Five Ess

I found this old iPhone 5s in a drawer at work the other day, in new pristine condition.  It had been meticulously cared for by its previous owner, that was obvious.  Always in a case, and never without a screen protector.  This phone is considered ancient, in terms of cell phones...this model was released in September of 2013 (almost 9 years ago!). 

The battery doesn't work well anymore, which I suppose is expected.  Software is well out of date, too.  It won't run the latest apps, as most contemporary apps require iOS 14 and above (this phone runs 12.5.5, and no further).

But what I noticed when I picked it up was how *tiny* it feels in my hand.  What's more, it's tremendously convenient to carry around as a 2nd device, which gave me the idea to load Hipstamatic on there.  So, for the next few weeks, I will give this near-decade old iPhone a proper send off, using it to capture pictures for this blog.

A few comparisons between my working phone and this 5s:

13 Pro Camera: Pro 12MP camera system (Telephoto (ƒ/2.8 aperture), Wide (ƒ/1.5 aperture), and Ultra Wide (ƒ/1.8 aperture)

5s Camera: Single 8MP Wide camera (ƒ/2.2 aperture)

There are no image stabilization features on the 5s, no night mode, no neural image processing (Deep Fusion), no optical zoom, and no portrait mode.  On the plus side, the 5s retains some semblance of HDR capture, as well as a true-tone flash for low light.  

The fun part about this comparison is that due to the way Hipstamatic utilizes the iPhone APIs, none of this might matter.  I do not believe the Hipstamatic app utilizes any neural image processing features, it does not use anything but the 12MP wide camera, and it disregards the image stabilization features.  What will matter is the amount of light the lens can gather (ƒ/1.5 vs ƒ/2.2).

I am curious to see some side by side shots soon.  Stay tuned!