IPhone – What happens when a phone runs out of storage and pictures are taken

First question: yes, iCloud backs up your photo as it is. If you delete media from your photos library it will be deleted from iCloud. (I might add that videos are also stored in the cloud - and consequently take up the most room).

Second question: It is possible you can use the Scanner and Camera wizard to import photos from your iPhone. Here is are two articles that briefly describe the process.

• Tech Recipes
• OSX Daily

Before you delete all (or most of) your photos off your iPhone, I would recommend that you double check that everything has been transfered correctly so you don't lose any pictures.

You probably already know this but it's worth mentioning anyways. When you go to delete photos from your iPhone, open the Photos app, click the Camera Roll album, then select the box with the arrow icon at the top right of the screen. Select pictures to be deleted, then tap the Delete button in the bottom bar (this is also a way to email more then one picture).

Of course, the other option would be to turn off the iCloud backup of your photos. (You already know how to get there but go to iCloud > Storage & Backup > Manage Storage > [your name] iPhone > Turn Camera Off.)

In order to fit within the 5GB limit for the iCloud backup, you need to have the used space on your device be less than 5GB. Technically, Apps don't count against this, although their documents/data does. There are other items that don't count, as well, you can read more about iCloud backups here.

You stated that your iPod had 5GB available, but the space used for the backup is the 5GB that you have in iCloud, it is not on your device.

If you have more than 5GB used, as is likely given that it has told you there is not enough available storage, then you will need to either pay to add more iCloud storage, or just use iTunes for free.

If it is your first time backing up to iTunes and you have lots of data, it will likely take quite a while, so you should be patient when letting it complete that first backup.