An impressive camera.

Apple has done the right thing with the rear-facing main camera in iPhone 6. Instead of whoring the latest megapixel count they have concentrated on delivering excellent picture quality. The camera has the same 8mP of the iPhone 5S but uses a new sensor and lens. While time lapse and movies hold no interest for me, performance as a street snapper is important and, despite the awkward ergonomics of using a cell phone as a camera, the results are excellent. It’s still easy to get your finger to intrude over part of the field of view, especially in landscape snaps, and the tapered edges of iPhone 6 make hand holding a bit trickier than the slab sides of iPhone 5, and the thing is as slippery as an eel. There will be lots of repair bills with this model!

These snaps were taken in overcast lighting using the following Lightroom 5 import settings – essentially just a tad of sharpening:

iPhone 6 import settings in Lightroom 5.

I did not turn on HDR and maybe should have done so, as the burned out highlights in the terrier’s coat suggest:

Morning coffee, with terrier and iPad.

Shutter response is excellent. Essentially instantaneous with definition easily adequate for 13″ x 19″ prints and noise in the shadows noticeably improved over the camera in my previous iPhone 5:

Top notch shutter response and definition, with low noise.

Two hours before opening the line was again beginning to form for iPhone 6 at the local Apple Store this morning:

Waiting for iPhone 6.

Colors are straight out-of-camera and as vibrant and natural as can be.

If the point-and-shoot camera was in dire straits with iPhones 4 and 5 it can now be buried. iPhone 6 excels at such impromptu duties.