No messing with this chap.

Despite the striking blue eyes of this beautiful animal, the image works better in monochrome.

iPhone 6, 1/120, f/2.2, ISO 32.

Snack in Union Square.

The iPhone 6 is very stealthy.

iPhone 6, 1/1300, f/2.2, ISO 32 – a sensitivity it seems to favor.

Zzzzz ….

“The best camera is the one you have with you” is an expression of surpassing triteness, but I was glad of the iPhone on this occasion.

iPhone 6, 1/1300, f/2.2, ISO 32.

More experience with the iPhone 6.

iPhone 6 snap.

This is the ideal camera for the street snapper who has no need for a zoom. The focal length approximates that of 35mm on full frame cameras.

While both the iPhone 6 and the larger iPhone 6+ models have image stabilization in movie mode, only the 6+ offers OIS for still pictures. But that’s not quite right. Apple has been awfully clever with the smaller phone’s design. When you take a still image the camera actually records four images, then samples these, combining the sharpest components into the final version. None of this is visible to the photographer and the technology is completely transparent. I have not run any tests to see how well this works, but am constantly pleasantly surprised that the iPhone’s frequent choice of ISO 32 – and hence slower shutter speeds – does not result in camera shake. Yet another example of Apple’s application of continuing improvements from year to year, none huge on its own, but after two or three model iterations you end up with a clearly superior device.

I use Photostream in Settings to sync images with iPhoto on my MacBook Air and have iPhoto set so that editing is automatically done in Lightroom, which is far more powerful than iPhoto; snapped at lunch today, I just added a tad of sharpening in LR (sharpness slider in LR at 70).

You don’t have HC-B’s sense of anticipation and timing? No problem. Just keep your finger on the button and you get a burst of images, allowing you to choose the best – even if it’s of a man jumping a puddle …. In fact, I would bet that the iPhone is what the Master would be using today, were he still with us. Of course, he would have to dial in the black and white effect.

Monochrome conversion done in iOS8 on the iPhone 6.

iOS8 has a tremendous processing capabilities, revealed when you hit ‘Edit’ in Photos. Dump that dumb as a brick Leica M Monochrom.

GPS? Of course. Something the huge brains at Canon and Nikon seem incapable of integrating in their gargantuan DSLR bodies, and found in every iPhone for years now:

GPS data in LR5.

Here’s an exploded view of the camera’s lens. Far from simple:

Non-trivial. The lens in the iPhone 6.

Thanksgiving is coming.

iPhone 6, the first and last at ISO 32, the middle one at ISO 125. I have no idea how the iPhone determines the ISO to use, but who cares with image quality like this? These easily print 13″ x 19″, as the below illustrates, and are straight out of the phone, with no processing.

These beautiful pumpkins and gourd were snapped at the local grocery store. Apple’s thorough design attention makes a nonesense of all the high pixel count sensors in regular cameras. The sensor is but 8mp, but you would never guess that from the outstanding image quaity. Too bad Apple does not make cameras.

Even at ‘nose in print’ distances the original print is tack sharp and, quite frankly, an image from my massive Nikon D3x FF DSLR could not be any better. For that matter, most people are not serious photographers and care not one whit for such technical mumbo jumbo in any case, and this image needs no gear excuses. Tell a ‘photographer’ viewer it’s from an iPhone and the reaction will be one of incredulity. The print was made on the HP DesignJet 90 dye printer on HP Glossy paper, still the best printer/paper combination out there if you care about deep blacks and lustrous colors.