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iPhone 5S camera gets the nod from National Geographic photographer

A National Geographic photographer has praised the capabilities of the iPhone 5S camera following a spell of testing in Scotland.

You may have read numerous reviews – not least our own – praising the iPhone 5S’s 8-megapixel camera. But now you can take the word of someone at the very top of the photography profession.

Apple’s marketing chief Phil Schiller recently tweeted a link to a National Geographic story by photographer Jim Richardson. The post relates a recent trip to Scotland in which Richardson ditched his trusty Nikon camera for the new iPhone 5S.

“With intense use (I’ve made about 4,000 pictures in the last four days) I’ve discovered that the iPhone 5S is a very capable camera,” noted Richardson. He then went on to list the mobile snapper’s considerable strengths.

“The color and exposures are amazingly good, the HDR exposure feature does a stunningly good job in touch situations, the panorama feature is nothing short of amazing—seeing a panorama sweeping across the screen in real time is just intoxicating,” he said.

Richardson also appreciated the iPhone 5S’s ability to shoot square photos natively, as he is logging his travels on Instagram. The latest Apple smartphone, which is finally shipping to those who ordered it on its September 20 launch day, also impressed Richardson with its macro capabilities.

Of course, the biggest advancement over the iPhone 5’s camera, according to Apple, is the iPhone 5S’s boosted low-light capabilities. It uses a 15 percent larger image sensor and a superior f/2.2 aperture to let more light in.

Sure enough, Richardson noted that “even in low light in the museum the camera did pretty well.”

Next, read our iPhone 5S vs Sony Xperia Z1 camera face-off.

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