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iPhone 5S' camera praised by National Geographic photog

Photographer for the magazine -- famous for its dramatic covers -- gives high praise to the 5S' camera, ditching a Nikon in the process.

Brooke Crothers Former CNET contributor
Brooke Crothers writes about mobile computer systems, including laptops, tablets, smartphones: how they define the computing experience and the hardware that makes them tick. He has served as an editor at large at CNET News and a contributing reporter to The New York Times' Bits and Technology sections. His interest in things small began when living in Tokyo in a very small apartment for a very long time.
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The iPhone 5S's camera has bigger sensors and an improved aperture, among other upgrades.
The iPhone 5S' camera has bigger sensors and an improved aperture, among other upgrades. Apple

The iPhone 5S' camera has passed muster with National Geographic.

Photographer Jim Richardson of National Geographic -- famous for its dramatic covers -- traded his Nikon for an iPhone 5S in a visit to Scotland, according to a story posted on Monday.

"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," he wrote.

Richardson continued.

The color and exposures are amazingly good, the HDR exposure feature does a stunningly good job...Best of all it shoots square pictures natively, a real plus for me since I wanted to shoot for Instagram posting...What surprised me most was that the pictures did not look like compromises. They didn't look like I was having to settle for second best because it was a mobile phone.

That's high praise for a smartphone camera. CNET Reviews seems to agree.

"A suite of new and useful upgrades help make the already-good iPhone 5 camera into something even better," according to CNET's take on the 5S.

The 5S' iSight camera has a 15 percent larger sensor and a better aperture of f/2.2, compared with the iPhone 5's f/2.4. Both of those upgrades let in more light, among other benefits.

[Via MacRumors ]

Photo snapped with iPhone 5S.
Photo snapped with iPhone 5S. Scott Stein/CNET