Turn down the lights. Or turn them way up.

Pull out your iPhone in moonlight, candlelight, or under little white lights. Or shoot in bright light. Like at the beach. iPhone captures low-light and lots-of-light moods beautifully. So darks aren’t too dark and lights aren’t too light. Even action shots are less blurry. The next-generation backside illumination sensor is engineered with increased sensitivity and a shorter exposure time to achieve the same scene brightness — colors are less saturated and you’ll see more details. And the LED flash automatically kicks in when it’s needed (but you can always turn it off).

A5 chip and iOS 5.
The power behind your photos.

The A5 chip is designed with an image signal processor that’s just as good as the ones found in DSLR cameras. It’s how you can tap to focus and control exposure. And it’s the power behind zero shutter lag. The image signal processor makes the iPhone 4S camera faster, so you’ll catch all the action as it happens. The camera also uses advanced algorithms in iOS 5 for even more color accuracy, better white balance, and greater dynamic range. When you see your photos, you’ll see exactly what that means.

This camera loves a face.

With new face detection, this camera is smart enough to know whether you’re taking a portrait or a group shot. It focuses on the most prominent face in the frame and balances exposure across up to 10 faces. So you’ll definitely catch smiles. And maybe even a smirk or two.

Capture the moment in a split second.

Think about all those fun, fleeting moments you wish you’d caught on film. Now you can open the Camera app right from the Lock screen. So when things happen fast, you’ll capture them fast. Compose a quick shot with grid lines and pinch-to-zoom gestures. Focus with a tap. Then press the volume-up button to take a photo. And suddenly, everything is a photo op.

Edit photos right on iPhone.
It’s not just an amazing camera. It’s an on-the-fly editing studio. Crop, rotate, enhance, and remove red-eye right on iPhone — without the help of photo editing software on a computer. Then organize your shots into albums, so you know where your favorites are when you want to show them off.