My iPhone 4s finally has been retired. We had a good run over the last two years and five months, but it was time. A year ago, the lock screen button stopped working, which was not only annoying, but super draining on my battery. Then about six months ago, after being dropped a million times by me, an unfortunate accident occurred during a tickle fight with an adorable little boy, and the screen was finally cracked. Which is not only ugly, it gave me a headache to read anything on my phone.
Boo.
When the new iPhone 5s came out, I was really hoping for some improvement to the camera. As a photography junky, I take photos of e v e r y t h i n g. As much as I adore my Canon 5d Mark ii, and as far superior that camera is to any point and shoot/phone camera will ever be, that thing is really heavy. And bulky. And sometimes, I just want to go out with my friends or husband and not be the weirdo with the giant DSLR. So, like most people I take a ton of photos with my iPhone.
I had read the specs on the new 5s cameras, and read some blogs about their comparison to the older models, and was kind of disappointed. Yes, there were some cool new features (burst mood, a flash that didn’t make everything look crazy, lower aperture), but people said that when they got their hands on it, they couldn’t tell a difference. So I wasn’t really expecting much when I picked up the 5s in the store to play with.
I was blown away.
Yes, it’s still a phone camera. But the photos came out so bright, so rich and so vivid, that I decided to upgrade. It wasn’t the working lock button, or the uncracked screen or the fingerprint sensor that sold me on the 5s- it was the camera. Not to say I don’t love all the other stuff!
When we went to New Orleans last week, I brought both my iPhones with me. Because I wanted people to think I was super rich- and hey, anything goes in NOLA, right? Or is that only Vegas? I jest.
I actually brought both so I could do some photo comparison. These photos were all taken in Jackson Square, and have had NO EDITING done to them. These are straight out of the (iPhone) camera. Don’t judge. 
I’m also not going to get into the technical aspects as why the camera works the way it does, because 1) I’m not the best at explaining stuff like that and 2) who really cares? Well some people might I suppose. There are some genius tech bloggers out there if you want to google and see!
The first thing I noticed was the saturation of color. See how the two images below on the left side (the 4s) are muted in color and looks almost smokey? They are dull and not super exciting. The ones on the right, however, (5s) are bright and rich with colors that are much truer to what the eye sees.
The next thing that I noticed is the 5s has a slightly wider camera lens. See how the image on the left (4s) looks zoomed in compared to the right (5s)? These photos were taken in the same exact spot, but the 5s is able to capture more. Being someone who takes a ton of pictures of houses, I appreciate this. I hate not being able to capture a whole room!
Finally, the white balance on the 5s blows the 4s out of the water. Notice how on the image on the left (4s) makes my handsome hubby look sickly? Everything is yellow cast- clothes, teeth, skin, background- it’s a weird yellow-green that isn’t true to what your eyes would see. The image on the right (5s) however, is much truer to real life, with appropriate white balance and no sickly yellow!
I haven’t had a lot of opportunity to test out the flash (I always, always, always avoid flash when I can!) or the burst mood features, but when I do, I’ll be sure to share!
So there it is! Still not anywhere near the quality of my DSLR, but for 5 times the price, the DSLR better be better! I am currently trying to edit down a million images from NOLA to share with you all…everything there is eye-delicious. For realz. What about you guys? Do you all tend to use your phone as your main camera, or are you brave and muscular enough to lug around something a bit bigger?
