Today was the big day! Apple announced the newest models in their iPhone line. As everyone may already know, there were two iPhones announced, a first for the company. Here is the breakdown and my impressions.

Let’s first start with the iPhone 5C. This is the iPhone that has a plastic case instead of metal. It also comes in a variety of colors, green, blue , yellow, red and white. Apple made it abundantly clear that the build quality was not cheap. Though it may be plastic, it was top-notch quality in strength and design.

Here are some of the specs:

• 4-inch (diagonal) Retina display
• 1136-by-640 resolution
• 326 ppi

Not too shabby. Now let’s dig into the camera specs.

Photography:

• 8 megapixels
• ƒ/2.4 aperture
• Sapphire crystal lens cover
• LED flash
• Backside illumination sensor
• Five-element lens
• Hybrid IR filter
• Autofocus
• Tap to focus
• Face detection
• Panorama
• Photo geotagging

Pretty much the same from the iPhone 5.

Video Specs:

• 1080p HD video recording
• 30 fps
• LED flash
• Video stabilization
• Take still photo while recording video
• Face detection
• 3x zoom
• Video geotagging
• Tap to focus

Nothing new and everything looks good. I think, overall, this is indeed a great iPhone.

Here’s the part that shocked me. The iPhone 5C is replacing the iPhone 5. The price for this phone will be $99 for the 16GB and $199 for the $32GB models. The 4S 8GB version will now be the free model. I was a little surprised by that. I honestly thought the iPhone 5 would be marked down to the $99 price point.

In addition, I find that an 8GB model still in the market is unnecessary. It’s kind of a slap in the face. These solid state hard drives are now a few years old and not costing Apple all that much to produce (as I understand).

That being said, the iPhone 5C is a good phone that you can’t go wrong with. One will still be able to take great photos with the device.

Now, the iPhone 5S… there’s a real beauty.

It’s the same form factor as the iPhone 5 but with new colors, Gold, Silver and what they are calling “Space Gray.”

Price points remain the same:

• 16GB $199
• 32GB $299
• 64GB $399

Here are the photo and video specs.

Photography:

• 8 megapixels with 1.5µ pixels
• ƒ/2.2 aperture
• Sapphire crystal lens cover
• True Tone flash
• Backside illumination sensor
• Five-element lens
• Hybrid IR filter
• Autofocus
• Tap to focus
• Face detection
• Panorama
• Burst mode
• Photo geotagging

and video:

• 1080p HD video recording
• 30 fps
• True Tone flash
• Slo-mo video
• Improved video stabilization
• Take still photo while recording video
• Face detection
• 3x zoom
• Video geotagging
• Tap to focus

Okay, this is pretty cool. We get an improvement to the aperture (f/2.2 instead of f/2.4). That means better light sensitivity. Yes, this remains an 8 megapixel camera, but that’s actually okay. The sensor is 15% bigger. Bigger sensor means the little bugger can take in more light which means much better images, less noise, etc. I’m totally on board with that.

And now there’s slow motion capability to the iPhone 5S. You shoot at 120 frames per second and can isolate where you want the slow motion to occur. Yes, you, too, can be like Guy Ritchie! That’s pretty awesome.

The flash is interesting too. There are two flashes, one cool color and one warmer toned to help improve flesh-tone and make the overall photo properly balanced. At first I was unimpressed before the announcement. But now that I know what it’s used for and how, I’m willing to give this a go. Should be helpful for everyone photographing friends during a wedding reception or out at a poorly lit bar.

Finally there is the thumb print detector built into the home button. This is actually really cool. It was kind of meh for me before the announcement but now that I know this will be used for security AND being able to make purchases from the app store, I’m pretty excited about the thumb print reader.

I’m still not overly impressed with the gold version though. That color is just not for me. I know a lot of people are excited about that one, though. Good for you. Personally I have my eyes set on the silver version. That’s the one that I would like to have.

The 5S has made some great improvements to the photography side of things. I can’t wait to get my hands on it when it’s released. Photography-wise, the larger sensor is what’s appealing to me. I think that’s a great step in the right direction for quality. And the slow-motion for the video is cool too. I can’t wait to give that a spin.

Final verdict: if you can get the iPhone 5S, do it. That’s the one to buy. It just blows the iPhone 5C out of the water even though the 5C is a great camera.

Listen to the Tiny Shutter podcast for more impressions. You can find it on iTunes, Stitcher or on this web site.