Professional photographer and videographer, and Instagram legend Martin Reisch -- *safe solvent™ -- talks about the iPhone 5 camera, how he decides between shooting with the iPhone vs. the Canon 5D Mark III and the RED Scarlet, and tips for aspiring iPhoneographers.

The iPhone 5 boasts Apple's most advanced cellular radio yet, able to do super-fast LTE on multiple carriers around the world, speedy DC-HSPA+ and HSPA+ on AT&T and GSM carriers, and slow EVDO rev. A on Sprint and Verizon. But how fast is fast?

We need your help to find out! Download the free SpeedTest.net app from the App Store, make sure you're not on Wi-Fi, and then run a few tests. Let us know where you are and how good your data speed is. If you can, post a screen-shot in in iPhone 5 speed test forum thread so we can get the exact results.

We're going to crowd source this to see which carriers, in what areas, are providing the best connections, and just how good Apple's new iPhone 5 is overall. (And yes, we want all the results, good, bad, and ugly!)

So grab the app, do the test, post the results, and share your screenshot now!

If you're visiting the United Kingdom with a GSM unlocked iPhone 5, your main options for Pay As You Go SIMs are limited to just two of the five major networks. At the time of writing, only T-Mobile and O2 offer nano-SIMs on Pay As You Go (pre-paid) deals. Three will sell you a nano-SIM on a one-month rolling contract, but that's not much use for travelers, as it's subject to all the usual credit requirements. Vodafone and Orange have yet to announce any PAYG nano-SIM options, nor has the community-oriented GiffGaff network.

T-Mobile UK Pay As You Go nano-SIM for iPhone 5

T-Mobile UK's PAYG nano-SIM works just the same as any of the carrier's other PAYG SIMs. After topping up at least £10 of credit, you can choose between three price plans for your iPhone 5 --

• Text Plan - Unlimited UK texts, in addition to your data allowance and calling UK credit.
• Talk Plan - 100 UK minutes, in addition to your data allowance and UK calling credit.
• International Plan - 70 international minutes, in addition to your data allowance and UK calling credit

All of T-Mobile UK's PAYG plans come with unlimited mobile data for browsing and email for the following month, plus a 500MB data allowance for media streaming, which should be more than enough for most travelers. In particular, that 70 minutes of international calls may be ideal for visitors to the UK who want an convenient way to call home without breaking the bank.

O2 UK Pay & Go nano-SIM for iPhone 5

O2's pre-paid nano-SIM option is well hidden, but it does indeed offer them. O2 has a wide range of PAYG plans, each with varying benefits --

• Pay and Go Go Go - 75 minutes, 500 texts and 100MB for a month, for £10. Allowances double after three months. Unlimited texts are added after nine months.
• O2 Unlimited - Unlimited O2 to O2 (UK) calls and texts with a £15 top-up. UK web browsing charged at £1 per day.
• Text and Web - 500MB data allowance for a month, plus a varying text allowanced based on how much you top up.£10-14 gets you 300, £15 to £29 gets you 500, and after £30 texts are unlimited.
• Simplicity - Starts at £7.50 per month, which gets you unlimited texts. £10.50 will get you 100 minutes and 500 texts, and £15.50 for 300 minutes and unlimited texts. Then add one of three data allowances -- £3 for 100MB, £6 for 500MB or £10 for 1GB.

Other options

It's also worth mentioning that nano-SIM "cutters" are available online to enable brave users to trim down micro-SIMs to nano-SIM size. If the gold contacts are the right size, you should be able to use one of these hole punch-like devices to cut down the plastic around your micro-SIM so that it's the correct size for iPhone 5. You can also attempt this manually using a good old-fashioned pair of scissors, if you're feeling adventurous.

Cutting down SIM cards can be hit and miss, though, so proceed at your own risk if you decide to go ahead with this. However, if successful, you'd be able to slice down any micro-SIM and use Three, Vodafone and Orange PAYG SIMs in your iPhone 5.

If you do decide to cut a larger SIM down to size, you may want to consider a micro-SIM from Three, which in our opinion offers by the most attractive PAYG plans for heavy data users. You can top up £15 and get unlimited data, 300 minutes and 3000 texts, or top up £10 for 500MB, 100 minutes and 3000 texts.

We've reached out to the other major mobile networks to see if they plan on offering PAYG nano-SIMs anytime soon. We'll update this article with any new information they provide.

• See all international pre-paid/PAYG options

The iPhone 5 Apple's 6th version, and 4th major design revision, of the iPhone. It might well have been inevitable, and still be working its way towards Jonathan Ive's Platonic ideal, but it's also a fascinating visual evolution of case shrinking, screen lengthening, and materials improving over generations.

We've done the iPhone 5 in both stunning portrait, and in intimate macro. Here's the Darwinian march of iPhone designs through the years, from the original 2007 iPhone to the 2009 iPhone 3GS to the 2011 iPhone 4S to the brand new 2012 iPhone 5.

Here are the backs, from aluminum to plastic to glass and back to aluminum.

And the dock connector, from 30-pin to Lightning, as well as the speaker and mic grills, and the movement of the 3.5mm headset jack. (Side by side and stacked.)

The controls on the side, stacked, from rockers to buttons.

The SIM cards both in trays and naked, from mini- to micro- to nano-SIM.

And the connector, from the new Lightning to the old 30-pin Dock.

All shots taken with a Canon 5D Mark III and a Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM and an EF 100mm F2.8 L IS USM Macro lens, embedded at HiDPI for iPhones, iPad 3, and Retina MacBook Pro.

Getting up close and extremely personal with the new iPhone 5 iSight and FaceTime camera, in-cell display, nano-SIM card, and Lightning connector

We've already shown you just how stunning the new design looks in our iPhone 5 gallery but we also want to go in for a much closer look at all the little details. Apple is manufacturing the iPhone 5 using some incredibly advanced equipment and tolerances measured in microns. The backing is anodized 6000 series aluminum with ceramic or pigmented glass inlays. The iSight camera is covered by sapphire crystal and the beveled edges are cut by crystalline diamond. It's been said the iPhone 5 is closer in kind to a luxury time piece than what's traditionally passed for consumer electronics.

How much of that is just marketing and ad copy, and how much is reality undistorted? If the details matter that much to Apple, how well did they execute on those details? Let's take a really close look...

8mp iSight rear camera, the new rear mic, and flash.

720p FaceTime front camera and speaker.

The in-cell display.

The pixels of the new in-cell display.

The new Lightning port, new speaker and mic grills, and the newly repositioned 3.5mm headphone jack.

The pins inside the new Lightning port.

The new nano-SIM in the card tray.

All shots taken with a Canon 5D Mark III and an EF 100mm F2.8 L IS USM Macro lens, embedded at HiDPI for iPhones, iPad 3, and Retina MacBook Pro.

Apple has released four new adverts to coincide with the availability of the iPhone 5. Three of the ads concentrate solely on the iPhone 5 while the other is all about its new Earpods. The adverts are called Thumb, Cheese, Physics and Ears.

Thumb covers the new larger screen on the iPhone 5 and how easy it is to use one handed with your thumb. Cheese is all about the new camera taking panorama shots which Apple claims it's as easy as saying "Cheese". Physics goes over the iPhone 5 size compared to the iPhone 4S and how it is now larger but lighter and thinner too. The final ad Ears is all about the new Earpods and how they are designed for better audio quality and a better fit.

The four ads are all below so make sure you check them out. They are certainly much better than the Genius ads that Apple aired then removed a few months back. At least these ads concentrate on the iPhone 5 and its new features. What do you think? Do you like the iPhone 5 and Earpod ads?

Source: YouTube

It's iPhone 5 day, and the iMore forums are bursting with people chatting about their new phones. Whether it be issues needing some advice, praise for new features, or any number of other topics, you're sure to find it in our forums.

Over in the iPhone Accessories forum, for example, iMore member Quarks_ started a conversation about the new EarPods. He's impressed, stating "Far better range, comfortable fit and I like the bottom jack position." There are several polls you can vote in, including giving your opinion on Black & Slate vs White & Silver, and threads for posting pictures you've taken with the iPhone 5 camera or shots of your home screen.  There are even threads dedicated to horror stories such as dropping your brand new iPhone the first day, ("When I opened the box this morning I was so excited the phone went flying out of the box onto the ground") or the device being damaged right out of the box.

Whatever you want to talk about regarding your new iPhone 5 or the experience of getting it in itself, you're sure to find a thread about it in our forums. And if there isn't one, strike up a conversation and start one! If you're somehow not already registered, you'll want to do that so you can join the conversation. Registration has other benefits, such as being eligible to enter in contests to win fantastic prizes, such as a free iPhone 5!

Even though the iPhone 5 didn't get a boost in megapixels, it did receive some enhancements that should produce clearer, more vibrant images while reducing noise in low light situations. The iPhone 5's predecessor, the iPhone 4S already took amazing pictures in its own right, and the iPhone 5 camera will replace the need of a standalone camera for even more iPhone owners.

Our readers continue to demonstrate to us every week through our iPhone photography tutorials and weekly photo contests just how well their iPhones capture the moments that matter most to them.

We've had some time to put the iPhone 5's new and improved camera through it's paces, including a complete hardware and software breakdown. So let's see how, if at all, the iPhone 5 camera makes those captured moments better.

Hardware design of iPhone 5 iSight Camera

The camera on the iPhone 5 has been redesigned to fit inside the new, thinner body. The surface of the lens is now made of sapphire crystal. For transparent materials, the only thing harder than sapphire crystal is diamond -- so it's significantly tougher than the glass used on previous models of the iPhone. The edge of lens on the camera of my iPhone 4S has some visible scratches, so the sapphire crystal surface of the iPhone 5, and Apple's claim that it's far less likely to scratch, should prove important over time. I'll be keeping an eye on it.

In addition to the sapphire crystal, the way that the camera sits in the body of the iPhone 5 has greatly improved from the iPhone 4S. It's perfectly flush to the back and there is no visible spacing between the camera and the body. The flash has also increased in size and appears to be clearer.

Sample photos taken with the iPhone 5

So how does this new and improved camera hold up? Let's take a look! All of the photos featured in this article have been taken with an iPhone 5 and have not been altered in any way. To see how all the photos look after using Apple's "enhance" feature in iPhoto, check out the video below.

Color vibrance with iPhone 5 camera

One of the first things I noticed about the iPhone 5's camera is that colors are much more vibrant than before -- especially in sunlight.

Macro photos taken with the iPhone 5

I was always very disappointed in macro photography with the iPhone 4S because it always seem to struggle with focusing. Not so with the iPhone 5. The camera allows you to get very close to your subject and locks a very sharp focus without a problem.

HDR photos taken with the iPhone 5

The improvements to HDR are also very noticeable. I highly recommend that you turn on the HDR setting any time you take a photo of a landscape or cityscape.

Low light photos taken with the iPhone 5

One of the biggest weaknesses of every iPhone camera has been the poor quality of photos taken in low light scenarios. Unfortunately, this continues to be a weakness with the iPhone 5 as well. If lighting is mediocre and your subject is still, then your photos will come out fine, but once your subject moves even the slightest bit, you will get noticeable motion blur, as shown below.

When the lighting is even worse, the photos have the potential to be dark and grainy. They don't seem to be as grainy as with the iPhone 4S, however, which makes it easier to recover the photos with editing apps.

Photos taken with the iPhone 5's front-facing camera

The other sore spot of the iPhone has been its front-facing camera. It did receive a minor boost for the iPhone 5 and it's actually quite noticeable. I never used it for self portraits in the past, but now I might.

Panorama photos taken with the iPhone 5

One of the exciting new features of iOS 6 is the ability to take panoramic photos directly from the built-in camera app by simply panning the scene -- and boy does it produce beautiful results with the iPhone 5!

iPhone 5 photos edited with Apple's "enhance" feature in iPhoto

To see all the photos in this article after having Apple's "enhance" feature in iPhoto applied to them, check out the video slideshow below!

The bottom line

Even though the iPhone 5's iSight camera didn't get any more megapixels than the iPhone 4S, there are still noticeable improvements to the hardware of the the camera. Externally, the lens fits much nicer into the back of the iPhone, and internally, the sensor has clearly been upgraded. The colors in the photos taken with the iPhone 5 are nice a vibrant with the potential of being even better with the simple tap of the enhance button. Additionally, the macro capabilities on the iPhone 5 are incredible and the lens does not struggle to focus. Although the iPhone 5 still has the potential to produce grainy images, there does some seem to be some improvement in this department as well. This is to be expected, however. Lowlight performance is dependent on the quality and size of a camera's sensor, so since the iPhone 5 contains a sensor that is physically very small, there is bound to be grain when there isn't enough light to adequately illuminate a scene.

Overall, I am very impressed with the iPhone 5 camera and look forward to filling up my iPhone hard drive with beautiful photographs.

To see more photos taken with the iPhone 5 and to share your own, be sure to head to the iMore forums! In particular, if you want to show off your beautiful panorama's taken with the built-in camera app in iOS 6, enter this week's panorama photo contest!