I just got back from seeing my 5th/6th wonder of the world*, Chichen Itza. We took some great pictures with my camera, my SO’s camera, and cameras of our friends. I had a Canon Powershot that I mostly loved. It fit a bulkily into my pocket, ran on AA batteries so I always had a backup, and took good pictures. It was my 2nd Canon Powershot after the first one had an internal break and couldn’t read the SD card anymore. My second one is either bumping around the floor of a National rental car or was left on the table of a restaurant in Valladolid.
The thing is my iPhone 4s takes pretty good pictures too. I also had it on me the whole time (used for GPS) and I’m used to lugging around. It’s easier to load up pictures to Facebook or send 'em to my mom, etc. The one small drawback is that it’s not the best for night pictures and zooming etc.
I’m on the fence about getting another camera now. We do travel a couple times a year and I love having a good selection of pictures, but is it worth getting a camera when a phone is a slightly worse substitute?
*the New7Wonders of the World has 8 buildings in it and since I’ve seen the Pyramids of Giza, it’s sort of the 6th, but not really. That whole list is kinda stupid…but that doesn’t stop me from wanting to see the other two.
I think everyone’s experience and needs will vary, but I’m quickly leaning toward ‘no camera’.
A few years ago I bought a Nikon D90 DSLR. I love it. It takes amazing photos and decent video. However, I am not a photographer, and lugging that thing around on vacations has become a real pain in the butt.
For my purposes, the camera on my Galaxy Note II is perfect. It takes great photos, decent video, and has quite a few features of my DSLR, in addition to various filters that my DSLR doesn’t. Also, like you said, with my phone, it is a snap to share my photos and videos, and when I’m done, I just put it in my pocket.
I believe I have bought my last standalone camera.
The lenses and sensors in most smartphones are not nearly equivalent quality to a decent compact camera. A smartphone replaces a cheap compact digital camera, but it’s not a replacement for anything above that.
ETA: Unless quality doesn’t matter (in some contexts, this is easily true).
I also have a (midrange) Canon Powershot, but I don’t have another device with a camera. But I wouldn’t think about getting any standalone camera less powerful than a Powershot: if I were satisfied with less control and/or resolution, I’d just get another device with a built-in camera.
Of course there will come a day when built-in cameras are equal to the mid-range Powershot, but I don’t think it’s there yet. When it is, then my camera-buying days will be over, because I don’t want to upgrade to an SLR due to the extra weight.
And some rather fundamental consequences of basic physics say it will be hard to get the kind of photo quality people admire without a lens that’s too big to fit into a package people are willing to carry as a phone.
That’s the same camera I have, with an 18-200 zoom lens. I’m what’s called a “serious amateur” photographer, and I haven’t seen anything that even comes close, from an iPhone or the like.
I use my iPhone camera for most casual photography, but if I’m going to an event where I know I will want to take pictures and it will be indoors or at night, I bring the “real camera.” (A Canon PowerShot, for me.) The iPhone 5’s camera is okay at night, but not great, and I can’t manually adjust the settings like I can on the Canon. For low-light situations, I still really do need the real camera.
That said, I know more and more people who are moving to just using their phone camera, and I suspect that low-end point-and-shoot digital cameras are going to die out sooner rather than later. I don’t see DSLRs going away any time soon, though.
If DSLRs go away, it will be in favor of mirrorless designs with an electronic rather than an optical viewfinder. That may make the camera more compact - but it will still have a big sensor, and cost serious money. Some people are always going to need the image quality that only big sensors can provide, and those folks are going to want interchangeable lenses as well. Camera phones are handy, but they have significant limitations.
This is exactly the trade off that photographers struggle with. Do I want to lug around a ton of gear so that I can get those fantastic shots, or would I prefer to have crummier pictures but ease of movement?
I’m actually buying a newer (heavier) camera on purpose.
You’re correct and, as I said, I love my D90. Photos taken with it are absolutely gorgeous.
For me, however, it’s a matter of convenience, which I am somewhat willing to sacrifice quality for. I love being able to post or send my photos to friends, associates, and family within a minute of taking them no matter where I happen to be at the moment. I like not having to take my bulky kit with me whenever I want to take photos.
The photos from my Galaxy Note II may not be professional quality, but they’re nice and crisp, with very good resolution. I actually find the quality comparable to my old Canon PowerShot Elph, and that’s good enough for me.
The Galaxy Note II also gives me the ability to control white balance, ISO, metering, contrast, and a number of other settings.
I have a Galaxy Note II, also. Love it. The advantage is, I carry it 24/7 and is always ready whenever a picture taking situation arises. The camera you have is always better than the camera you don’t.
That being said, you can have my Nikon D5000 when you can pry it from my cold, dead hands.
And I’m going the opposite route, having just purchased an Olympus OMD-EM5. I’ve learned the hard way that I’m just not willing to lug around a ton of heavy gear when I’m on vacation. But I also know an iPhone won’t cut it for me in terms of the shooting I want to do. The new mirrorless designs seem an acceptable compromise to me.
(I may have made a different decision if Olympus hadn’t decided to abandon their regular 4/3s system. My e620 is nice and small for a DSLR - but the sensor in the OMD-EM5 is much better, so I’m going to sell my 4/3s stuff while I can still get some money for it and transition over to m4/3s. I figure if I regret my decision, I can always go buy a Nikon DSLR and keep my local camera store happy.)
For me it’s not just having a camera on a phone, but having a video camera on a phone, for those 30-second clips of that really cool waterfall we stumbled upon on a hike. We had started back down the trail, wishing we could film it, and then I remembered the phone has video capabilities. And no, we hadn’t taken a regular camera along; the smart phone was handling it all that trip.
A 5, 6, 8 MP camera is incapable of anything but soft snapshots when the lens is the size of a pencil eraser. Since they’re never going to get larger lenses in a device meant to be uber-pocketable, camera phones are at a limit they will never surpass, no matter how much more ridiculously large the pixel numbers get.
Which is probably good enough for what 90% of people use a camera for 90% of the time - snapshots - and brings the camera-as-utility-device into common use.
But they are nowhere near replacing anything from a good pocket camera up - and let’s not even waste time considering them vs. decent low-end consumer SLRs and all that lie beyond.
I don’t know that I’d want to come home from a costly vacation with camera-phone snaps. A good pocket cam seems like a worthwhile investment/burden, even if you only end up with ten shots that really need its quality.You might come home with 500 snapshots that don’t matter… and ten shots you want to preserve, enhance and blow up to wall size without blur or artifacting. You can get both with a Nikon pocket camera; you can only get the former with an iPhone.
Every concert I go to these days, there are people holding up their shitty little phones. They take forever to focus, have mediocre flashes and terrible audio when shooting video. I feel like saying to them, “You know, there are these things called cameras…”
Just because you can shoot something with your phone doesn’t mean you should shoot something with your phone.
The absolute worst is the asshole shooting the show with his iPad! Yes! A 10" glowing rectangle is just what everyone else wants in their field of view, you entitled little shitbag!
I wouldn’t, either. But I’d rather have iPhone snaps than no vacation pictures at all, so for my upcoming trip my phone’s going to be a backup camera (the other two cameras being the Olympus OMD EM-5 and an Olympus XZ-1). I’d have to be in desperate straits before I’d shoot much with my phone, but I am glad camera phones have advanced to the point where the pictures they produce aren’t completely embarrassing.
Let’s not forget another essential camera (for certain definitions of essential). Our Olympus TG-1 has a much better lens than a cell phone, not nearly as good as our Sony DSLR, but can fit in my pocket of my bathing suit like neither of those can–it fits in it whether I’m under water or in the rain. I had no idea how convenient it is to travel with it.
