Phone photography

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Tony

White bear (Admin)
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Apr 16, 2003
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I know that generally a good camera will take a better picture than a good phone but I'm getting to that point where I'm using my iPhone 7 more than my cameras, I've got a sony A6000 and a Sony RX100 3 as my main cameras and yet enjoy using the iphone more and I get more good pictures because I'm taking more with the phone.

What are your experiences and where do you sit on the phone/camera scale of things?

I've even thought about selling one of them to offset the cost of a better phone (better camera on a phone)
 

Broch

Life Member
Jan 18, 2009
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I use the phone for 'snaps' and recording things (fungus in the wood, plants, a copy of a poster or leaflet etc.) but to take a 'photograph' I use a camera. You'd struggle to print a phone image to any descent size (A4 or A3) but I'm aware most people don't want to.

You just can't get the resolving power from a lens that's only a few millimetres in diameter and projecting onto a sensor that's only millimetres away, though they are much better than they were.

So, my point being, if you want a record of events and view your photos on a standard screen then a phone camera is probably fine; if you want prints, view your images on high resolution large screens or projectors or want to display your photos then a good camera will always be better - the optical geometry says so.
 
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Woody110

Mod
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Mar 8, 2009
391
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Leeds, Yorkshire
I have an A3 canvas on the wall taken by an iPhone and it’s really good, I also have one taken on my Nikon, that canvas is about 3x2 foot and as also very clear.
I never thought about blowing up a camera phone picture, however I’m not so sure anymore.
 

Nice65

Brilliant!
Apr 16, 2009
6,440
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W.Sussex
Sold the Canon S95, use iPhone 7 for everything, I think it takes very good pictures.

Problem for me with the highly capable compact camera is the need to connect it to a computer. It’s too much of a faff unless you’re looking at advanced photography and editing. Broch is spot on with the lens and sensor geometry fact, but for my purposes the phone does well.

This is on A4 photo paper now and looks good. It’s not a skill thing, the subject matter lends itself to enlarging. I still find myself getting photographs wrong, losing detail and focus etc. But because the phone is almost always with me, I’m working with it more to iron out imperfections. I didn’t get this with the very compact S95, it was almost always set to Auto.

6241678-A-0-CCD-4-B03-9-FBC-509-BB6606-BB3.jpg


Edit: That’s lost a bit of colour, depth, and focus from the version in my photo library. That’s running it through Postimage maybe?
 
Last edited:

Nomad64

Full Member
Nov 21, 2015
1,072
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UK
The best camera is the one you have to hand, whatever it is :)

Beat me to it! :)

I have pro grade Nikon cameras and lenses which make me cringe at how much I paid for them (even secondhand) which even with my average skills have taken some pictures I have been very happy with but are heavy and bulky.

I also have a Lumix LX3 which is a decent quality but old and very worn digital compact camera which has been my constant companion for over a decade.

Some years ago I did a presentation at the Royal Geographical Society in London and of the pictures that were projected onto the big screen at the RGS, at least a third were taken on the humble Lumix and I’m sure few, if any in the audience would have been able to tell the difference.

These days, I have an old iPhone SE which goes everywhere with me and although I still have and use the Nikon gear and Lumix, an increasing proportion of the pictures I take are on the phone. The quality might not be as good but videos and panoramas (which used to take forever to stitch in Photoshop) are easy to do.

A £10 Mora that is in your hand in the bush when you need it is a better knife than the £1000 Damascus bladed artisan made gem in the drawer at home. :)
 

MrEd

Life Member
Feb 18, 2010
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Beat me to it! :)

I have pro grade Nikon cameras and lenses which make me cringe at how much I paid for them (even secondhand) which even with my average skills have taken some pictures I have been very happy with but are heavy and bulky.

I also have a Lumix LX3 which is a decent quality but old and very worn digital compact camera which has been my constant companion for over a decade.

Some years ago I did a presentation at the Royal Geographical Society in London and of the pictures that were projected onto the big screen at the RGS, at least a third were taken on the humble Lumix and I’m sure few, if any in the audience would have been able to tell the difference.

These days, I have an old iPhone SE which goes everywhere with me and although I still have and use the Nikon gear and Lumix, an increasing proportion of the pictures I take are on the phone. The quality might not be as good but videos and panoramas (which used to take forever to stitch in Photoshop) are easy to do.

A £10 Mora that is in your hand in the bush when you need it is a better knife than the £1000 Damascus bladed artisan made gem in the drawer at home. :)

Yeah exacrly, I have Nikon gear to, D7200 so more pro-sumer type gear, but I have some nice glass. I use it about 15% of the time

I have a canon G9 bridge thing (shoots raw and has manual control) that use about 35% of the time.

Other 50% of the time I use my phone, particularly for impromptu stuff and reference photos.

When I use the Nikon it’s usually for a specific purpose, the canon is my ‘walk about snapping’ camera and the phone is the camera I carry all the time :)
 

Tony

White bear (Admin)
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Apr 16, 2003
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Yeah, having it with you is key and I get many of my photo's just because I have my phone with me, I realise that most of the images I take are ok on the phone. The Sony RX100 3 is an amazing camera and I carry it a fair bit but the ease of use that goes with the phone makes a huge difference, I imagine the touch screen on the RX100 lV is lovely but it's a £1200 camera. maybe that's it, the touchscreen make a huge difference, Shelly's canon has a touch screen, it's much easier to use.
There's still the hassle of processing them compared to a phone, although that's getting easier...
for Vid's the gimbal I got a few years ago makes a huge difference and make the phone a good video camera...
 

Turnstone

Full Member
Apr 9, 2013
311
20
Germany
I have a Panasonic G80 with some really nice lenses. I have a Sony RX100III which is a lovely travel camera. And I have my iPhone7. Since I got the iPhone (earlier phone had a really bad camera) I almost never use the Sony. If photography is my main goal I bring the Panasonic (and even then I reach for the phone for quick panoramas or when I'm too lazy to switch lenses), for everything else I use the phone. I have a macro lens for it, a little tripod, and learned how to use my binoculars with it. I love how easy it is to make panoramic pictures and time-lapses, and the stabilization for videos is amazing. Great for outdoors is that it's waterproof.
 

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