Jim Richardson, an American photojournalist who works mostly for National Geographic Society, took the iPhone 5S instead of his regular professional camera. The result was some amazing pictures of Scottish Highlands.

The iPhone 5S is the recently launched flagship smartphone from Apple. The device has an 8 MP camera. The company has been involved with many marketing efforts to promote the phone and its features especially the camera.

Jim Richardson took the smartphone with him on his trek across Scotland and apparently found the device "delightfully light" to carry around in the rough terrain. He shared some of his experiences with the camera on the phone.

"The color and exposures are amazingly good, the HDR exposure feature does a stunningly good job in touch situations, the panorama feature is nothing short of amazing-seeing a panorama sweeping across the screen in real time is just intoxicating" said Jim Richardson in a post on the National Geographic Web site.

Although the iPhone 5S has a lower 8 MP camera, compared to rivals in the market, the phone has a good sensor. Analysts say that the camera on the phone allows users to take good pictures in low light.

Jim Richardson was particularly amazed with the panorama feature on the iPhone 5S. The camera allows users to shoot square pictures, allowing them to be easily shared on social media platforms like Instagram.

The iPhone 5S was also used to shoot pictures and video in the Burberry runway show in London. The iSight camera on the phone was also used to capture back stage moments of the event. The smartphone allowed users to take pictures and instantly share them in social media.

Smartphones could increasingly be used for their cameras; Jim Richardson observed in his hike that some of the people in the tour sometimes put aside their bigger digital cameras to take photos using their smartphones.

The camera on the iPhone 5S may not be seen as a replacement to the other digital cameras in the market, there are many things that a smartphone camera may not be able to do.

Jim Richardson noted that although the images were not "visually profound" they looked good and were not seen by him as a compromise, just because they were shot from a smartphone.

For those who are not convinced with the camera features of the iPhone 5S, Apple is working on a new flagship smartphone. Click here to read the features expected on the upcoming iPhone 6.