Smart phones vs DSLRs vs film

[jdemott]

Back in the early days of digital photography, there were many passionate arguments online (and offline) comparing digital to film. More recently, the discussion often seems to focus on comparisons of smart phone cameras to "real" cameras.

Here's a link to an interesting comparison (by the respected website Digital Photography Review) of the best of the current smart phone cameras to top quality DSLRs from today and from a number of years ago, with a comparison to high quality 35mm film as well.

http://connect.dpreview.com/post/553341 ... ersus-film

Not surprisingly, you can't draw any definitive conclusions about what camera is best, since it depends on what you want. But it is an interesting look at how far digital photography has come and how quickly smart phone cameras have come to be accepted as legitimate photographic tools.

[raven]

Thanks.

Those were massive crops. Makes me wonder how well the Iphone would have rated with a good 3-5x supplementary telephoto lens added.

[BrianEdwards]

I'm hoping Smartphone cameras continue to improve at a good rate. The convenience of having a small all-in-one to slip in the pocket on bushwacks makes life easier.

DSLR's will always be superior though.

[raven]

The Sony QX10 and QX100 point at an interesting future. Poorly integrated for now, but apparently that depends on how the phone is equipped for automated communication.

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[justpeachy]

It's true that smartphone cameras keep getting better and better and it's great to always have a camera handy since I take my phone everywhere. But I will always use my DSLR for landscape photography, if for no other reason than the circular polarizer. Can't put a polarizer on a phone and as far as I know they haven't come up with a way to simulate it digitally in the phone.

I have an Android so I don't know how the iPhone performs in this arena, but I've noticed on my phone that in low light situations the noise in my photos is absolutely TERRIBLE. Worse than any noise I've gotten at the highest ISO setting on my D90.

[jdemott]

DSLR's will always be superior though.

No doubt. But if tomorrow's smartphones are as good as today's DSLRs, I wonder how many folks will want or need the presumably better quality of tomorrow's DSLRs.

Can't put a polarizer on a phone

There are lots of accessories that allow polarizers, telephoto lenses, etc to be attached to an iPhone. I assume the same is true for Android. Maybe try a Google search. (I haven't tried any of these accessories, mainly because carrying around a bunch of attachments defeats the convenience factor for a smartphone. If I have to fuss with filters, etc., then I take a "real" camera.)

I have an Android so I don't know how the iPhone performs in this arena, but I've noticed on my phone that in low light situations the noise in my photos is absolutely TERRIBLE.

On my iPhone 5s, the low light noise is about what you see in the article I linked to...not bad, but lots of loss of detail due to noise reduction. You only get the jpeg file, not raw, but I assume the raw file before noise reduction looks very noisy. D90 is certainly better. But it is really pretty impressive how good it is, for what it is. Shooting in HDR mode, where the phone automatically takes and blends multiple exposures, you get decent dynamic range and tolerable noise in shadows. Good color rendition even in low light.

My first DSLR was a D100. At the time I thought it was wonderful, but by today's standards it is woeful in low light performance (and provides only 6MP of resolution).

[raven]

The Sony remote image devices point at the fact that the camera body and the imaging system have different roles. The main feature of a DSLR is -- what? A through the lens viewfinder? The iphone has one. A familiar form factor? Then the term DSLR is now a marketing gimmick translating as "professional quality camera". I suspect that a zoom lens designed as an image-stabilized monocular augmenting a phone used as an input and image collection device may offer hikers a lot more functionality than current cameras. A good lens, etc. would still be expensive, but that would be a wizard monocular!

[mdvaden]

I don't think a smartphone can accomplish the attached very well (red vehicle in center lane is about 5 blocks away). Seems there's so many limitations. Although they are pretty decent for snapshots of basic stuff. Otherwise it seems like comparing a Prius to an Indy Racecar. I find the photos and composition done on some phones to be very good looking sometimes.

...

[BigBear]

The display panel/screen on either a phone or a camera (instead of the viewing window) is fine for indoors or low light, but it is difficult to aim and steady a camera on a sunny day, especially using a zoom.

The other thing I wonder about is how often you have to charge your smart phone if you use it to text, internet, play games, take photos (with flash?), and who knows, even "call" someone. I'd be a bit concerned about the batteries on a long hike with a lot of picture-taking. True, a camera has similar issues on a photo-rich day, but you aren't asking it to be a lap top and phone as well. For the record, I have a basic model phone that only makes calls, so it's battery lasts really long (especially since no one kneos my number and thus I only use it when I'm not at home or in the office).

[Roy]

I'd be a bit concerned about the batteries on a long hike with a lot of picture-taking. True, a camera has similar issues on a photo-rich day, but you aren't asking it to be a lap top and phone as well. For the record, I have a basic model phone that only makes calls, so it's battery lasts really long (especially since no one kneos my number and thus I only use it when I'm not at home or in the office).

The battery is not big issue on my LG android when hiking . On a eleven mile RT up Mt McLaughlin last July. I just put it in airplane had my ear buds listened to music and took enough pictures for a tr. When I had service on top I sent pictures to three people of me and called my wife who was in Louisiana for work. Listened to music all the way to my truck when I got there and still had 42% battery. I also took a 360 degree HD video while on the summit.

Suffering the web and not putting it in airplane mode when hiking will suck the battery down real fast.