 6s series 4K quality, after all."

So I did it, because I'm a crazy person. Heck, I've edited on an iPhone before—how bad could shooting and editing a 6-7 minute voice-over video on the 6s Plus be?

First, I prepped my equipment. As nice as the new iPhone 6s Plus optical video stabilization is, trying to free-hand shoot the entire video would have been a nightmare: If I ended up with a bouncy shot, I couldn't even digitally correct the stabilization, because iMovie for iOS doesn't offer that as an option.

I ended up packing:

• The iPhone 6s Plus, of course. I'm rocking a 128GB model—pretty key for 4K shooting, since a minute of video takes up a whopping 375MB of space.
• The iPhone 6s, the star of the show.
• The Adjustable Glif, $30, an adjustable tripod mount for iPhone models and pretty much my best friend for shooting on the go with a smartphone.
• The Joby GorillaPod Magnetic, which I use as a miniature tripod when traveling, but also as a makeshift Steadicam when filming handheld shots.
• The Movo Microphone, just in case we wanted to get any on-site audio.
• The stock Camera app. There are many other options in the App Store for shooting video with more manual control, but for our review, I really wanted to see what we could get out of the camera using its stock configuration—no manual ISO settings or custom exposure options allowed.

I also opted not to bring fill lights, fancy lenses, or anything else to further weight down my bag in the hopes of doing a quick guerilla daytime shoot on the streets of Providence, RI. Besides, I wanted to really test out the 4K capabilities of the iPhone, and that meant no fancy image gimmicks—much as I love my Olloclip lenses.

The shoot

Friday morning, I shanghaied my gentleman friend (who you can see in a few of those shots) into being my makeshift camera operator. (Also, my "Keep Ren from dropping four iPhone models into the water" wrangler.) From there, we spent a few hours running around Providence and grabbing shots near the waterfront using the 6s Plus, Glif, and GorillaPod.

As I say in my video review, 4K isn't some magic panacea to make your shots instantly great, nor will the 6s Plus's optical video stabilization save you from shakycam syndrome. You still need to know basic video techniques to shoot really great content with an iPhone, just like you would on any other camera.

Where 4K shines, however, is in helping a competent camera operator get shots they wouldn't otherwise be able to get with an iPhone lens. For the first time since I began shooting video with an iPhone in 2009, cropped iPhone content doesn't look horrendous.

During this shoot, I was able to intentionally get wide shots I knew I could crop later in editing; previously, getting closer shots would have required hanging precariously over waterfronts or getting the iPhone lens and body obnoxiously close to a subject. Post-production shot cropping is never the ideal option, but when you're working with an iPhone on the go, it's a huge benefit.

Optical video stabilization, too, is incredible if you understand its limitations. It won't make you look like you're shooting on a Steadicam the way that Hyperlapse appears to, but it smooths over many of the bumps and rattles of handheld shooting. It's night and day over the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, and I honestly don't know if I can use an iPhone 6s as my daily driver after seeing what the Plus can do with video.

I also had my shot list and rough script on my iPhone 6s Plus, which meant one less device to juggle: Whenever we locked a shot, I'd pop over into Notes and check the setup for the next scene, then swipe back to the Camera app to resume shooting.

Editing and upload

Once we finished shooting and hopped back in the car, I immediately began reviewing the footage we shot, tagging and cataloging accordingly. (In limiting myself to stock apps, my tagging and cataloging amounted to a list of shots in the Notes app alongside my script, but it was stil helpful.) I also used the car ride to finish writing my voiceover script.

When I got home, I fired up my Mac. While my Movo microphone is good in a pinch for voiceover, my phantom-powered microphone still only works properly with OS X, as the Camera Connection Kit—which would let me hook up my mic interface to my iPhone—is still iPad-only.

I recorded my voiceover in a great little cross-platform app called Just Press Record, which offers iCloud Drive storage for notes and memos on any device you record from—Mac, iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch. Once I'd finished my takes, it was a cinch to import that audio into iMovie—under the Audio tab, there's now an "import from iCloud Drive" option.

Imported audio drops into your timeline by default as a background soundtrack, but I quickly attached it to a video clip—that way, you can overlap any cuts you make to the audio to speed it up.

The actual editing is a joy: I love cutting video on iOS because of multitasking gestures, and importing new clips (or portions of clips) is simple as can be. The best part about editing on the iPhone 6s Plus, however, is speed: iMovie flies, even when working with 4K video. In contrast, I had to import a 4K file into Final Cut on my two-year old iMac for a different project, and the poor computer couldn't play it faster than 5 or 6 frames per second.

As with any editing program you grow to know well, I do have my nitpicks when working in iMovie on the iPhone: For one, I want more granular control over where I drop audio after dragging it—right now it just plops down sort of randomly unless you're in the furthest zoom mode.

I'd also like to see waveforms on audio, and be able to batch change volume (or titles, please!) on clips—doing this one-by-one is a pain.

And just for good measure, let's see more speed options: Final Cut lets me speed clips up to 20x for true timelapse action; I'd love that on the iPhone. (The only way you can do it right now in post-production is speed 2x, export, speed exported clip 2x, export... not worth it.)

Finally: Duplicating projects. For experiments' sake.

The experience, or "Why would you do this when you have a DSLR?"

I filmed and edited our review on the 6s Plus largely because I wanted to see if I could create a product as good as our DSLR-produced work. Because the iPhone is so portable and its accessories likewise so, it's a great makeshift camera for live events. Moreover, I can edit quick video (under 10 minutes) on my iPhone and come up with a finished product much more rapidly than if I had to import to my Mac, load in Final Cut, cut my video, and export it to YouTube or elsewhere.

If you're editing projects longer than ten minutes, I hold that the iMovie for iPhone timeline currently just isn't feasible to work in: too much pinching, zooming, and panning, and the wrong tap can bring you all the way to the start or end of the film. But for our work, it's a great tool. (And honestly, I can't wait to see what Apple does with it when the iPad Pro launches.)

4K video on the iPhone 6s Plus looks just as good as my Canon, if not better, in daylight. In night or low-light scenes, my Canon still has the edge; it's also going to beat the iPhone any day when it comes to soft-focused vistas or macro shots.

But for me, the benefits of shooting on an iPhone vastly outweigh the tradeoffs. Not in every situation, sure. But I'm glad I took a gamble and shot our review on the 6s Plus: It gave me a great idea of how it can fit into my video workflow, and I'm looking forward to using it in the future.

Someone who can't see may still want to share photos with family, friends, and connections who can. That's why offering a Camera app that's accessible to those with limited or no vision is so important. Everyone should have the option of taking pictures of the people and places that matter to them. And yes, in the age of social media, everyone should have the option of taking a selfie. That's the essence of inclusivity.

Embarrassingly, before it was pointed out to me a couple of weeks ago, it hasn't occurred to me that Apple had added VoiceOver, the company's screen reader technology, to the camera. I hadn't even considered that aspect of accessibility. But Apple had, and they'd taken steps to make it work.

Making the camera accessible

The first step in making the Camera app accessible is making Camera.app accessible. In other words, making sure everyone can get to it whenever they need it.

You can navigate to Camera using VoiceOver, but Apple's made it even easier. Simply tell Siri "Open the camera". Even "Siri, take a selfie" works. It doesn't automagically switch it to the front-facing mode or take a picture, though—at least not yet—but it gets you where you want to be.

When VoiceOver is enabled, not only will it read out the buttons, controls, and options available to you, but it will tell you the settings and the orientation of the camera. That might sound redundant, because we know how we're holding it, but sometimes the interface doesn't switch when the phone switches and sideways pictures result. Having a voice confirmation is not just the equivalent of looking at the camera icon and making sure it's pointing up, it's a proactive protection. Same with high dynamic range and flash settings.

VoiceOver will then use face detection to tell you how many people are in the frame. It will also say if a face is small, and where in the frame a face or faces are located incase you want to try and better center them. When you move, it will tell you the new framing, so you can figure out if you're getting closer to the shot you want.

Making photos accessible

Taking a photo is only the first step. You also need to be able to do something with the photos you take. That can begin with "Siri, launch Photos". (With iOS 9, Siri will also be able to search photos as well—"Show me photos from September in San Francisco!".)

From there, in addition to the standard functionality, VoiceOver will tell you when a photo was taken. It will also tell you the orientation, and whether or not the image is crisp or blurry (focus) and bright or dim (exposure).

You can go through the collection, moments, or albums views, tap away, and get given a brief audio description of each and every photo. That way, before you share any images over Messages or Mail, or to Instagram or Facebook, you can get a better sense of which image it is and whether or not it might be good enough for you to send or post.

Making accessibility for everyone

Accessibility technology is important. Whether or not every implementation works for everyone all the time, that it's being given relentless consideration and attention is important. Not because it's something nice to do but because it's something that must be done.

It's something that can potentially benefit everyone. Everyone ages, everyone is at risk of allergic reaction, accident, infection, surgery, or sports-related injury. Everyone, directly or through a family member or friend, has the chance of experiencing the need for better visual accessibility. And everyone benefits from apps being made better because accessibility is considered.

Earlier this year Apple won the 2015 Hellen Keller Achievement Award for VoiceOver. That wasn't a pat on the back for a job well done, it was a firm push forward to keep on doing it.

• iPhone accessibility: The ultimate guide
• Apple Watch accessibility: The ultimate guide
• Accessibility hub

Happy Saturday, iMore! Because Rich is awesome, he's letting us run some of his Mac-themed comics from the Diesel Sweeties archive on weekends. Bonus comics, woo! We hope you enjoy.

Read more comics from the Pixel Project on iMore.com.

There's never been a better time to switch to iPhone. Whether you're tempted for yourself or looking to help the Android user in your life, the all-new, all-better iPhone 6 and iPhone-6-plus make the move more compelling than ever — especially with their incredible everyday cameras.

The megapixel myth

The iPhone 6's rear-facing iSight camera is 8 megapixels. Some might argue that more would be better; we saw the megapixel race in point-and-shoot cameras, however, and we know how senseless it is. Megapixels represent quantity, not quality. To get more megapixels, manufacturers carve the image sensor up into smaller pixels that take in less light. That typically results in larger photos of poorer quality. That's why Apple made the choice not to go for more pixels, but for bigger pixels — 1.5 microns at f/2.2. Because they're larger, they take in more light and result in better-quality photos.

If you really want to shoot images sized for posters or billboards, or want to take advantage of significant downsampling, it's okay to look for megapixels. If you want truly great photos, however, you'll need to look beyond them.

The everyday advantage

The biggest advantage of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus cameras is that you can just pull them out, take a snap, and in almost every situation — sunrises, landscapes, landmarks, kids, pets, parties, dinners, selfies, you name it — you get just about the best photo possible. There's no complex software or settings to fuss with; just point, tap, and you've got a great picture.

That's why Apple doesn't need to hang a huge lens off the back or rely on server-side processing. From the custom Image Signal Processor (ISP) to the in-house Camera app, the company designs everything themselves and tightly integrates it all together.

Auto-everything

The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus sport a five-element lens with a sapphire crystal lens cover, a hybrid IR-filter, and an 8-megapixel backside illuminated sensor (BSI) to let in as much light as possible. It also offers auto-focus, auto-exposure, and auto-white balance to make sure your photos are sharp, bright, and the colors look the way they're supposed to.

Apple has also added what the company calls "focus pixels" to the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. Typically found in higher-end cameras, focus pixels allow for "phase-detection autofocus:" Dedicated pairs of pixels in the image sensor read the light and instruct the camera's optics on how to properly adjust, so as to lock onto the scene in front of it. The result is faster focusing — almost instant, really.

The iPhone can also lock onto multiple faces and smaller faces than ever, even in burst mode; your device looks for open eyes and smiles, and then automatically sorts and presents the best of both for your images.

There's also automatic high dynamic range (HDR) with next-generation tonal mapping to make sure you get as much detail as possible in both the light and shadows of your image. For the iPhone 6 Plus, there's additional optical image stabilization (OIS), allowing the aperture to stay open longer which results in less noise during low-light situations.

Taken together, it means from the moment you tap or hold down the shutter button, an incredible amount of technology is working to make sure the picture or pictures you get are as best as they can possibly be.

All the right modes (and manuals)

In addition to standard photos and bursts, the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus can take time-lapse photos, panoramas with dynamic exposure, square photos, and even add live effects or filters.

If you're an experienced photographer who prefers controlling every aspect of the photography process yourself, you can download one of many manual camera apps from the App Store. That way you can adjust focus, exposure, and color balances just the way you want them.

Why the camera matters

The idea that the "best camera is the one you have with you" puts an incredible responsibility on smartphone makers. We're trusting them to capture the most important moments of our lives, often at a moment's notice. They need to be up to the task. And so far, Apple has been far in the lead.

Vlad Savov of the Verge, recently wrote about his Android phone getting outshot by casual iPhone photographers:

It's not just journalists having that revelation, either. Here's one of our readers, Brad Littler:

The advantage of Apple's entire ecosystem comes into play as well, as pointed out by another of our readers, GGIBS:

Beyond that, over the holidays I tried taking pictures with my Galaxy S5 camera and the shot it showed me right before the snap was sadly not the shot I got. My images were often blurred, dark, or grainy — and this on a supposed better camera than the 6! I do also miss iCloud's backup, which allows any pictures I take to automatically back up to my Mac and iPad.

Time to switch!

If the lack of a high-quality, easy-to-use camera has been frustrating you or someone you know, here's the good news: The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus offer not only the best everyday cameras you can find on a phone, but the best camera apps to take advantage of them as well. It's just one of the benefits you get by switching to iPhone.

• iPhone 6 review
• iPhone 6 Plus review
• iPhone buyers guide
• Switch to iPhone guide

The new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus have a bevy of new videography features for those who enjoy shooting those fancy "moving pictures" on their mobile devices. I've been putting my iPhone 6 through its paces, and here's an overview of what you have to look forward to—in video form, naturally.

Shooting in "Selfie" mode

Though the iPhone's front-facing FaceTime HD camera hasn't received any boosts in megapixels, the sensor's now better at differentiating brightness and exposure; this offers you clearer, crisper 720p footage with fewer blown out lighting sources. (I dare you to avoid calling it "selfie video mode," though, as I've unfortunately taken to saying.)

High Frame Rates and Focus Pixels

Your iPhone 6 or 6 Plus camera will capture even more detail in your regular video-taking excursions than past iPhones, thanks to it shooting at 60 frames per second. Rather than trying to imitate the 24-frames-per-second look of film, Apple is instead embracing high-frame-rate video full-on. The result is clear, crisp video, no matter what you're taking. The company has also implemented its Focus Pixels technology to make sure your desired subject is always in focus, no matter how they or you move.

Let's do it in slow-motion

Apple first introduced slow-motion video mode with the iPhone 5s, and it's gotten a big boost in the 6 and 6 Plus: You can now shoot 720p video at up to 240 frames per second. At that speed, your video just looks extra-crisp; play it back at 30 frames per second, however, and you'll slow down that video to 1/8th of its original recording speed. You can do basic slow-downs in the Photos app, but Apple's iMovie app lets you have greater control over specific speeds, as seen here.

Because you're capturing more video frames in a single second, you'll need good lighting for your slow-motion videos. It's very difficult to shoot at 240FPS in a dark area, as you can see here. If you're having trouble, try downgrading to 120FPS mode to get more light to the iPhone's camera sensor. You can even still play 120FPS video back at 1/8 speed in iMovie, though it'll look choppier than full 240FPS.

Let's do the Timelapse again

Last (but certainly not least) is iOS 8's new Timelapse mode, which automatically creates point-and-shoot timelapse movies for you. The playback speed of that timelapse relative to real time depends on how long you shoot; Dan Provost has a great breakdown of this over on Studio Neat's website. The best timelapse videos involve keeping a stationary camera, though you can try moving along with your subjects as well. You can even manually slow down your timelapses via iMovie.

While the Camera app in iOS 8 is only getting a few new features, the Camera application programming interfaces (API) — what developers use to make App Store camera apps — is getting the most significant update in the history of the platform, including and especially manual controls for focus, exposure, and white balance. Not much will change for casual photographers, but for pros and enthusiasts, the best camera we have with us will be getting a whole lot better. So, how does it all work?

Automatic vs. manual

Nokia offers great lenses with optical image stabilization (OIS). They want to capture the best light possible right from the start. Google makes everything awesome on the servers. They never know which device or what quality camera they'll get the data from, they concentrate on finishing strong. Apple, however, has focused on the best custom image signal processors (ISP) in the business. They control not only the software but the hardware down to the chip so they optimize each part to get the best whole.

That's why, with the tap of a finger, the iPhone locks on the most obvious subject in the frame, exposes for the best balance of light and shadow, makes sure white is as close to white as technologically possible, and produces an image that, 9 times out of 10, looks as good if not better than phones with much better optics or server farms can provide.

But what about that 10th time out of 10? What about when the object you want to focus on isn't the most obvious? When you want to force a scene bright or darker for artistic or practical effect? When you want the set a custom white balance?

Just like automatic transmission is the quickest and most reliable way for most people to drive a car most of the time, automatic cameras are the quickest and most reliable way for most people to capture the memories that will matter to them most of the time. For the pros, however, for the artists and experimenters, for those who want to control every aspect themselves — nothing beats full-on manual, not on the road and not on the shoot.

And that's what Apple's providing with iOS 8. The built-in Camera app is getting time-lapse photography and a sun icon you can swipe to change exposure, but developers are getting more. They're getting complete manual control over focus, exposure, and white balance.

Manual focus

Focus means making sure whatever the most important thing is in your photo, whether it's as close a flower petal or as far away as a sunset, is crisp and as sharply captured as possible. Apple has done a lot to make focus "just work" on the iPhone. There's auto-focus, tap to focus, and multiple face detection. All of that is designed so that the camera will sharply capture what it believes is are the most important elements in the scene.

Manual focus control is for when you want to determine for yourself what, if anything, should be sharply captured. Maybe you want the entire photo to be blurry and dreamy, maybe you want to stack focus to avoid any blur, maybe you want to pull focus on a moving subject, or maybe you want to change focus over time.

The manual camera controls let you do just that. Instead of tap to focus, you can do something functionally akin to turning the focusing ring on a traditional camera lens. Hold your iPhone up and frame two objects, one super close, one some distance away. Manually change the focus and watch as the one in front goes from sharp to blurry, and the one in back goes from blurry to sharp.

Manual focus in iOS works on a scale of 0.0 to 1.0, with macro on one end and "infinity" on the other. Developers can lock focus at any lens position to achieve focus along any point of that scale. Apple chose to use a scale rather than distance measures because of the way focus is implemented on the iPhone and iPad.

To change focus, the lens is physically moved via a spring and a magnet. That means that there's bounce when it moves, there's a stretch dependent on the angle of gravity, and changes over time as the spring gets used more and more often. So, telling the lens to move to a certain position can and will produce different results at different times. Telling it you want a certain scale will move the lens to the position required to achieve it, regardless of what that position might be at any given time.

Because even a Retina screen isn't as high resolution as a photo capture — currently 1136x640 vs. 3264x2448 on an iPhone 5s with an 8mp iSight camera — the preview image has to be scaled down. That can make manual focus more challenging. To help compensate for that, Apple is providing ways for developers to show zoomed in previews, to compute their own focus scores, and to highlight sharp areas (focus peaking).

In other words, many of those fancy focusing tools you had on your DSLR are finding their way to your iPhone.

Manual exposure

To determine how bright or dark your image is, you "expose" your camera's sensor to greater and longer or smaller and shorter amounts of light. Normally, in automatic mode, the camera will constantly calculate the best exposure for any given seen so you get the best exposed photo of that scene. Sometimes, however, you might want an image that's surrealistically bright or sullenly dark, an image with minimal motion blur or with a lot of it, and image with as little noise as possible, or as bright as possible regardless of the amount of noise it general. Enter manual exposure.

Exposure is determined by shutter speed, ISO (light sensitivity), and lens aperture.

Shutter speed is the duration of exposure. The faster the shutter closes, the shorter the amount of time the sensor is exposed to light. That means the image will be darker but also have less motion blur will result (because things won't have had much time to move). The slower the shutter closes, the longer the amount of time the sensor is exposed to light. That means the image will be brighter but will have more motion blur (because things will have had time to move more).

Generally you want shorter exposures/faster shutter speed for well-lit action shots, and longer exposures/slower shutter speed for low-light stills.

ISO (International Standards Organization) originally measured how sensitive film stock was to light. Now it means how sensitive the digital camera capture is to light. Low ISO is less sensitive to light which makes for darker images but less noise. High ISO is more sensitive to light which makes for brighter images but with more noise (the result of spikes that occur when amplifying the signal off the camera's CMOS chip).

Aperture is the size of the lens opening. If shutter speed is how long you sip from a straw, aperture is how big the straw is. The bigger the aperture, the more light you can take in while the shutter is open. To date, however, Apple has only shipped fixed-aperture cameras on the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. So, manual exposure controls are limited to shutter speed and ISO.

Automatic exposure on iOS tries to ensure a properly exposed image by dynamically changing shutter speed (duration of exposure) and ISO (light sensitivity) based on a constant stream of metering stats it receives from the scene being photographed.

Manual exposure lets you control all that yourself. You could, for example, could choose to minimize noise in a lower-light setting by cranking down the ISO and, if you're stable enough, cranking up the duration. That would give you a better lit, far less noisy image.

Developers can set duration and ISO together or can lock one and only let the other be set. iOS will continue to feed them the metering stats, and supply an offset value that they can use if they want to, but duration and ISO will no longer be bound to it.

Exposure compensation

Sometimes you may want slightly more control than automatic exposure allows, but without the complexity of manual exposure controls. Instead of manipulating duration and ISO, you just want to make an image a little brighter or a little less bright. That's where exposure compensation, also known as exposure target bias, comes in.

With exposure compensation, Apple's automatic exposure algorithms still handle all the heavy lifting, but you get to bias it one way or another to get closer to the look you want. And it works in both continuous and locked modes. So, you can bias the exposure to make a scene brighter, move the camera, and exposure will keep adjusting to keep that level of enhanced brightness. Or, you can lock exposure based on a particular scene and nothing will chance unless you bias the exposure from there.

Exposure compensation is expressed in f-stops. +1 f-stop doubles the brightness, -1 f-stop halves the brightness.

Developers can currently set exposure target biases between -8 and +8 for all existing iOS devices. However, Apple warns that that could change in the future.

Exposure compensation is also the basis for the new adjustable exposure in the iOS 8 Camera app. Tap to focus, get the sun icon, swipe it up to bias exposure and make the scene brighter, or swipe it down to bias exposure and make the scene darker.

Manual white balance

White balance is just what the name implies — making sure the whites (and grays) in your image are as close to white (and gray) as possible. Too cool, and everything looks blueish. Too warm, and everything looks yellowish. In other words, white balance is all about making the colors in your image look as realistic as possible. Why is that hard? Because different light sources give off cooler or warmer light. Incandescent lights are warm and yellow. Daylight is cooler and more blue.

Cameras need to adjust for light temperate by boosting other colors to compensate. For example, if color temperate is tinting a scene blue, the camera software has to boost red and a little green. Under mixed lighting conditions like a blue tinted computer display and a yellow tinted desk lamp, compensating can become more complicated. (See Planckian locus if you're interested in how it works.)

The iOS Camera app handles all this automatically. Traditional cameras often offer automatic white balance as well, along with specific ones optimized for sunlight, cloudy outdoor light, shadowy conditions, incandescent bulbs, florescent lights, and flash photography, along with the ability to set custom white balances.

All of that, and more, is what manual white balance allows.

With iOS 8, Apple is giving developers full control of device red/green/blue (RGB) gains. That includes temperature casts between yellow and blue, and tints between green and magenta. Apple is also providing conversion routines to and from device independent color spaces. That means developers can go to or from the device specific values to x,y chromaticity values or temperature and tint values. That's important when cameras and the RGB gains coming off of them vary from device to device, but apps have to work across all devices.

Developers set red, green, and blue gains all at once in a new struct. Currently, the maximum white balance gain a developer can set on any iOS device is 4, but Apple again cautions this might change in the future. x,y chromaticity, and temperature/tint are also set in new structs. Chromaticity can range from 0 to 1. Temperature is a floating point value in Kelvin, and tint is a green/magenta offset from 0 to 150. Conversion routines don't take into account whether their results are legal color values or not (i.e. can be seen by humans or not), so developers need to check for out-of-range values.

Custom white balances using gray cards is now possible as well. A longtime tool of traditional photographers, a gray card can be invaluable in setting the proper white balance for a scene with mixed or otherwise tricky lighting.

Gray cards are literally cards colored neutral gray that fill the center 50% of the frame. That way the auto white balance can lock onto a known neutral gray value and ignore any colors or reflections that might otherwise bias or misinform it.

For example, if you wanted to take a picture of someone all dressed up in yellow sitting on top of a pile of bananas, it's possible the automatic white balance might mistake sunlight reflecting off all that yellow for incandescent light. So, it might boost the blues to compensate resulting in an image that looks sickly and wrong. Stick a gray card in there, however, lock white balance on the card, and the auto white balance will work to make that gray look gray regardless of any other colors or casts in the frame. You get great looking yellows without them messing up all the other colors in the photo.

Bracketed capture

Bracketed capture allows for bursts of images to be taken, with the option for changing camera values from image to image.

Burst mode on the iPhone 5s is an example of a simple bracket where nothing changes but you make sure you capture all the action from a flip, finish line, or even a baby with eyes wide open.

High-dynamic range (HDR) is the classic example of a bracket with changes. Take photos with the exposure biased to -2, 0, and +2, and then fuse them together pull out detail in both light and shadow.

Combine bracket capture with the new manual camera controls and developers can make apps that do both those things, but also with the potential to do much, much more.

Bar codes, permission requestors, H.264 encoder, and PhotoKit

In addition to the manual controls, a few other features are coming to the iOS 8 camera and audio/video foundation as well.

The camera is gaining support for three new types of bar codes, data matrix, interleaved 2 of 5, and ITF14, as well as global support for camera and mic permission requesters.

Developers will also getting direct access to the hardware H.264 video encoder for real-time capture. Yeah, we're in for some fun.

Then there's the new Photos app and PhotoKit, which ties into the new iCloud Photo Libraries, and gives developers faster performance, read and write access to the library, non-destructive edits, and the ability to delete photos (with permission). And there's photo extensions, which brings App Store filters and transformations into the main Photos app.

In other words, there's a lot. A lot, a lot.

Bottom line

To say this is a major release for photography and photographers would be to greatly undersell it. With iOS 8, Apple is taking the best automatic camera on a smartphone and making a run at the title of best manual camera on a smartphone as well. That Apple isn't including all the new controls in their own Camera app, but is leaving them for developers to implement might even allow for the best of both worlds.

Casual photographers can stay comfortable in the largely automatic, easy and simple to use confines of the Camera app, and developers can make App Store apps that offer those full on manual controls. They can appeal to those pros, those artists, and those experimenters.

More of iOS 8: Explained

• Handoff in iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite: Explained
• Making and receiving phone calls on iOS 8 for iPad and OS X Yosemite: Explained
• Sending and receiving SMS/MMS on iOS 8 for iPad and OS X Yosemite: Explained
• AirDrop and Instant Hotspot in iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite: Explained
• QuickType keyboard in iOS 8: Explained
• Interactive notifications in iOS 8: Explained
• SceneKit in iOS 8: Explained
• Metal in iOS 8: Explained
• Widgets in iOS 8: Explained
• Share extensions in iOS 8: Explained
• Action extensions in iOS 8: Explained
• Inter-app photo and video editing in iOS 8: Explained
• Custom keyboards in iOS 8: Explained
• Family Sharing on iOS 8: Explained
• iCloud Drive and Document Picker for iOS 8: Explained
• Document provider extensions in iOS 8: Explained
• TestFlight in iOS 8: Explained
• Apple Maps in iOS 8: Explained
• iMessage in iOS 8: Explained
• Photos in iOS 8: Explained
• Spotlight in iOS 8: Explained
• Health in iOS 8: Explained
• Touch ID in iOS 8: Explained
• HomeKit in iOS 8: Explained
• Adaptive UI in iOS 8: Explained
• Manual camera controls in iOS 8: Explained

Google has finally released a Photo Sphere camera app for iPhone. Now you can shoot huge panoramas just by moving your device around you, and upload the final product to the cloud to share with friends. If you've ever used Street View in Google Maps, you'll be familiar with the kinds of shots this can produce.

Final creations can be geotagged so others can see where they were shot, and shared out to your various social networks from within the Photo Sphere app, including Google+.

Photo Spheres are a big phenomenon on Android, and it's great to have access to them on iOS now as well. Anywhere in particular you would like to shoot one of these kinds of pictures?

• Free - Download now

A decade ago I spent thousands of dollars and spent months shooting, developing, and editing photos for a book I was working on. It was an incredibly expensive, incomprehensibly wasteful process. Now I get not only less expensive but better photos with the iPhone 5s and apps in my pocket. and that's nothing compared to what Robin Jasmer is getting with his iPhone 5 and Photoshop Express:

John Gruber's take on Daring Fireball is profound:

Come Monday I'll be sitting in the WWDC 2014 keynote with a Canon 5D Mark III and 70-200mm Sigma lens. I bet I won't even need that in a few more years.

With the iPhone 6 — presumably due sometime this fall — Apple will no doubt continue its focus on photography and on making the best "everyday" cameras in the business. But how will they keep doing that? There are several possibilities. They can add a bigger piece of glass that takes up a lot more space but captures an incredible amount of information. They can continue to improve their already amazing image signal processor (ISP) that takes what information is captured and makes incredible use of it. They can also continue to improve the software that takes the bits, analyzes and processes the pixels out of them, and creates incredible results. And they can introduce fantastic cloud services that take whatever comes out of the phone and applies incredible server-side power to it. In other words, they can amp up the glass, in the chip, the apps, and/or the cloud. The question is, which way will the iPhone 6 go?

big glass bumps

With the iPhone 5s, Apple has done an amazing job of squeezing high-quality optics into very little z-axis — that is, thickness. What glass there is in the iPhone 5s is composed of five discreet elements, precision aligned, with a backside illuminated sensor (BSI), 8 megapixel, 1.5-micron pixel size, and f/2.2 aperture. Considering the casing is only 7.6mm thin, that's pretty close to an engineering miracle.

Nokia, by contrast, has a 41-megapixel Carl Zeiss lens on its Lumia 1020. It has six elements, is also BSI and f/2.2, and has 1.4-micron pixels. In addition to the giant lens, however, it adds optical image stabilization (OIS). In other words, it physically floats the lens so it can keep the aperture open for a long time and drink in a ton of light. All of that takes up a lot of physical space, however. Not only does it make the Lumia 1020 10.4mm thick, it forced a face-hugger-sized bump on the back of the phone.

The original HTC One also had OIS and a thickness of 9.3mm but managed to avoid the bump by rounding the entire back. HTC went with 4 megapixels of resolution, but larger pixels at 2.0 microns and an f/2.0 aperture. The new HTC One M8 added a second lens to the back. It records distance information so that, later, the focal point/depth of field can be adjusted.

Samsung, for its part, will be continuing to wage the megapixel war, going to 16 megapixels for the Galaxy S5. With those megapixels come a mega-bump, however.

There's a lot Apple could do to improve the optics on the iPhone, but would they do it if the cost was a thicker, bumpier product?

The signal processor

What the iPhone lacks in lens size it more than makes up for in image signal processing (ISP) power. Most recently, that's thanks to the supercharged Apple A7 chipset. The ISP focuses, balances, exposures, and otherwise processes the image so it comes out looking as good as possible. Some of this occurs pre-capture, like multiple facial recognition. Some of it occurs post-capture, like the auto (digital) image stabilization (AIS).

The A7 is so fast that saving high-dynamic range (HDR) images — something that took a few seconds on older iPhones — can now be done instantly and even automatically on the iPhone 5s. The A7 can also handle 10fps burst mode, dynamic exposure for panoramas, and more. It can even handle AIS, which requires 4 short exposure pictures be taken in rapid succession and then combined to produce the least noise, subject motion, and hand motion as possible.

Other manufacturers also have dedicated image signal processors yet none of them can yet do as much with as little as the iPhone 5s. If rumors are true and Apple is readying an Apple A8 processor for the iPhone 6, then even more image signal processing may be possible.

AIS can stabilize some amount of subject motion, which OIS can't do, but it's not as good for hand motion and doesn't allow the kind of long exposures for low-light that OIS makes possible. Likewise dynamic depth of field control currently requires a second lens to gather distance information.

The A8 ISP will no doubt be better than the A7, but how much better can it realistically be?

The camera app

The iPhone has always had a good camera app. With iOS 7 the old, heavily chromed, shutter-effect laden version was abandoned in favor of a newer, cleaner, blur-transitioning version but the functionality has remained much the same. What new features there are serve to support the Apple A7 ISP. Auto-HDR can be toggled on and off. Burst mode photos can be fully explored. Filters can be applied live and post-capture. Images can be auto-enhanced and have red-eye removed. And that's about it. Everything else from more manual controls to more in-depth editing to special effects are left to App Store apps, including Apple's own iPhoto.

Almost all other manufacturers have been more aggressive about adding functionality to their built-in camera apps. BlackBerry 10 offers time-shift so that you can move backward or forward to find the perfect picture, almost like a continuous, selective burst mode. HTC and Samsung offer a host of image manipulations and effects. Some of them, including Nokia, will even let you access the RAW image data.

Some of the effects are silly and, because of complexity, I'd argue many of them are better left to optional third-party apps. However, some are useful and some are just plain fun. Would Apple be willing to integrate even more options into the Camera app?

The cloud

Apple currently limits their iCloud imaging services to Photo Stream. Originally a way to temporarily store photos to aid in propagating them across iOS and OS X devices, Apple more recently added sharing to the mix. Now you can create albums for friends, family, and coworkers, like each others photos, and leave comments. It's... quaint.

Google, on the other hand, is awesome. Auto Awesome. If you're willing to let them suck all your photographs into the G+ cloud, they'll put the full weight of their massive server-farm behind it and perform effects from the functional to whimsical to the silly. Google also bought Nik Software, the makers of Snapseed and famous filter and FX packages. They're also putting considerable talent and resources behind their photography efforts.

Apple has a fantastic Pro Apps team, including those working on iPhoto and Aperture. Could they take those services to the iCloud?

The bottom line

Apple already makes the best image signal processors in the industry and their software is simple and solid. It would be great to see them do some of the dynamic focus stuff and a few of the specialty modes like multiple exposure but otherwise they seem to really be in the zone when it comes to post-capture, on-device processing.

That leaves better glass and server-side processing as the major opportunities. Could Apple make a better iPhone 6 camera by upping the optical ante? Almost certainly. Would it be willing to increase the thickness of the iPhone 6 to do it? Almost certainly not. While a thicker iPhone would also allow for things like longer battery life, it would make for a heavier device, like the Lumia 1020, and that is something Apple has thus far avoided at all costs. Likewise, it's tough to see Apple doing anything that would result in an unsightly bulge. A slightly raised camera, like on the iPod touch, is one thing. (Especially if the trade off is an even thinner casing, which is what happened with the iPod touch.) A big honking protrusion is quite another.

Services aren't typically Apple's forte either. They also don't like manipulating people's data on the cloud, preferring to keep things local when they can. iWork for iCloud is a recent exception, so maybe there's some hope for iPhoto for iCloud. It would be great to have a viable competitor to the Google and Facebook-based photo clouds. Storage and backup aside, though, there seems little advantage to Apple doing in the cloud what they can do on-device.

All of that adds up to the iPhone 6 likely getting what we typically get from Apple — slightly better optics, impressively better ISP, slightly better Camera app, and small improvements to cloud services. Camera nerds will want more, but it's a strategy that best serves the every day photographer Apple is focused on.

Still, we're a long way from September so let me know — what would you like to see from the iPhone 6 camera?

Vector is Mobile Nations' cross-site, cross-platform analysis podcast where we talk about the biggest stories and issues in tech with the smartest people in the industry. On this week's episode, Don Melton and Guy English join Rene to get super geeky about 4K TV (aka UHD or 2160p), HEVC (aka H.265), VP8, and the future of televisions, physical and digital media, and transcoding.

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Show notes

• Vector 22: How to rip and transcode video for the best quality possible
• 4K resolution
• Ultra-high definition television
• High efficiency video codec (H.265)
• VP8
• Why Ultra HD 4K TVs are still stupid
• Active 3D vs. passive 3D: What's better?
• Netflix Internet Connection Speed Recommendations (Unfortunately, it doesn’t include their requirements for “Ultra HD.” That’s actually 12.6 Megabits per second.)
• 4K, HDMI, and Deep Color

Guests

• Don Melton of donmelton.com
• Guy English of Kickingbear

Hosts

• Rene Ritchie of Mobile Nations

Feedback

Yell at us on Twitter or leave a comment below!

Canon has today pulled the wraps off its latest entry-level DSLR camera, the EOS 1200D, and along with it a companion mobile app to help you find your way around it. The 1200D – like the 1100D before it – is aimed at those taking their first steps into DSLR photography, and the app will be available to folks with an iOS or Android device.

Some of the same content is available on the actual camera, but it makes absolute sense to pull those tips, tricks and troubleshooting guides out and put them in your pocket. The camera will ship in March at £349.99 (body only), but the app should be available prior to that for interested buyers to take a look. Indeed, the Android version has already hit the Google Play Store.

As a less than camera-savvy person myself, I like what Canon did with this. How about you?

Source: Canon

Two researchers at Johns Hopkins University published a paper that has recently been widely reported throughout the Mac blogosphere. They claim to have been able to hack the webcam on older MacBook and iMac computers so the camera worked without activating the green LED. Don't tape over your webcam yet, though. I've had a look over the paper, and it's not as bad as you might think.

First some background: Normally the indicator LED and the camera are mated together using a hardware interlock, so whenever the camera is on, the LED is activated. Matthew Brocker and Stephen Checkoway say they figured out a way to circumvent that interlock by reprogramming a microcontroller built into the iSight camera's circuitry. What's more, they've also developed an OS X kernel extension which fixes the exploit.

It's important to understand, first of all, that the exploit as described is specific to the circuitry of older Macs. According to the researchers, it can be found in "previous generation Apple products including the iMac G5 and early Intel-based iMacs, MacBooks, and MacBook Pros until roughly 2008."

The researchers have developed a proof of concept that shows how it can work, but they're quick to admit that it's not easy to get an unsuspecting user to install it. And Apple's decision to "sandbox" applications in recent versions of OS X provides an additional layer of security. Checkoway has published the source code for a fix.

Brocker and Checkoway say they contacted Apple about the exploit in mid-July; they've heard back from Apple employees but haven't been told of any specific plans to fix it.

In reporting on Brocker and Checkoway's exploit, the Washington Post quotes security researcher Charlie Miller who suggests that later Macs may be subject to an exploit as well. But Miller offered no proof whatsoever that any newer Macs have been compromised, just a vague suggestion that it could be done depending on "how well [Apple] secured the hardware."

If you don't know where an app is from or what it does, for goodness' sake, don't install it.

To that end, Apple's Gatekeeper software, built into recent versions of OS X, offers some level of protection for you - ordinarily it'll only allow software that's been downloaded from the Mac App Store or from a developer who's registered a certificate with Apple. You'd have to change your Security & Privacy system preference settings to "Allow apps downloaded from anywhere" to install it. And if you've installed software on your Mac before, you're probably familiar with the dialog box that requires you to enter an administrator password to make changes - another stumbling block against casual installation.

If you're using an older machine and you are worried that someone is spying on you, well, a piece of masking or electrical tape over the iSight camera will work too.

Bottom line: Use common sense when installing software you've downloaded from the Internet and you should be okay.

The iSight camera in the Retina mini remains unchanged from last year's original. It's still the same 5 megapixel, backside illuminated (BSI), five-element, hybrid IR file red, and f/2.4 aperture. What has changed is the Apple A7 processor inside, and the image signal processor (ISP) inside it. That's 2 generations ahead in terms of imaging technology, which includes auto white balance, focus, exposure, face-detection, and more. In daylight, when the sun is flooding it with photons, there won't be much if any difference. When it comes to low-light, however, the A7 ISP pulls a little more detail out of the darkness, same as the iPad Air, but certainly nowhere near as good as the superior optics in the iPhone 5s. So the question becomes, how good - or bad - is it?

For macros, the the A7's ISP again produces noticeably better results than last year's original iPad mini, on par with the iPad Air. While noisier than the more powerful iPhone 5s camera, thanks to annoying glitches that remain in the iPhone macro focus system, the iPads manage to resolve their photos better as well.

High dynamic range (HDR), which merges multiple exposures to pull more detail out of both highlights and shadows alike, varies little across the board. The Retina iPad mini and iPad Air are slightly better than the original iPad mini, but not exceptionally so. Even the iPhone 5s, while producing much larger, cleaner images, doesn't pull staggeringly more image information.

Video is the same story. In daylight, there's not much difference. In low light, it's better but still noisy compared, especially compared to the iPhone 5s. Dual mics do make for betters odds when recording audio quality, but likewise arent up to the same standard as the triple mics and beam-forming in the iPhone 5s.

Also, unlike the iPhone 5s, Apple doesn't surface Panorama, Burst, or Slo Mo modes, or real-time filters in the Camera app. You can still take up to 10 photos a second by holding down the shutter button, you just don't get the real-time processing and fancy image selection interface. You can also add iOS 7 filters in post via edit mode, but the loss of real-time is a shame.

For some people the iPad is their only camera-equipped device, and their moments and memories are every bit as precious. Apple knows how to make great mobile cameras, all that remains is for them to put one on the iPads.

Like the rest of the new iOS devices released this year, the Retina iPad mini gets a slightly improved FaceTime HD camera. It's still 1.2 megapixel f/2.4 and 720p like the original iPad mini, but it's gone from 1.75 to 1.9 microns and switched to a back illuminated sensor (BSI).

In daylight, there's no discernible difference. In low-light, however, it's an improvement.

If you've tested out the new Retina iPad mini cameras, let me know what you think!

While the iPad Air now has the same, improved front-facing FaceTime HD camera as the iPhone 5s - and every other 2013 iOS device - its rear-facing iSight camera remains very much unchanged from the iPad 4 and original iPad mini. What has changed however is the software and hardware that power it. With iOS 7 and the very same Apple A7 found in the iPhone 5s - and the very same image signal processor (ISP) - the iPad Air could see an overall boost in quality anyway. To measure how it stacks up, we put the 5 megapixel iPad Air camera up against the 8 megapixel camera, not see if it would win - it doesn't have a chance - but to see how close it can come!

iSight camera evolution

The original iPad had no cameras. None. The iPad 2 had both iSight and FaceTime cameras at VGA resolution, which is only barely better than not having any at all. The iPad 3 and iPad 4 both had 5 megapixel cameras, but Apple A5X and Apple A6X processors behind them respectively. Better, but not outstanding. The iPad Air does nothing to improve the glass, so any differences here will come purely down to the A7 chipset.

Keeping it consistent

Unless otherwise specified, I used default settings for every picture, meaning I used the iSight Camera right out of the box. I also did not manually focus on anything, I let the software do all the work and balance images the way it saw it. I think this gives a better overall picture of how the software and hardware work together. The only thing I did enable on both devices were grid lines to help me try and get the exact same shot each time.

iPad Air vs iPhone 5s: General everyday photography

From left to right: iPad Air, iPhone 5s

When it comes to general everyday photography, I found both the iPad Air and iPhone 5s completely capable of getting the job done. If you have any recent iPhone, it'll be better than any recent iPad, of course, but some people only have an iPad, or only have an iPad handy when it matters. If that's the case, you won't have any issues with the iPad Air. It manages to balance light better than its predecessors and for the most part, keeps pace with the iPhone 5s fairly well. It's a great example of how software and hardware working together can make a decent different in image quality.

iPad Air vs iPhone 5s: Macro photography

From left to right: iPad Air, iPhone 5s

For these macro shots, I had nothing enabled and let both the iPad Air and the iPhone 5s focus all on their own. Overall, both did an amazing job with closeup photography. The one thing that stood out to me was that the iPhone 5s appears to be better at balancing colors. A good example of this is the photo of the ivy and leaves growing on the brick. If you take a look at the sidewalk in the lower right, the iPhone 5s did a much better job of showing natural colors.

iPad Air vs iPhone 5s: HDR photography

From left to right: iPad Air, iPhone 5s

Here only setting I enabled on either camera was high dynamic range (HDR). Every other setting was either disabled or default. Again, I left the iPad Air and iPhone 5s to focus themselves. Overall, both cameras did a nice job of capturing HDR photos and did a good job balancing light and dark portions. T iPhone 5s results better captured what was in front of me. The very last picture may look as if the iPad Air came out ahead but in reality, the shadows produced on the grass by the iPhone 5s were a better approximation of what I was actually looking at. It's almost as if the iPad Air over-compensated in some areas. Either way, the iPhone 5s came out ahead, but only by a hair.

iPad Air vs iPhone 5s: Low light photography'

From left to right: iPad Air, iPhone 5s

I didn't have to take very many shots to realize that the iPad Air suffers from a lot of noise in low light conditions. A lot of noise. This isn't much different than previous generations of iPads. It just doesn't have the same quality sensor the iPhone 5s enjoys, nor does it have an LED Flash to help compensate if it needs to. But that's the way it is. If you're planning on taking a lot of low light photos, the iPad Air won't be a good go-to camera for you.

iPad Air vs iPhone 5s: FaceTime camera quality

From left to right: iPad Air, iPhone 5s

Both the iPhone 5s and iPad Air FaceTime cameras struggle in bright light. In regular lighting conditions however, they both faired pretty well. The iPhone 5s pulls ahead slightly because it seems to balance skin tones a bit better than the iPad Air. Either way, if you're into selfies, the iPad Air should do an okay job as long as you have normal lighting conditions.

iPad Air vs iPhone 5s: iSight video quality

When it comes to video quality, both the iPhone 5s and iPad Air are capable of shooting in 1080p, and overall, they both do a great job . The iPhone 5s seems to be quite a bit more sensitive to noise than the iPad Air and I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad thing? If you need to pick up quieter sounds, the iPhone 5s will fair better. Video quality in general seemed to be on par but the iPhone 5s auto-balances light somewhat better. In normal lighting conditions anyway.

iPad Air vs iPhone 5s cameras: The bottom line

When it comes to everyday photography, you won't be disappointed in the iPad Air. Even the video quality is pretty great. If low light is important to you, you'll have problems, however. If you don't have an iPhone, another make of camera phone, or even a point-and-shoot camera, you can absolutely get by with an iPad Air. It's not the best camera in mobile, but if it's all you have with you, it's good enough.

If you picked up an iPad Air, let us know what your overall experiences have been with photo and video quality!

On a recent trip to the Scottish Highlands, National Geographic photographer Jim Richardson decided to leave his Nikon DSLR camera at home and, instead, see what the iPhone 5s would allow him to capture. Turns out, a lot - and more than he expected. From the National Geographic's Proof:

Richardson said that what surprised him the most was that the iPhone 5s iSight photos didn't look like compromises - they just looked good.

Check out his article for more, and @jimrichardsonng on Instagram for all of his fantastic iPhone 5s photography.

Source: Proof via Phil Schiller

The iPhone 5s once again shows Apple's focus on cameras, bringing several improvements to the 8 megapixel iSight camera on the back. These include a dual LED white/yellow flash called True Tone, a larger f/2.2 aperture, bigger 1.5mm pixel sensor, and, of course, the next generation image signal processor (ISP) in the new Apple A7 chipset. What does this mean for overall, every day photo quality? What does it mean for skin tones and low-light? What does it mean for motion and dynamic range? And how does it compare to the also just-launched iPhone 5c and last year's similarly equipped iPhone 5? Let's take a look!

iPhone iSight camera evolution

The iPhone has undergone a pretty dramatic evolution when it comes to camera quality. The original iPhone and iPhone 3G were, like most camera phones of the time, dismal. The iPhone 3GS began to change that, and Steve Jobs' famous iPhone 4 Keynote, where he pled the case for photons, cemented Apple's focus on making the iPhone not only a popular camera, but a good one. The iPhone 5 and iPhone 5c are no slouches. The iPhone 5s, even better.

Keeping it consistent

All settings used for this comparison were default, and the only app used was Apple's built-in Camera app. I did not enable HDR, use zoom, or any other camera feature unless otherwise specified. The only thing I enabled on each camera is grid lines so I could better line up shots and get consistent photos across the board. I also let the on-board software control all focusing for the sake of consistency, again unless otherwise specified.

iPhone 5s vs iPhone 5c vs iPhone 5: General everyday photography

From left to right: iPhone 5c, iPhone 5s, iPhone 5

When it comes to general photography (what Apple markets as every day photography) in normal lighting conditions, all three cameras perform exceptionally well. The one thing I find fairly consistent across all the photos I took is that the iPhone 5s manages to balance tones and saturation better.

When a lot of color was involved, the iPhone 5s just seemed to produce a truer representation of what was actually in front of me. The iPhone 5 did a pretty good job at balancing but for some reason, the iPhone 5c almost always seemed to over-saturate colors. This is clear in the photo of the window above. The iPhone 5c on the far left had the hardest time producing true colors. In regular scenes, the difference wasn't terribly noticeable, only when bold or bright colors were involved.

The iPhone 5s produces more natural looking colors by a slight margin but all three cameras can hold their own in normal everyday settings and will produce images you'll be completely happy with.

iPhone 5s vs iPhone 5c vs iPhone 5: Low light photography

From left to right: iPhone 5c, iPhone 5s, iPhone 5

I took the above photos simply to set expectations, nothing more. And because I wanted to see if the jump from f/2.4 to f/2.2 aperture really did much in way of night photography. As I expected, we shouldn't expect miracles here. I will point out that I did not use a flash for any of the above photos so I did not expect them to be perfect. If I had used a flash, I am confident that all three results would be completely different. My goal was simply to see if the iPhone 5s could handle extremely dark environments any better without the assistance of the flash. The only thing I noticed was that grain and noise is a little less noticeable in the iPhone 5s shots than in the ones taken with the iPhone 5c and iPhone 5.

From left to right: iPhone 5c, iPhone 5s, iPhone 5

Now if we take a look at the next set of photos above which were all taken in more common dark scenes that most of us will encounter daily, such as the inside of a dimly lit room, all three cameras perform much better. We can also clearly see that in more realistic situations, the iPhone 5s camera has been vastly improved over the iPhone 5. The photo of the candle in particular shows a huge difference. The iPhone 5s clearly blows the iPhone 5c and iPhone 5 away. The iPhone 5c produces similar results to the iPhone 5, which is expected considering it's pretty much the same identical camera.

At the end of the day, at long as you're realistic about what kind of night shots you want to capture, the iPhone 5s does exceptionally better than any of its predecessors. I'd say it's the biggest leap forward Apple has ever pulled off in terms of low light handling in a single iteration.

iPhone 5s vs iPhone 5c vs iPhone 5: Flash photography

From left to right: iPhone 5c, iPhone 5s, iPhone 5

The iPhone flash has never been extremely great at preserving tones. The True Tone flash of the iPhone 5s is supposed to solve this problem. So far, I've found the iPhone 5s to be all around better at preserving color and tones, with or without the flash. In the first photo of my dog Kaya, I particularly notice the difference as the iPhone 5s actually preserved the colors of her fur better than the iPhone 5c and iPhone 5. In almost all cases, the iPhone 5 blows out certain parts of the image, particularly colors. The iPhone 5c does a little better job of handling it but not much. The iPhone 5s flash seems to balance tones and not blow out images the way the other two do. I found this to be the case with the iPhone 5 during my HTC One vs iPhone 5 camera shootout as well.

The iPhone 5s flash does balance tones better as Apple says it does, but I'm more impressed with its ability to not blow out images as bad as its predecessors did.

iPhone 5s vs iPhone 5c vs iPhone 5: HDR photography

From left to right: iPhone 5c, iPhone 5s, iPhone 5

HDR photography is one of the areas I found to be consistent pretty much across the board. All three cameras handled exceptionally well and balanced most environments with almost identical results each and every time. If you're concerned with this, you have nothing to worry about with iPhone 5s, iPhone 5c, or iPhone 5. They pretty much all perform the same.

iPhone 5s vs iPhone 5c vs iPhone 5: Macro and zoom photography

From left to right: iPhone 5c, iPhone 5s, iPhone 5

The above photos I used no zoom and simply shot both of them as close as I could get while focusing on the exact same point in each. All three performed exceptionally well but I did notice the iPhone 5 did not want to focus as close in the photo of the flower as the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c did. For some reason, the image would start to blur if I got any closer. Perhaps this is simply an anomaly with my particular iPhone 5. I'm not really sure. The photo of the driftwood was particularly interesting to me as the iPhone 5s again did a much better job of balancing color tones and saturation than both the iPhone 5c and iPhone 5.

From left to right: iPhone 5c, iPhone 5s, iPhone 5

The two images above I did use the zoom feature and zoomed in as far as possible. Mainly because I hate spiders and for two, I wanted to see how much noise I could get each camera to product considering I've never found the zoom feature in any iPhone to be quite good. It has always produced noise very quickly in my experience. The iPhone 5 performed the worst in the photo of the spider completely blowing out the background color. The iPhone 5c handled okay in both photos but the iPhone 5s was the clear winner. I was pleased with the improvements Apple has made in terms of noise when using the zoom feature. The second photo makes it apparent especially when viewing a larger version of the image (you can do this by right clicking and opening in a new tab or window). There is visibly less noise and it balanced the actual colors of the skyline the best.

The iPhone 5s does better with zoom but with general close up photography, all three cameras perform well. I did however find that yet again the iPhone 5c over-saturated color tones. You can clearly see this in the photo of the driftwood.

iPhone 5s vs iPhone 5c vs iPhone 5: Motion photography

iPhone 5c

iPhone 5s

iPhone 5

It's extremely hard to get the same set of motion photography shots unless you have an extremely controlled environment, which unfortunately, I do not. Instead, I decided I'd try and get the best motion shots I could in groups. Above you see 3 motion shots from each iPhone. I did not use the burst mode in the iPhone 5s out of fairness to the iPhone 5c and iPhone 5. However, the iPhone 5s should still reduce motion blur better as it takes four images and stitches the best parts of each together for the best possible shot.

Overall, I didn't notice a huge difference between any of them. Perhaps I'm just oddly good at capturing motion or the improvement isn't as huge as what Apple is saying. I'm not sure. This is one category I'd like to hear you guys' thoughts on. Surely the burst mode will help capture lots of motion better but I've yet to see a great deal of difference either way. Then again, motion blur always happens when you least expect it to and when you can't reproduce something so easily.

iPhone 5s vs iPhone 5c vs iPhone 5: Panoramas

From top to bottom: iPhone 5c, iPhone 5s, iPhone 5

From top to bottom: iPhone 5c, iPhone 5s, iPhone 5

From top to bottom: iPhone 5c, iPhone 5s, iPhone 5

From top to bottom: iPhone 5c, iPhone 5s, iPhone 5

Each and every time I took a panorama, the iPhone 5c and iPhone 5 blew out some part of the sky where the iPhone 5s produced gorgeous results consistently. The reason for that is the dynamic exposure in the iPhone 5s. It adjusts throughout the panorama process, giving you better detail in highlights and shadows. It also captures at 30fps which provides for more information.

If you take panoramas consistently, particularly outdoors and in bright light, the iPhone 5s trumps both the iPhone 5c and iPhone 5 by quite a large margin.

iPhone 5s vs iPhone 5c vs iPhone 5: The bottom line

The iPhone 5s' camera contains many improvements over last year's iPhone 5. I noticed the biggest differences when it came to low light and with panoramas. If you're debating between the iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s, and photography matters to you, get the iPhone 5s. Both cameras are good, but the iPhone 5s camera is better.

If you're moving from a different type of smartphone entirely, the decision may become a little harder depending what phone you're migrating from. The iPhone 5s isn't as much camera as Nokia Lumia 1020 , for example, but it could definitely give the HTC One or Lumia 920 a run for their money. Lack of optical image stabilization (OIS) means it's not quite as good in low-light, low motion settings, but Apple's ISP means it's as good if not slightly better in those "every day" moments Apple focuses on.

The iPhone 5s continues to showcase Apple's attention to their camera technology, iSight and FaceTime HD both. Once again hardware and software combine to create photos and video far better than the sum of their parts. That includes a bigger sensor with 1.5 micron pixels and an f/2.2 aperture. It's also includes an intelligent burst mode, a dual LED with white and amber elements, electronic image stabilization to reduce blur, and slow mo mode lets you record 720p video at a silky smooth 120fps. Here's how Apple describes it:

The original iPhone camera wasn't great. It was 2 megapixels (2 million pixels), which was okay for normal, snap-shot sized photos, but like most camera phones at a time the overall quality was poor. It's only claim to fame was the interface and convenience that came from being built in. The iPhone 3G, which was more of a radio bump than a true next-generation device, kept the same camera. With the iPhone 3GS, however, Apple moved up to a 3mp sensor and added VGA video recording. VGA is 480p (640x480), a far cry from today's HD standards.

The iPhone 4 began Apple's shift away from megapixels and towards taking better pictures. Often times, to inflate megapixel counts, some cameras will simply chop the sensor into smaller and smaller pixels. That, however, causes each pixel to capture less light. What Apple did is increase the sensor to 5mp but keep the pixels the same size as the previous version, 1.75 microns. An f/2.8 aperture, they added a back-illuminated sensor (BIS), which moves wiring out of the way so it's even better at capturing light. A LED flash came along for the ride, for those situations where there simply wasn't enough natural light to get any usable picture, and high-dynamic range (HDR) was also added in a software update. That meant the iPhone could take three photos in rapid succession, one under exposed, one properly exposed, and one over exposed, and merge them together in software to reveal more detail in both dark and light areas than the camera could normally capture on its own. At the same time, Apple increased the video quality to 720p (1280x720), and introduced its first front-facing camera, albeit 0.3mp and VGA video.

The iPhone 4S went to to 8mp and 1080p. The pixel size dropped to 1.4 microns but the BIS was improved, the lens was widened, and the aperture was brought to f2.4 to improve low-light performance. Apple also added a fifth piece of glass for better sharpness, and an infrared (IR) filter for better color. They also started to focus on the image signal processor (ISP), a part of the new Apple A-series chipset dedicated to improving photography. It provided facial recognition, image stabilization, and better focusing and white balance.

The iPhone 5 took all of that and, amazingly, squeezed it down into a much thinner package. Arguably, Apple could have made a better camera by staying with the same depth as the iPhone 4S, but that wasn't the priority. Not only did they manage to keep the iPhone 5 camera every bit as as good, they managed to get in some improvements as well. A new dynamic low-light mode made it, theoretically, 2 f-stops better in certain situations. The 5 glass elements were more precisely aligned for even better sharpness, and the surface was switched to sapphire for increases strength and scratch-resistence. The front-facing camera also got a much bigger boost, to FaceTime HD 720p. Panorama mode came with the software, which allowed the iPhone to automatically stitch together a contiguous series of pictures into a single, combined, massive 23mp ultra-wide photo.

Photon collectors

The iPhone 5s is still 8mp but once again Apple has increased the sensor size, this time by 15 percent. It brings the pixel size to 1.5 microns, and the aperture to f/2.2. All of that is designed to, you guessed it, allow more light to be captured. It's not as extreme on either end of the spectrum as the 13mp, 1.12 micron, f/2.2 Samsung Galaxy S4 or the 4mp, 2 micron, f2.0 HTC One, and as compromises go, it's a good one.

It's the ISP, stupid

Thanks to the Apple A6 ISP, the iPhone 5 at a year old still managed to take better "every day" photos than newer phones with cameras that looked much better on paper. Even cameras with optical image stabilization (OIS), which out-shoot the iPhone in low-light, low-motion settings, couldn't beat it at general purpose photography. It turns out the chipset and the software inside are just as important as the glass on the outside.

With the Apple A7, the ISP is getting a whole new range of functions. In addition to the auto white balance, auto exposure, and face detection features previously introduced, the A7 version now creates a dynamic local tone map to better balance highlights and shadows. It's not quite the same as HDR, but it does provide for images that are less likely to be swampy or blown out. The iPhone 5s camera also does autofocus matrix metering, which means it measures 15 focus zones to make sure it gets the best exposure possible. It'll also take bursts of multiple photos, analyze them in real-time, and present you with the sharpest one.

So, you get everything that was already fantastic about the iPhone 5 camera, but now with even better detail, focus, exposure, and sharpness. But wait, there's more.

Flash tones

Light isn't just light. There's sunlight and incandescent, tungsten and florescent, and combinations in between. Some are colder, with more of a blue or white cast to them. Some are warmer with more of a yellow or orange cast. A Standard LED flash can't match that range, so Apple has included two. In what Apple claims is a first, not just on phone cameras but any camera, True Tone has a white element for the cooler/blue end of the spectrum, and a yellow element, for the warmer/yellow end. When fired, they can intelligently adjust intensity and color temperature to any one of over a a thousand combinations in order to best match the scene being shot. That allows for better, more natural looking flash photos, especially where skin tone is involved. (See Apple's example above.)

Apple's dual LED True Tone flash isn't any brighter than the previous single LED. To go brighter, Apple would need to go to technology like Xenon. However, since mobile flash photography stinks no matter the quality of the tiny elements, and it shouldn't be used for anything other than capturing memories that can't be captured in natural light, getting better low-light capture is more important than getting a brighter flash.

When you do want to capture those memories, however, and you absolutely need a flash, True Tone should ensure you get the best result possible.

Auto not optical

The problem with low-light photography is that you want to keep the aperture open as long as possible to collect as much information as possible, but the longer the exposure time, the higher the chance your hands will shake or something in the scene will move, creating a blurry photo.

Optical image stabilization (OIS) is becoming more common thanks to phones like the HTC One and Lumia 920. It's a hardware solution that stabilizes the lens itself. OIS produces really good low light images with relatively little "noise", and does a good job minimizing the effects of your hands shaking, but is still subject to blur when something moves in the scene.

Apple is doing auto image stabilization (AIS) instead of OIS. It's a software solution that takes four photos with shorter exposures, selects the sharpest areas of each one, and then combines them into a single, final photo. In theory, this should accomplish pretty much the same thing as OIS, and could conceivably do a better job with slight motion in the scene. (See Apple's example above.)

I tend to like the idea of better capture up front. In a perfect world, we'd have both. We'll have to do a bunch of comparisons to find out how well AIS compares to OIS in the real world.

Action insurance

Apple's version of improving action photography is called Burst Mode, and it's so very typically Apple. With iOS 7 on the iPhone 5s with the Apple A7 chipset, you can hold your finger down on the virtual shutter button and take bursts of photographs at 10 frames per second (fps). So, holding your finger down for 2 seconds would take 20 photos. The ISP will then automatically, in real time, analyze all those photos and select the best shots. From there, the iOS 7 Camera Roll will present you with those selections, including major action moments if any, but also let you drill down into the entire series if you really want to.

So, to use Apple's example, wether you're trying to get that perfect shot of skate board acrobatics, or simply that one crisp moment amid the chaos of children, the odds are suddenly in your favor. You get the advantage of multiple shots, without any of the unmanageable overhead.

Slo Mo magic

Speaking of typically Apple features, the video camera also gets its share of integrated automagical-ness with the iPhone 5s. While the now-standard 1080p 30fps recording mode remains, there's a new 720p 120fps mode as well, called Slo Mo. As the name suggests, it allows for silky smooth, quarter-speed video capture.

What's more, Apple's existing Camera app editing feature has been updated and now lets you choose at which points in a clip you want to enter and exit slo mo. So, you can show off the big action moment as someone flips off a board or skates towards the check or begins a leap towards the stars, and then crank it right back to normal speed just in time for the splash, smash, or crash conclusion. Yes, it's the John Woo feature. Try not to go overboard on the hair tosses.

There's also a 3x live video zoom. It's digital, not optical, so I'd be incredibly reluctant to use it, but it's there.

Panoramic dynamics

Apple introduced Panorama mode with iOS 6, which stitched together multiple images to produce giant 28 megapixel photos. However, it wasn't exactly a speedy process, and you were stuck with the initial exposure. So, if your scene got significantly brighter or darker while you were capturing it, you lost detail or experience blow outs.

With the iPhone 5s, panorama capture is now twice as fast, a full 30fps, and what's more, dynamic auto exposure means the camera will adjust to changes in lighting continuously while it captures.

That means better, faster panos for everyone.

FaceTime HD-er

The iPhone 5s front-facing FaceTime HD camera has also gotten slightly better. The pixel size has been increased and the back illuminated sensor (BSI) has been improved. Here's how Apple describes it:

I couldn't find specifics on the improvements for the iPhone 5s, but Apple did list them for the iPhone 5c and my guess is they're identical. That means while the megapixel count stays at 1.2mp, the pixel size has gone up to 1.9 microns. Add that together with the new BSI, and everything from FaceTime video calls to selfies will get a big boost for low-light.

iOS 7 Camera app

In addition to all the exclusives detailed above, the iPhone 5s also gets all the new Camera app features coming in iOS 7. That includes the same design makeover, as well as Square mode and Filters. The bigger news, however, is what was taken away, including the signature shutter animation and button treatments are gone.

• Complete iOS 7 Camera preview

iOS 7 Photos app

Just like its partner, the Camera app, the iOS 7 Photos app is newly redesigned, including not only all the new filters, but a newer, smarter way to organize all the photos that previously clogged up our Camera Roll - years, collections, and moments. Add to that a far more social version of Photo Stream, and things are fast approaching picture perfect.

• Complete iOS 7 Photos preview
• Complete iOS 7 Photo Stream preview
• iOS 7 vs. Instagram vs. Google+ vs. Twitter: Black & White photo filter comparison

Every day, every when

Apple's goal when it comes to mobile photography is apparent. They're not interested in the biggest glass or widest range of features. They want to help you take the best photographs you can, any time, and under any conditions you need to take them. If something magical happens, they don't ever want you to miss out on capturing it. They don't want you to have to fret with settings before hand and miss it, or be disappointed after the fact that it turned out too dark or too blurry, or too soon or too late.

That means they leave a considerable amount of technology on the table, but so far it's been difficult if not impossible to argue with the choices they've made. The iPhone 5s absolutely continues down that path. It makes very specific compromises, given the size, and more specifically the depth, of the device, and yet increases the scope of Apple's "everyday photos" mantra considerably.

Better balance, better exposure, better sharpness, better low-light, less color distortion, less motion blur, and less chance you miss your shot by mere moments.

More to come

If you're really into mobile photography and want to read more on the iPhone 5s camera, I'd recommend both of these pieces.

From Brian Klug, an optical engineer and mobile editor for Anandtech:

From Matthew Panzarino, a photographer and senior editor at TechCrunch:

The iPhone 5s, iSight and FaceTime cameras and all, ships on September 20. Until then, keep up with all the latest news, and get involved in all the best conversations:

• Apple A7 chipset brings 64-bit, twice the speed, OpenGL ES 3.0 gaming
• Apple M7 coprocessor does all the fitness, health, and motion heavy-lifting
• iSight camera combines an improved sensor with a smarter image processor to make everyone a better photographer
• Touch ID makes fingerprint authentication mainstream

UPDATE: Apple has announced the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c and we've not got your complete iPhone 5s camera preview, with everything you need to know!

For several years now, Apple has made the camera a priority on the iPhone. It's one of the world's most popular cameras, and every keynote for the last few years, an entire segment has been devoted to both its optics and its processing. With the upcoming iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c that's not going to change. Apple are masters of using software and hardware not only in tight integration, but in a way that creates far more than the sum of the parts. The iPhone camera is one of the best examples of that. So where can they take it next?

iPhone 5s: It's the ISP, stupid

The original iPhone camera wasn't great. 2 megapixels, its only claim to fame was the interface and convenience that came from being built in. The iPhone 3G, which was more of a radio bump than a true next-generation device, kept the same camera. With the iPhone 3GS, however, Apple moved up to a 3mp sensor and added VGA video recording.

The iPhone 4 improved to 5mp and 720p, with a backlit illuminated sensor (BIS) and bigger microns. It also introduced the first front-facing camera, albeit it VGA. A LED flash came along for the ride, and high-dynamic range (HDR) was also added in a software update. The iPhone 4S went to to 8mp and 1080p, but the bigger news was that the BIS was improved, the lens was widened and the aperture was brought to f2.4. Apple also added a fifth piece of glass for better sharpness, and an infrared (IR) filter for better color. They also started to focus on the image signal processor (ISP), a part of the new Apple A-series chipset dedicated to improving photography. It provided facial recognition, image stabilization, and better focusing and white balance.

The iPhone 5 took all of that and, amazingly, squeezed it down into a much thinner package. Arguably, Apple could have made a better camera by staying with the same depth as the iPhone 4S, but that wasn't their priority. Not only did they manage to keep it just as good, they managed to get in some improvements as well. A new dynamic low-light mode made it, theoretically, 2 f-stops better. The 5 glass elements were more precisely aligned for better sharpness, and the surface was switched to sapphire for increases strength and scratch-resistence. The front-facing camera got a much bigger boost, to FaceTime HD 720p. Panorama mode came with the software.

This year, given the outer casing of the iPhone 5s will be very close to the iPhone 5, what can Apple do with the iSight camera? Moving the aperture to f2.0 seems possible. Some competitors are there already, and it would make both a realistic and measurable improvement, even if the overall package again stays the same. More megapixels aren't the answer, since they typically result in chopping up the same sensor into smaller pixels, which as Steve Jobs puts it, makes them worse at capturing photons. Staying at 8 megapixels should be just fine. Moving to 2 microns would be nice, but unless they increase the sensor size or drop the megapixel count - something HTC did with the One - it seems less likely.

Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) is something the HTC One and Lumia 902 have used to improve low-light photography. It physically "floats" the lens, allowing the aperture to stay open longer to collect more light, so as long as there's not much movement, it produces much better photos. It can also produce smoother video. I'd love to so OIS on the iPhone, but it seems unlikely that Apple would consider it until they move to a different casing design, which won't be until next year. Both Nokia and Samsung have experimented with bolting giant, face-hugger lenses to phones as well, both for huge pixel counts and for massive downsampling. That's anathema to Apple's model.

It does look like Apple will be moving to a dual-LED flash system, white and yellow, to better illuminate and color photographs in dark environments.

Hopefully the Apple A7 processor ads an even better ISP into the mix as well. Thanks to the Apple A6 ISP, the iPhone 5 at almost a year old still managed to take better "every day" photos than newer phones with cameras that looked much better on paper. Even OIS cameras, which out-shot the iPhone in low-light, low-motion settings, couldn't best it at general purpose photography. It turns out the chipset and the software inside are just as important as the glass on the outside.

4K (UHD/2160p) video recording probably isn't on the table for the iPhone 5s, but 120fps 1080p could be interesting. In addition to a gimmicky "slow motion" effect, it would produce better, smoother video all around. Moving the FaceTime HD camera up to 1080p doesn't seem that useful, though increasing its megapixel and general still photo quality would be welcome.

iOS 7, meanwhile, will add a square photo mode and basic photo filters. Much more subtle than Instagram, yet far less nuanced and numerous than VSCOCAM, they'll likely be of casual interest at best. (See our black and white filter comparison).

There's always a possibility Apple will have other photo-related iOS 7 features specific to the iPhone 5s to show off. Taking multiple pictures and being able to scrub back and forth through "time" to pick the moment when everyone's eyes are open - or edit it together - is increasingly popular. So are automagic upload-able slideshows set to music. Photo Stream is already getting improvements, but more is always better. Like, for example, unlimited free photo and video backup.

The only thing for certain is this - if Phil Schiller gets his usual camera segment in the keynote, he'll have a story to tell.

iPhone 5c: Not as in Camera

Best case scenario, the iPhone 5c keeps the same excellent camera as the iPhone 5 and simply switches from surrounding it in ceramic/pigmented glass to surrounding it in colorful polycarbonate. Worst case, to save a few bucks, it gets dropped down to the far more pedestrian iPod touch 5mp camera. I'm banking on the former. The latter makes less and less sense as time goes by. Likewise on the same 720p FaceTime HD camera on front.

No iPod-style hand strap. No over/under on one either.

More to come!

We'll be imagining a lot more about the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c, including designs, screens, cameras, chipsets, finger-print readers and more over the next week, so stay tuned. We'll only know for certain, however, when someone at Apple holds it - or them - up on stage, presumably on September 10.

• Imagining iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c: Casing, display, and design
• Imagining iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c: Apple A7 processor, RAM, and Storage
• Imagining iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c: LTE, Bluetooth, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, and no NFC
• Imagining iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c: iSight and FaceTime cameras
• Imagining iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c: Fingerprint scanner, sensors, and ports
• Imagining iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c: Pricing and availability
• Imagining iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c: The names
• iOS 7 preview: Everything you need to know about Apple's next generation mobile software

I recently previewed the new Camera app Apple will be releasing alongside iOS 7 this fall, and one of the things that stood out for me the most was not so much the inclusion of built-in photo filters - everyone seems to be adding those these days - but the subtly and restraint shown in which filters Apple chose to include. Not only aren't there any tilt-shifts, frames, borders, or vignettes, but there's nothing overly aggressive about Apple's selection in any way. How does that compare to current king of photo sharing, Instagram, and to the other big social photo sharing services, Google+ and Twitter?

There's such a range it makes things tricky, so to begin with, I'm going to stick to black and white filters using what Apple's shown off so far on Apple.com, and the photo they've shown it off with. I'm not going to look at color filters yet, or at pro-level apps like VSCOCAM or Camera+. I am going to include Camera Noir both because it focuses on just the black and white filter, and because that filter is a lot like the late, lamented Gotham filter of Instagram past.

To create the comparison, I took the screenshots posted on Apple.com, isolated the unfiltered image, loaded it into the other apps, applied their filters, and then took screenshots of the resulting images.

Here's what the black and white filters looks like from, in order, iOS 7 Camera, Instagram, Google+, Twitter, and Camera Noir.

And here's the same comparison with the interface chrome removed, again, iOS 7 Camera, Instagram, Google+, Twitter, and Camera Noir:

Since iOS 7 is still in beta, Apple could still change the way the Camera filters work and look before final release this fall. Never-the-less, it's interesting to see the direction they've taken, and perhaps even more so to see the various approaches to black and white filters already implemented in the apps we currently use every day.

Which set of photo filters is your go-to now, and how do you like what Apple's shown of iOS 7 filters so far?

• Camera: Everything you need to know
• iOS 7: Everything you need to know
• iOS 7: Discussion forum

The Camera app has gotten the same objectified and gamified makeover as the rest of iOS 7, but Apple also managed to sneak in a few new features as well. First is, um,Square mode. The second is Filters. The bigger news, however, is what was taken away, including the signature shutter animation and button treatments are gone.

Here's how Apple describes it:

And for developers{.nofollow}:

Based on what we've seen so far, here's how the new Camera looks, and the new features appear to work:

• There's still a quick-access slider on the Lock screen, though now it competes for that gesture with Control Center and unless Apple changes it, that could cause some confusion or collision.

• Like the rest of the iOS 7 makeover, Apple seems to have kept controls spatially consistent, so the flash button, front/rear-facing selector, and shutter button, for example, look to be in the same places as they were on iOS 6. The Options button, however, seems to be gone, with HDR moving down to sit atop the shutter button, and the grid button... currently MIA?

• The video toggle and panorama button have likewise moved, to an all new slider control that starts you off on Photo, lets you slide to the left for Video, and slide to the right for Square (think Instagram), and Panorama. The interface for Panorama looks largely unchanged from iOS 6.

• Taking a photo in iOS 7 looks to be lightning fast. Absent the shutter animation, which may once have covered lag in the original iPhone camera, it appears to be almost instant now. You take your shot and it gets took.
• Switching between modes looks to invoke a real-time blur effect, not dissimilar to those seen elsewhere in iOS 7. It makes for a dynamic, though likely computationally expensive transition.

• The new filters feature sits to the right of the camera shutter button, on the opposite side of the Camera Roll preview tile. Filter effects appear to be live, though they seem limited to Photos and Square, and not available to Video or Panorama. Mono, Tonal, Noir, Fade, Chrome, Process, Transfer, and Instant are the filters shown off the date.

The Camera interface, originally designed by no less than Mike Matas and shown off by Steve Jobs on the very first iPhone in 2007, was delightful, but 6 years later it's earned its visual refresh.

The addition of the new square mode and the new filters highlight the immense influence of Instagram on mobile photography. I don't mind it. When not using Instagram I've still had the urge to square-cut photos, and having to do it in post with the crop tool was slow.

The filters, however, are far more subtle than Instagram's. There appear to be three types of black and white, one desaturated, one over saturated, and three that tint towards blue, red, and green respectively. Nothing blown out, nothing vignetted, and nothing overly dramatic. Depending on your tastes, that's either a huge negative, or a huge plus. I've wanted Apple to co-opt filtering for a while now, given how many other apps were piling on the feature. Whether this helps calm that down, or only spur it on further remains to be seen.

Worth noting, there's no tilt-shift, no frame or border effects, and no sliders for controlling the amount of filter added, at least not that Apple's shown off so far.

• iOS 7 vs. Instagram vs. Google+ vs. Twitter: Black & White photo filter comparison

The speed of picture taking, if it holds up in real-world use, is amazing. Other platforms have been pushing the speed limits for a while now, and it's fantastic Apple's bringing the same attention and optimization to their software as they've been doing with their hardware for a while now. It'll be interesting to see what the next generation iPhone can do with it.

I do miss the grid dearly, however. Hopefully it's still there and we just haven't seen it yet. But as someone who still wants to be able to visually refer to the rule of thirds at times, if it's gone, it'll be a step backwards for me. There also doesn't seem to be any provision for more advanced photographers; no expert mode. That's not Apple's style, however, so it'll remain the providence of third-party camera apps, and with the new APIs in iOS7, hey could also get a welcome boost.

The updated Camera app will ship as part of iOS 7 this fall. Check out the resources below for more, and let me know - are the square mode and filters filters, along with its new look, enough for Apple's next generation?

• Camera: Everything you need to know
• iOS 7: Everything you need to know
• iOS 7: Discussion forum

It's become a cliché for a reason -- the best camera is the one you have with you, and for the vast majority of us, that's the iPhone 5. It is, as Apple will happily tell you, the most "popular" camera in the world. Over the last few months, however, other manufacturers have really been stepping up their optics as well. The one who has taken the biggest risks, and made the biggest gamble, is the HTC One. Instead of going for more megapixels, they went for more microns. Like Apple, they put sensor quality ahead of quantity, but took it to another level entirely. If camera quality is one of the most important criteria when considering which phone you buy, that raises the question -- iPhone vs. HTC One, which takes the best photos?

iMore's own Leanna Lofte has done a complete iPhone 5 camera review, and Alex Dobie from Android Central has done a similar HTC One review, but what happens when we put them head to head? Each camera will have its own strengths and weaknesses, but for most people, most of the time, which will let them capture the moments that really matter? Let's find out!

Camera specifications: iPhone 5 vs HTC One

The iPhone 5 has an 8 MP (2448x3264) iSight camera with an f/2.4 aperture on a 1/3.2-inch sensor with a pixel size of 1.4 micrometers. The HTC One has a 4 MP (1520x2688) camera with an f/2.0 aperture but that allows them to go to a pixel size of 2 micrometers on the same 1/3.2-inch sensor.

That means that while the HTC One may not have as many raw megapixels as the iPhone 5, its UltraPixels are larger and should allow for better light sensitivity, particularly in low light situations. The HTC One's wider, f/2.0 aperture also helps with getting light to the sensor, as does its optical image stabilization (OIS). If it sounds like HTC spent a lot of time and technology on tackling low light photography, that's because they did.

The downside to all this is that gathering light takes time, which not only means a longer picture taking process, but a greater opportunity for motion blur when it comes to shooting moving targets. Also, while the lower megapixel count means bigger microns, it also means the algorithms that handle sharpening and noise reduction have less data to work with. Everything is a trade off.

Tech specs are one thing. What really matters is how all of this technology translates into real-world pictures.

General photography: iPhone 5 vs HTC One

All the photos below were taken with the same lighting conditions, at the same time. The iPhone 5 photos are all on the left, and the HTC One photos are all on the right (with the exception of the wide panoramas).

Overall, in most cases, the color depth and saturation of the iPhone 5 seems to be better. The only time the HTC One really bests the iPhone 5 is when bright light or artificial lighting comes into play. Where the iPhone 5 photos can get blown out, the HTC One does a better job of balancing the light correctly.

Indoor lighting seems to cause a bit of a yellowish or blueish hue in photos taken with the iPhone 5 while the HTC One again does a better job of handling white balance on its own.

In most general everyday photos though, the color depth of the iPhone 5 wins out over the HTC One. The photos below of trees and flowers show the vast color difference between the two.

Capturing motion: iPhone 5 vs HTC One

Both cameras did well at capturing motion during the day. Night was a different story, and both cameras suffered. HTC has done a lot of work to get better low-light in their cameras, but there's a long way still to go, especially when it comes to capturing motion.

In the photo of the flag below, there was a significant amount of wind blowing and both the iPhone 5 and HTC One did a good job at capturing it regardless of its position or motion. The same was true of the bike photo. As long as there is plenty of light, motion photos shouldn't be too much of an issue. They're by no means made for capturing action sports, but for everyday actions in well lit areas, they're fine.

The HTC One images did come out rather dark compared to the iPhone 5's in some instances where I would have guessed the opposite would have been true.

(Thank you to Darren Stocky of Crown Point, IN for helping us out with the bike shots!)

Low light: iPhone 5 vs HTC One

Low light photography is one area that the iPhone has always suffered. Considering the HTC One boasts 2 microns, optical image stabilization (OIS), and an f/2.0 aperture, I expected it to be able to gather more light and produce better images. Turns out, my expectations were exceeded. It blew the iPhone 5 away.

In this last photo, I decided to enable flash on both devices and see what the difference would be. The HTC One did a nice job of focusing and enhancing the image using the flash while the iPhone 5 blew out the image and couldn't quite decide what to focus on.

Panorama photography: iPhone 5 vs HTC One

Panoramas, or the ability to take multiple photos and stitch them together, is a popular feature now widely available on most smartphones. Overall, both the iPhone 5 and HTC One handles them well. Once again, the one thing that did surprise me was how dark the panoramic shots were with the HTC One. If anyone has an explanation for the HTC camera producing such dark images under well lit conditions, let me know in the comments.

Here are two samples from the iPhone 5:

And here are two samples are from the HTC One:

If you take a lot of panoramas, you will most likely prefer the results of the iPhone 5.

The bottom line

Both cameras produced stellar images, yet excelled in different areas. The iPhone 5 does much better when it comes to handling color depth, tone, and saturation. The HTC One leaves the iPhone in the (noisy, noisy) dust when it comes to capturing low light, relatively stationary images.

Apple has been focusing on the iPhone camera for years now, and it's really paid off when it comes to everyday photography. Competitors like HTC, however, are really nailing areas like low light. Hopefully Apple follows their lead, and the lead of Nokia, and starts adding features like optical image stabilization (OIS) and f/2.0 apertures or wider. I'll seldom if ever need to take a poster-sized photo with my phone, so the current megapixel counts are fine. Continue on with the better sensors, better image processing, and better low-light technologies.

That's what I'd love to see in the iPhone 5s.

The iPhone is the best camera you have with you all the time, and that's why fashion photographers and models alike often use it to take and share fun photos while on shoots. Nothing beats a DSLR for final photos, but increasingly the iPhone is the new polaroid for everything else on set. Add in the power and community of Instagram and it really is a whole new world for fashion photography.

To get some industry insider tips on how to take the best possible fashion photography with your iPhone, we enlisted Mobile Nations' own design lead, David Lundblad, the frequent subject of his photo shoots, Amanda Delduca of Capture Fashion, and asked videographer Martin Reisch to document it all.

The video up top has David explaining what he shot, how he shot it, and why he made the choices he did. Watch that first. The rest of the article are my notes from following along during the shoot.

Location

The first thing we did was find the perfect location. You can shoot anywhere that's visually interesting, but when you're using an iPhone you don't have the same ability to force depth of field and isolate your model from the background no matter how busy the environment. So, you want to pick a place that's beautiful, but not over crowded.

Since we were in New York City near Times Square, we opted for Bryant Park. We chose a relatively secluded area just before the path was closed, so few if any people had cause to walk there.

Lighting

It was afternoon and the park was brightly lit. One of the best things about Bryant Park is how the sun reflects off the high rise building creating one of the best, brightest natural bounces possible. That means the park is flooded in great lighting, and if there's one thing a photographer can't get enough of, it's lighting.

As much as possible, David shot with Amanda in areas where she could be in the shade but the bounce would provide a nice halo effect around her shoulders and hair. He had her stand right at the edge of the shadow, and asked her to move slightly forward or backward to adjust as needed.

Posing

Amanda is a professional model and fashion blogger, so the moment she picked her outfit and shoes, she started practicing the poses she wanted to use in front of a mirror. That let her prepare the best angles possible to show them off. That meant, as soon as David was ready to shoot, she could go from pose to pose with practiced ease, but still maintain liveliness, dynamism, and fun.

Shooting

David shot Amanda standing and walking, from full height, crouching, and lying on the ground all in an effort to get the best, most interesting angles. He used Camera+ to shoot with since it provides far more information, and better control, than the built-in iOS app.

Processing

Once David and Amanda were finished shooting, David still had to process and ultimately post the images. We didn't turn off the video, so we'll have another article focused on editing and sharing fashion photographs soon.

In the meantime, if you shoot fashion photography with your iPhone, let us know your workflow. And if you haven't tried yet, watch the video again, give it a shot, and let us know your results. Better yet, share them in this forum thread:

• iPhone fashion photography thread

Thanks again to David Lundblad, Amanda Delduca and Martin Reisch for this tutorial.

Apple has aired a new iPhone commercial, Photos Every Day. Unlike previous, recent commercials, it eschews cheery music, chanting, and a rapid fire parade of apps to focus on the camera and a select few camera apps, and on capturing those special moments, at a variety of times, in a variety of places, under a wide variety of conditions. It's a return to the "technology is not enough"-style commercial, the kind they once used for the iPad 2 when spec-splattering Android tablets first began hitting the market.

At first glance, it might seem like a reaction to something like the Nokia Lumia 920 or the HTC One cameras, both of which boast optical image stabilization (OIS), among other technologies, that help improve photos under low-light when subjects are relatively stationary. However, while they're great phones and great cameras, neither of them will likely sell in anything approaching numbers meaningful enough to Apple. The just-launched Samsung Galaxy S4, on the other hands, is just as mass-market, and aimed just as much at "everyday" photography as the iPhone.

I spent much of the last week shooting photos with Alex Dobie as he prepared for his Galaxy S4 review, and while he called it the best all-around Android camera to date, to my eyes the iPhone 5 still out-shot it under a wider range of conditions, including and especially in low-light. Like the phone itself, and as usual, it came off as spec-heavy but ultimately scattered and soul-less.

Opinions on that can and will vary, however, which is likely why we're getting this commercial now, and in this way. The Galaxy S4 will be the biggest threat to iPhone 5 sales for the next few months, and the biggest challenge to the iPhone 5s when it hits the market later this year.

And it'll be just as spec-splattered as Samsung's offerings have ever been. So, as Apple did with the iPad 2, they need to once again re-frame the discussion from specs to experience.

Technology like the glass stacked inside the incredibly thin casing (that doesn't require an unsightly bump on the back), the image signal processor (ISP) baked into the custom Apple A6 processor (that's consistent across every iPhone 5 sold around the world), and the excellent software that drives it all is important, but it's not enough.

Simple, elegant, coherent apps that results in amazing looking photos whenever and wherever they're taken -- that's what matters, and that's what Apple's showing in this ad.

iOS has experienced its fair share of privacy fiascos over the last few years. From user locations being tracked , to Address Book data being exposed, to full on malware in the App Store, privacy and security concerns over iOS are very much a reality. Two components often overlooked are your iPhone’s camera and microphone.

Apple has always required apps request permission to access a user’s location and to send them push notifications. More recently we’ve seen things like Contacts, Calendars, and Reminders added to the list of resources that apps have to explicitly get permission to access. In iOS 6, Apple went as far as to give Privacy its own category in the Settings app. So we should be covered now, right? Well, maybe not.

As platforms evolve and new functionality and trends arise, implications for privacy and security constantly need to be re-evaluated. One of the more recent trends is an increasing number of apps moving in to the second screen market. Rather than strictly using iPhones and iPads as primary devices, functionality is now being explored where these devices becomes an accessory; a secondary device to supplement a primary device like a TV. Large media companies like Fox, CBS, TBS and HBO, sports networks and game makers are among the many who are actively trying to engage their audiences by providing additional content to mobile devices. So how does this technology work?

Whether a viewer is on the east coast, west coast, or in another country, and whether they’re watching a show live or on their DVR, the app has to be able to deliver the relevant content at the appropriate time. In order to do this, the application makes use of audio fingerprinting, much like the technology that apps like Shazam use to figure out what song you’re listening to. An algorithm is used to generate a hash that serves as a fingerprint for a given timeframe of audio. This hash can then be compared against hashes calculated by a remote server. Once the application identifies where the viewer is in the broadcast based on their hash, it is able to determine which content should be displayed to the user for their current time.

In order to generate these hashes, an app needs access to your device’s microphone. When you’re in an application that is trying to sync second screen data, the app is continually recording audio from your device’s microphone in order to generate audio fingerprints. Mind you, this doesn’t just mean whatever sound is coming from your TV, but also conversations you might be having with friends, or your dog barking in the background, or music you have playing in another room. Just think about that for a minute.

What’s strange here is that iOS does not require applications to get a user’s permission before doing this. Any app can record audio and transmit it to their servers at any time without asking you. Most applications will display some type of notice that audio syncing is about to begin, but this is because for legitimate apps, they usually want to explain the experience and give the user instructions like turning up the volume on their TV and making sure their device’s microphone is clear. What about a nefarious app? It could start recording audio as soon as it is launched without any additional user interaction. Similarly, there is nothing preventing an application from taking photos or recording video from your device’s camera. While iOS requires apps to obtain permission to access the camera roll for saving photos and videos to it, there’s nothing stopping a malicious application from recording photos or videos and saving them within the application or sending them to a server, without asking the user. Apps like this aren’t unheard of on other platforms; OS X, Android, and Windows have all seem their share.

So what could Apple be doing? Currently iOS turns the status bar red when an application is recording audio, but apps can control the status bar while running, so this can’t be relied on. A small light could be added to the front of the iPhone that turns on when audio or video are being recorded, like MacBooks have. Apple could also add the microphone and camera to iOS’ privacy settings, require applications to get a user’s permission before accessing either of them, and give users the ability to revoke this access on a per-application basis at any time. A request in Apple’s bug reporting tool for this last feature was recently closed as a duplicate, indicating at least one other developer would also like to see this functionality added.

In the meantime, there’s not much users can do to protect themselves. The more adventurous folks among us may try spying on apps with tools like Charles Proxy or PhoneView to look for any suspicious activity or files. Perhaps Clueful will even consider adding detection for such practices to their service and add the results to their app reports. Of course if you’re really concerned and want a solution immediately, a few pieces of strategically placed electrical tape may help to put your mind at ease.

Have you ever wanted to have a better camera on your iPhone? How about a physical keyboard? Sure, there are people that want those things. The camera on the iPhone has always been quite good for a smartphone, always leading with quality sensors and optics. But Will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas thinks he can make it better, and he's unveiled his new line of "i.am+" accessories with the goal of doing such.

Mr. William James Adams's i.am+ line is a perplexing set of beasts, consisting of four "foto.sosho" cases that add considerable bulk to your iPhone while also adding new elements to the camera. All four add a grip to the right side of the landscape orientation, but sadly don't add do anything fancy with that grip like adding a reserve battery pack for the iPhone. They all also include a built-in flash purported to be of higher power than the single LED bulb on the iPhone, thought you've got to use the shutter button on the case to actuate it and the volume button on your phone.

So, there are four different versions of the foto.sosho? There are, and they come with even more unnecessary punctuation, as seems is the way of Will.i.am. The C.4 is intended for the iPhone 4/4S and has a "modern" look (it's all smooth and lacking in excess accoutrement) in black or white and includes a screw mount for the included standard, 0.67x wide macro, and 0.28x fisheye lens attachments.

If you're not into the modern look, then there's the V.4, which includes the same lenses and mount and adds a slide-out landscape keyboard that pairs with the iPhone via Bluetooth. The V.4 also has vintage styling, which you might think with a slide-out landscape keyboard means it's going to look like an HTC Touch Pro or some other pre-iPhone smartphone, but actually kicks the styling back several decades for something a little more retro chic. The i.am+ foto.sosho V.4 (the punctuation nightmare continues) comes in white/gold or black/silver color combinations.

Lastly, there are the V.5 and L.5 models, which really ratchet things up a notch. The aforementioned C.4 and V.4 only augment the iPhone 4/4S cameras by mounting an additional lens element over the existing hardware, whereas the x.5 models circumvent the iPhone camera hardware entirely by adding on a 14-megapixel sensor with a 5x zoom lens, but only for the iPhone 5. Will.i.am promises that the camera will provide better image quality than what the iPhone offers, but somehow we expect there will be tradeoffs to be made. The V.5 includes just the camera attachment, while the L.5 throws the slide-out keyboard as well. Both x.5 models are of the "vintage" look, with your choice of silver and brown leather, all white leather, or all black leather.

If you're thinking this all sounds pretty ridiculous, you're entirely right. The benefit of the iPhone's camera is that it's not only quite good, but it's also slapped into a slim and light package that slips into your pocket or purse without a worry. There are plenty of existing attachments that allow you to add zoom, wide-angle, and other lenses to the iPhone, and they do it without the excessive bulk of the foto.sosho line. Sure, they don't add a flash, but if we're being honest here, the flash units on point-and-shoot cameras typically fall short of even barely adequate, let alone whatever flash unit is included on these accessories. Take the Olloclip, for example. It just slips on over the corner of your iPhone (a new model for the iPhone 5 is coming soon), and if you don't need it it's easy enough to pop off and leave in your pocket or bag. foto.sosho isn't going to be so quick-and-easy optional.

Aside from the extra weight and thickness of the foto.sosho line, there's also the pricing, which it turns out is the most ridiculous part of this whole exercise. The C.4 is retailing for a whopping £199 and the V.4 for a galling £299. If you're wanting to see those numbers in United States Dollars, that's $318 and $478, respectively. Yes, more than three hundred gorram dollars for an iPhone case with a mount for cheap screw-on lenses, a flash, and a bulk-adding grip. And another $160 if you want to add on a Bluetooth keyboard. Olloclip retails for seventy bucks and includes fisheye, wide-angle, and macro lenses.

Or you can pay £199 to carry around a bulky iPhone with screw-on lens mount with only half of Will.i.am's name attached to it. The only thing saving us from this absurd punctuation.laden nonsense (besides the pricing, which should only appeal to those suffering from empty craniums), is that the foto.sosho will be available only at the three Selfridges stores in London, starting on December 6th. There's also a new i.am+ plus service launching alongside the foto.sosho that aims to needlessly replicate Instagram with basic photo editing and filters.

Pricing for the V.5 and L.5 hasn't been announced, but we wouldn't be surprised to find that it's least another £100 for each level up, making the top-tier L.5 an appalling £499/$798. At that price you've crossed over from point-and-shoot pocket camera range to entry-level DSLR territory. Sure, a Canon EOS Rebel T3i with an 18-55mm lens is quite a bit bulkier than any of the potential iPhone+foto.sosho combinations, but it also will take much better pictures - and it's priced at $699.99.

But, you know, there's always the need to show that you have more money and than sense. Common sense that is, because your style sense will be clearly evident as you walk around with your thick vintage-look iPhone camera thing. Or so we're told.

Source: The Telegraph, Engadget

The newly released iPad mini comes with two cameras: a 1.2-megapixel front-facing FaceTime HD camera and a 5-megapixel rear-facing iSight camera with a f/2.4 five-element lens, hybrid IR filter, and backside illuminations. In fact, this is the exact same camera featured in the iPod touch 5.

Because the iPad mini is equipped with the same camera as the iPod touch 5, we're going to direct you to the iPod touch 5 camera review for the nitty gritty details and just include a few sample photos taken specifically with the iPad mini.

But before we do, it's important to mention what's missing on the iPad mini. Although the iPad mini has the same camera as the iPod touch 5, it does not have the ability to take HDR or panorama photos (both of these are software related), and it's also lacking an LED flash.

To make a long story short, the camera is actually quite good. It's not quite as good as the iPhone 5 camera, but if you disregard extreme low-light scenarios and the lower megapixel-count (5-megapixels vs 8-megapixels, the quality of the images that come out of the iPad mini are very similar to those produced with the iPhone 5.

This first photo compares the iPad mini with the iPod touch 5 to demonstrate that they produce extremely similar results.

One could argue that the colors on the two photos above are slightly different, but it's almost negligible and something as simple as light reflecting differently off the pink shirt I was wearing could have caused it.

These next 7 photos were taken with an iPad mini and were not altered in any way.

The bottom line

Although the iPad mini doesn't have as good of a camera as the iPhone 5, it still does a great job, especially considering it's an iPad. Since the iPad mini is much smaller than the retina iPad, using it to take photos is also much less awkward than with its big brother. However, because the iPad mini is still much bigger than any compact camera, I wouldn't recommend getting an iPad mini for the camera alone. I think of it more as a great bonus added to an already great device.

Even though the iPod touch 5 doesn't have as great of a camera as the iPhone 5, its camera has been severely updated from what was included with its predecessor. The iPod touch 5 is equipped with a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera with a f/2.4 five-element lens, hybrid IR filter, backside illuminations, and the ability to take both panorama and HDR photos. This camera may have the same megapixel count as the iPhone 4 camera, but the components and build-quality are closer to that of iPhone 5 camera with a five-element lens made from sapphire crystal .

We've already taken the iPod touch 5 camera head-to-head with the iPhone 5, so now it's time take a closer look at the iPod touch 5 camera on it's own. Spoiler-alert: it's probably better than you think!

Hardware design of iPod touch 5 iSight Camera

Since the body of the iPod touch 5 has been designed to be incredibly thin, the camera is too big to be able to sit flush against the casing of the device. Instead, the camera slightly protrudes out of the backside of the iPod touch. The silver ring that surrounds the lens is a tad bit thicker than the lens so at to prevent the lens from making direct content with any surfaces you may place your iPod touch on. It was very strange at first to see the lens sticking out like this, but I've gotten used to it and am wiling the sacrifice the slight awkwardness for an incredibly thin device in return.

Sample photos taken with the iPod touch 5

All of the photos featured in this article have been taken with an iPod touch 5 and have not been altered in any way.

These first few examples are of general photography like landscapes, flowers, children, and more. There's a good mixture between shaded and sunny environments, and bright and dark subjects. As you can see, the iPod touch performed very well.

Just as with the iPhone 5 camera, I was very impressed with how easily the iPod touch 5 locked focus on close-up subjects. Marco photography is one of my favorite types of photography on iOS devices, so this made me smile.

The iPod touch 5 handles HDR photos very well. The improvements made to shadows and bright skies are very noticeable. As you can see in the photo above, turning on HDR made the blown-out white sky look like it did in real life -- blue!

One of the biggest weaknesses of every iPhone and iPod touch camera has been the poor quality of photos taken in low light scenarios. Unfortunately, this continues to be a huge weakness with the iPod touch 5 as well. In medium-low light situations like sunset, the iPod touch does ok, but once your environment is very dark, not only are the photos very grainy, but the colors are also way off.

Notice the green, ugly tint on this extreme low-light photo.

Performance doesn't improve when you head indoors, either. This next photo was taken in poor indoor lighting, and it's grainy with terrible coloring.

When I turned on the flash, I got much better results.

The iPod touch 5 is equipped with a 1.2-megapixel front-facting FaceTime HD camera. This is the same FaceTime camera featured on the iPhone 5, and it does an equally decent job. The quality is clearly not as good as the rear-facing iSight camera, but it's not too bad either. Since it's easier to get a self-portrait with the front-facing camera than with the rear-facing, it will usually be worth giving up some quality to use the FaceTime camera for self-portraits.

With all the attention given to purple flare on the iPhone 5, I had no choice but to investigate if the iPod touch could easily cast a purple flare on its photos. As expected, it wasn't difficult to create a photograph with purple flare with the iPod touch 5. Although easy to produce, purple flare is not a regular problem. As long as you're familiar with why a lens will cast a purple flare on your image, you can avoid these situations and very rarely be haunted by the presence of purple.

One of the exciting new features of iOS 6 is the ability to take panoramic photos directly from the built-in camera app by simply panning the scene -- and it produces beautiful results with the iPod touch 5!

The bottom line

Overall, I am very impressed with the iPod touch 5 camera and think it can easily replace a low-end point-and-shoot camera. And since the iPod touch is also an iPod, you get to do so much more with it than take photos! For many people, investing in an iPod touch will be more useful and satisfying than investing in a compact camera.

To get the most out of your iPod touch 5's camera, be sure head over to our photography page for some tutorials on take spectacular images!

Apple has issued a support article to address the mounting concern over the strange purple light being found on numerous photographs taken with the iPhone 5’s camera. The problem shows on the photographs as a purple flare on the edge of a picture or as an actual purple spot in the main frame of the picture. Apple’s support article addresses these issues and claims there is nothing to worry about.

The question is how come we didn't experience this particular problem with other iPhone models? There is a thread in the iMore forums with examples of the problem. If you are experiencing it, make sure to drop by and leave a comment or even a sample picture. Do you think Apple’s resolution is acceptable given that we haven’t experienced this problem with any other iPhone cameras in the past? The idea of shielding your lens with your hand while taking a picture seems a little bit clumsy to me. Thankfully, I can’t seem to be able to reproduce the problem even when taking a photograph with a light source outside of the field of view, what about you?

Source: Apple Support, Photograph: MarilynR

Apple keeps improving the camera in the iPhone on a roughly yearly schedule, but given some comments from Steve Jobs on revolutionizing photography, there have been rumors of... something more. Nikon has just explored one avenue of more-ness, namely slapping Android on a point and shoot to see if it would stick. And it doesn't, at least according to Phil Nickinson of Android Central who took a look at the brand new Coolpix S800c:

Truly great product people -- the ones who know what the market wants before the market itself, and how to make technology accessible to hundreds of millions of mainstream customers -- are incredibly, stupefyingly rare. They're snipers. Carefully lining up single shots and taking them, and then taking out a market with them. More common are the shotgunners who pack their shells with anything and everything they can find around them and then blast away hoping to hit the market before the poor, terrified market can jump to safety behind a dumpster.

The Coolpix S800c from Nikon seems decidedly the latter, and Phil absolutely nails why. Phones may have cameras but cameras are not phones nor should they be running phone software -- especially overly complex phone software. Nikon appears to have made a smartcamera just to make a smartcamera, and not crafted something to really change the camera space or improve the camera experience.

Hopefully Nikon will try again, and do it better. And maybe Canon will license Android or something else and take their shot too. But they'll need to drop their shotguns and pick up fully scoped rifles to do it. Revolution rides on a single, perfectly timed bullet. Not on the back of buckshot.

If Apple is still working on photography beyond the iPhone, it won't be with iOS slapped on a point-and-shoot.

For more, check out Android Central's complete coverage of the Nikon Coolpix S800c:

• Nikon Coolpix S800c hardware
• The OS on the Nikon Coolpix S800c - it's Android, and that's both good and bad
• Skype, on the Nikon Coolpix S800c