Wesley's Tool-Box

One of the key improvements of iPhone 5S over previous generations would be the camera's performance. In this segment I'll look at the speed at which it can operate - namely, how fast the video and still photos are recorded.

1. Video

iPhone 5S introduces the "slo-mo" mode with 120fps capture at 720p (1280x720). What it actually does is that the phone records the video at 120fps fully. Then, when you view the video in the camera roll via the Camera or Photos app, a portion of the video is played in slow motion by reducing the playback speed to 30fps.


This results in playback at 1/4 the speed for the selected "zone". You can adjust where the slow motion starts and ends by moving the sliders just below the frame strip. One drawback is that you can't set two or more zones. You'll need a separate editor or app to achieve this.

Also, there are some interesting consequences when exporting the video clips.

Chuseok (Korean thanksgiving) holiday week is closing, but the weather cleared up and I had the opportunity to snap some photos of the full moon. The $40 toy telescope acting as a makeshift zoom lens for iPhone 4's camera worked okay and reveals lots of details. Enjoy!

While the overhead cloud hampered the observation of the solar eclipse at its peak (around 10:48 AM) and beyond, I was able to manage a few shots at the Sun as the eclipse progressed. Here's a ten-photo crop of the photos I took. There has been no retouching or resizing. Enjoy!

Too bad Korea didn't fall into the total solar eclipse zone (that prestige went to southern China and India), but this eclipse is the best one I've seen with my own (shielded) naked eyes yet. Good thing the office had spare floppy disks lying around. It's a very good filter.

Yes, I ordered a telescope after taking the last moon photos.