What I'm Focussed On - Smart Phonography vs Big Camera Photography

[Pea-n-Me]

Big Camera



Smart Phone (iPhone12 ProMax)



I love both of these. (They are two different little friends taken about ten years apart.) Perhaps the big camera’s image is a little softer. And the lighting is different. But detail from the smartphone (fur, paws, even nails) is excellent on the smartphone image, I’d say.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Big camera



Smartphone (iPhone 8Plus)

 

[PrincessInOz]

Smartphone (iPhone 8Plus)

Awesome shot from an older phone!

Just goes to show. It's all about using the camera you have.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Inside a restaurant


Smart Phone






Big Camera









By this stage, I'd been shooting the smart phone and the big camera side by side for 3 - 4 days. I think it was at this point that I was close to ditching the big camera and just shooting with the smart phone for the rest of the trip.
The weight was a drag and it was just so much more convenient and easier to use the smart phone.
Especially if all I were going to do is share images on socials.


I do realise that I could process the big camera image more; but this gives a better comparison of how the smart phone image compared to an almost straight out of the big camera image stacks up.

For me, in low light conditions, the smart camera won hands down IF all I was doing was taking a shot.


But.........

 

[PrincessInOz]

.......IF I were looking to do long exposure in low light, with a tripod. To date, I would pick the big camera and tripod up over a smart phone.

I didn't even attempt to take this shot with the smart phone.







However, I do plan to try out the long exposure capability of a smart phone this year.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Food Porn


iPhone 12 Pro





Canon 7DMII, basic edits in Lightroom





Canon 7DMII, basic edits in Lightroom plus one click for automatic colour adjustment






This one is pure personal preference.

 

[klmall]

I really like the third image but you're totally right about personal preference! I like the overall white plate color and how it doesn't compete with the food colors.

 

[klmall]

It snowed last night and surprised us all; 3 inches but it's quickly melting away!

Here's the big camera version:

and the Google Pixel 7 version:

I zoomed in too much with my smartphone but applied a bit of basic editing to both (straightening and details).

 

[PrincessInOz]

Castle Combe

iPhone 12 Pro







Canon 7DMII






I think by now, you will have realised that for daytime situation, it is pretty hard to pick the difference.

It comes down to using the camera you have with you.

 

[klmall]

Castle Combe

iPhone 12 Pro


View attachment 751628




Canon 7DMII

View attachment 751630




I think by now, you will have realised that for daytime situation, it is pretty hard to pick the difference.

It comes down to using the camera you have with you.

They are very similar but there seems to be more details/definition and light in the smartphone pic. Was the Canon picture shot in raw and edited at all?

 

[PrincessInOz]

They are very similar but there seems to be more details/definition and light in the smartphone pic. Was the Canon picture shot in raw and edited at all?

Raw, and basic edits.
I try very hard not to post process too much.

 

[klmall]

Raw, and basic edits.
I try very hard not to post process too much.

Thanks for the info! Either the cloud cover changed or the iPhone just looks brighter to me.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

What are some of the things that cellphone cameras are good at and what are things that they are bad at?

The best feature is that you usually always have your cellphone camera with you. A picture taken with even the worst cellphone is going to be much better than a picture you didn't get at all with a $10,000 camera that wasn't with you.

Cell phones are smaller and easier to carry. They usually capture the photo location and most other cameras don't. They make it easier to share your images.

With their tiny lenses, they are good for macro shots. A cellphone camera will generally focus closer and have more depth of field than a picture take with a bigger camera.

A lot of cellphone cameras can be set up to take pictures by voice command, which makes taking selfies easier.

Cellphones are getting better at smart image processing. That allows them to take surprisingly good night pictures, especially when their is very little motion. This is because they record a whole bunch of images at an absurdly high ISO, compare the images to figure out what is real and what is noise, and give you a resulting image that looks good and doesn't have much noise. They are also able to simulate shallow depth of field for portrait shots. They aren't very good at it yet, but they will get better. And let's not forget those filters that promise to make us all look like supermodels.

Larger SLR or mirrorless cameras still have advantages. Even when they have significantly lower resolution in terms of pixels, the larger lenses are able to resolve detail better. A 26 megapixel R6 takes much, much more detail pictures than my 100 megapixel phone camera. They have greater dynamic range (the range from the darkest details to the lightest details). They give you much more control over depth of field. They have better autofocus systems. The have more lens options. It's easier to use polarizer and neutral density filters with them. They work much better with flash systems.

In general, I think you won't see a significant difference for typical pictures - relatively static subjects, relatively wide field of view, plenty of light, no need to resolve minute details. Where the traditional cameras still shine is when you want non-typical stuff. Things like silky looking waterfalls, telephoto action shots, or portraits with blurry backgrounds. But even when I'm walking around with a big camera and several lenses, there are times when I whip out my cellphone. Sometimes it's because I want to send a picture to friends in real time. Sometimes it's a quick macro shot. Neither type of camera is universally better than the other. Both have their places. And the cases where a cellphone camera is the right choice seem to increase every year.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

However, I do plan to try out the long exposure capability of a smart phone this year.

I started to look into this and it looks like there are Apps for this purpose. Something to fool around with.

I really should upgrade my phone soon. Been holding out.

 

[PrincessInOz]

I started to look into this and it looks like there are Apps for this purpose. Something to fool around with.

I really should upgrade my phone soon. Been holding out.

Hubby had an old app on his phone. I just asked him if I could see his shots. Will report if/when this happens.

 

[klmall]

On another side of all this I tried using the .dng function on my Google Pixel 7 as soon as I bought it. I was hoping to have a file with more original data to process but it proved relatively useless. The .dng files looked different in color etc. from the .jpeg files before editing of course but didn't have any more details or editing capability than the same .jpeg file; probably less.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Here's a night time comparison.

The same subject; but taken on different nights.


iPhone 12 Pro








Canon 7DMII, on tripod, long exposure. Using f/16 for the starburst effect. For now, this is something the smart phones cannot do.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

I just saw an article (Gen Z Discovers Modern Digital Cameras are Better Than iPhones) on this topic, but it is very disingenuous. It ostensibly compares pictures from a phone and a digital camera (Canon Powershot G7 X Mark III).

The most obvious difference between the two is the lighting, not really the camera. I can only guess at how she was lit in the different pictures. It's possible that they used a reflector for the "camera" shots. I can't entirely rule out that it was just using the on-camera flash, but I think that's unlikely. My best guess is that they used an off-camera flash shooting through a gel and an umbrella triggered by the on-camera flash. Can you do that with an iPhone set in manual mode? Maybe. I'll try to do an experiment later with my Samsung phone.

Anyway, I thought it was interesting given the topic of this thread and the really dishonest comparison between the two.

 

[klmall]

I just saw an article (Gen Z Discovers Modern Digital Cameras are Better Than iPhones) on this topic, but it is very disingenuous. It ostensibly compares pictures from a phone and a digital camera (Canon Powershot G7 X Mark III).

The most obvious difference between the two is the lighting, not really the camera. I can only guess at how she was lit in the different pictures. It's possible that they used a reflector for the "camera" shots. I can't entirely rule out that it was just using the on-camera flash, but I think that's unlikely. My best guess is that they used an off-camera flash shooting through a gel and an umbrella triggered by the on-camera flash. Can you do that with an iPhone set in manual mode? Maybe. I'll try to do an experiment later with my Samsung phone.

Anyway, I thought it was interesting given the topic of this thread and the really dishonest comparison between the two.

I saw a similar article and wasn't impressed either. But it's great to hear that people are trying other ways to take photos rather than blindly following the iPhone pack (no offense to iPhone fans including most of my friends and family!).

 

[boBQuincy]

I rarely use my phone and camera for the same photo but on this day Suzie and I were taking the same photos, her with a Samsung S23 and me with an OM System OM-1 (Lumix 14-140 and polarizer). The first and third photos are from the phone.
All taken at the Vero Beach Museum of Art.







Of interest, the Delahaye is gray. That and the Talbot are both more true to color in the camera photos. The phone photo is too warm, maybe the white balance was compensating for the cold rainy gray day through the window. Zooming in, the camera photos show more detail but the phone does much better on texting and calling. Overall, I will still carry a camera.