I love the camera system from the first iPhone which I have owned, the iPhone 3 and have been witness to the innovation progressing on the smartphone one generation after another. I have started to make many of my blog entries with some images taken from an iPhone 6 camera as against always depending on the heavier SLR cameras. Lugging an SLR around all day long on a photo shoot is just so exhaustive.

The camera on the iPhone 6 system although is not much to write home about if you ONLY look at the megapixel count, but overall the contrast and the snappiness of the lens system is just reasonable for outdoor shoots and we decided to give it a try at Ueno Park during the cherry blossom (Sakura) festival. All images have been enhanced on phone by changing highlights and higher saturation. No Photoshop or extreme editing has been used to alter the images. We have limited to just simple retouch techniques and have not used any PC to transfer images back and forth.

We spotted a few Japanese kids throwing some bread like pieces to the Seagulls and thought to catch that action. The bird trying to catch the piece just next to the left building was reasonably captured on the iPhone 6. Maybe SLR will be more sharp, but for a generation consuming and creating on smartphones, we believe this is acceptable quality.
Next we tried to contrast the green and pink colors of the trees besides the lake including the small petals on the ground and that snap also was quite pleasant. My F3.5 Lens on SLR also cannot take this quality, seriously. This is still F2.2 aperture on iPhone, wonder what quality the F1.8 aperture will bring in. We just cannot wait.
A stereotypical Sakura tree branch dropping over the water pond. Reasonable? we guess so.
Moving on we tried one with the Sakura flowers contrasted with the shrine structure next to the pond. The highlights and the sky at the back is not that blue as we thought, but then this is on a cloudy day and guess it would look further better had it been a lovely sunny day.
Lately the Ueno park has been advertising on pamphlets on “Tsuki no Matsu (月の松)” a 400 year old pine which suffered a severe damage by a storm in the early Edo period. Part of the One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (Meisho Edo hyakkei) and appearing on famous Ukiyo-e wood block painting a new Tsukinomatsu planted beside Kiyomizu kannon temple was our next target. Nice clarity on the backside buildings in distance too.
One more from the grounds looking up and a jet passed by leaving a vertical trail in the sky. NICE.
We seriously wish it was a blue sky day when we took this shot of the monk with the flowers in the background. Blissful, but it could have been more clear on a blue sky day. But seriously I miss my SLR less these days, with the reasonable, OK for blog quality. Let me know if you think otherwise.
The next one certainly calls for SLR in terms of how much one can zoom and still retain the quality, although if we think in terms of what Apple will bring to the iPhone in another 3-5 years will be worth a watch. I have used J-Phone camera in Japan in 2000 and still reminded of the quality back in those days and where things stand today. MARVEL!
The Seagulls did a favor for us and this time posed with a sign which says 釣り禁止 meaning fishin prohibited. Does it apply to the seagulls or only us humans? Not sure. Nevertheless we love our iPhone 6 a camera the best since its the one which I always have ready with me.
lastly we saw families enjoying boat rides in the pond and we shut the camera off and hopped on to one of the paddle boats to enjoy the flowers ourselves too. Relaxing and happiness…