Apple iPhone 6, 6 Plus get updated cameras with optical image stabilization, faster autofocus

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James Martin/CNET

As part of the announcement of the new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus , Apple revealed some of the new tech you’ll find helping you get those perfect shots.

For starters, you’ll find optical image stabilization in the 6 Plus (it’s just electronic for the 6), faster autofocus, and slow-motion video up to 240 frames per second, which doubles the iPhone 5S’ capabilities.

Carried over from the 5S, the iSight camera features an 8-megapixel backside-illuminated CMOS sensor with 1.5μm pixels, an f2.2 aperture lens, and the True Tone flash that dynamically adjusts color to match lighting conditions.

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James Martin/CNET

It is a new image sensor, though, with phase-detection autofocus that should improve focusing speeds over the contrast AF system used for previous iPhone’s. (For those keeping Android-to-Apple scorecards, Samsung’s Galaxy S5 also has phase-detection AF.)

Apple unveils iPhone 6, Apple Watch

Low-light photos should be a little cleaner thanks to the iPhone 6’s A8 image signal processor. Panoramic images get a resolution bump to 43 megapixels and a new gyroscope improves stitching.

Video capabilities include 1080p capture at 30fps or 60fps. It can also record slow-motion video at 120fps or 240fps, which is great for analyzing your golf swing among other things. It has continuous autofocus (which can be a blessing and a curse) and to help with camera shake, it has cinematic image stabilization.

There is also a new HD FaceTime sensor that does single-shot HDR photos as well as HDR video, so no more getting lost in the shadows when you or your subject is backlit. The FaceTime camera also gets a burst mode for, what else, burst selfies.

Read back through CNET’s Apple live blog and see all of today’s Apple news.

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