How is the iPod touch/iPhone 5s camera in lowlight?

The camera is closer to the one on the iPad Air 2 and iPhone 5 than the iPhone 5s unfortunately. Probably due to it's thinness and being a cheaper device. The main difference is that it has an ƒ2.4 aperture rather than the ƒ2.2 on the iPhone 5s/6 and the iPhone has larger 1.5µ pixels in it's sensor.

It is better than the 5th generation though, and the iPhone 4s. But not quite 5s level.

Here's a little comparison

 

^^^This.

The camera on the iPod touch 6th generation is actually the same one from the iPad Air 2 (except it protrudes for some reason, even though both devices are the same thickness). The one on the 5th generation is the same one from the iPad 3, iPad 4, iPad Air, iPad Mini, iPad Mini 2, and iPad Mini 3. Therefore, it should take better pictures than all those devices, but not better than the iPhone 5s, 6, or 6+.

This 8MP camera has 1.1um pixels while the previous one had 1.4um, so they're smaller, but the A8 has a much better ISP than the A5, so I would say low-light capabilities are at least the same as the 5MP camera (you can see samples from the iPad Air 2's camera vs. the iPad Air's on the iPad Air 2 review from AnandTech). I would put the 8MP camera on par with iPhone 5, and I would put the previous one between the iPhone 4 and the iPhone 4s.

(As a side note, the 5th generation had a sapphire crystal lens cover while the 6th generation does not mention one, so I would assume it does not have one.)

 

I took these yesterday afternoon using a slow shutter app saving in tiff, the files are acceptable after editing using Lightroom. I chose this waterfall for the dark and light to test the iPod (latest) camera. I did some flowers the previous day and it does wonderfully with those (so long as enough light is available). What I would recommend is using a stacking app or app that can take multiple images... without that you end up with a image with lots of grain which is ok for social media.

 

If it's the same as the Air 2: Bad. If they are the same then I have no idea why the one on the Touch sticks out.

 

My experience with low light just messing round tonight doesn't indicate that it's bad. I think most would find it okay. Clearly not as good as the iPhone 6 or 6+ or my Note 4.