Apple iPhone 5 Camera Review

Apple iPhone 5 Camera Review

Apple iPhone 5 Camera Review

The Apple iPhone, in its various iterations, is one of the most important devices of the past few years. Smartphones existed before the iPhone and would exist without it, but the iPhone's innovative touch-screen interface and 'tile' operating system forever changed the way in which we think about phones, and indeed mobile technology as a whole. The iPhone 4, however, was the first iPhone graced with a camera that didn't completely suck. A built-in flash and 5MP resolution, as well as touch-to-focus and one-shot HDR functionality, made it far more useful as a photographic tool than previous generations.

A little over a year later, in 2011, Apple released the iPhone 4S with upgraded camera specs all around, and the new iPhone 5, Apple's latest model (actually the sixth iPhone, but anyway...) brings a larger screen, faster processor and redesigned camera compared to its predecessor. The pixel count is unchanged though, at 8MP. On paper, the iPhone 5's camera offers very similar specifications to that of the iPhone 4S, but according to Apple, the new model should give superior results. 

Apple iPhone 5 Camera Review

Key Photographic/Video Specifications

8MP back-lit CMOS sensor

Five-element ~33mm (equivalent) F2.4 lens

ISO 50-1000 (up to 3200 by pixel-binning)

4 inch, 326ppi LCD display

Panorama Mode (up to ~28MP)

HDR Mode

Touch-to-focus and touch-to-AF/AE-lock

Face recognition for up to 10 faces

Hardware and on-screen shutter controls

1080p video mode with the option to record 2MP stills during recording

Design & Operation

At this point, five years after the launch of the original version, the iPhone's design is somewhat iconic. Much imitated in the past couple of years (hello Samsung Galaxy S..), Apple hasn't meddled too much with the basic recipe since 2007. From the front, in fact, the only thing that sets the iPhone 5 apart from its predecessors is the extra vertical screen resolution. 

The Camera app in iOS 6, like previous versions of the operating system, is pretty basic but has the advantage of being uncluttered, easy to use and generally very responsive.

By default, autofocus is acquired from the center of the image, but tapping on the screen allows you to freely move the AF point around the scene you want to capture. As well as focus, this also acts as a metering lock so long as you hold the camera relatively still. If you want to maintain the focus and exposure while still being able to recompose your shot, AE/AF lock is initiated by holding your finger in one area on the screen. 

Apple iPhone 5 Camera Review

One of the things that made the original iPhone so revolutionary was its relative lack of external controls compared to other Internet-capable phones at the time. A power/lock switch, a 'home' button' and a volume control were the only physical control points. The iPhone 5 has only one more button than the original iPhone, and that's only because Apple made the old volume rocker switch into separate + and - buttons in the iPhone 4 (and subsequent models). 

The iPhone 5's flash serves as a red-eye reduction lamp when a face is detected in the scene but disappointingly, it cannot be set to function as an AF-assist lamp. When the flash is turned on, the LED shines for a moment automatically to reduce red-eye, but in our testing, it doesn't help much when it comes to achieving accurate focus in poor light.

With iOS 5, and now iOS 6 as well, you can launch directly into the camera app from the lock screen by pressing the home button once, and then swiping upwards on a camera icon on the lock screen. This doesn't wholly activate the phone though - just the camera app. To do anything other than taking pictures and view the ones you just took (the rest of your camera roll is locked off) you'll need to go through the standard swipe to unlock and - if you have set one - the password verification process.

As well as flash, an HDR mode is also available for shooting tricky scenes, which combines two separate exposures automatically, in-camera. This can be turned on and off from the 'options' button in the camera app, from where you can also opt to display 3x3 grid lines on the screen to aid composition and switch the camera to Panorama mode.