Mind your life memories: Why owning a real camera matters

[DelJo63]

I think it's all about choice and satisfaction with the results, not about trends and keeping up with the crowd. If the user is happy with the ubiquitous cell phone as their camera of choice, that's wonderful. They certainly are more readily available for those spontaneous snaps.

Let me know when you go to a wedding and the professional takes all the formal pics with his :grin:

 

[Squid Surprise]

https://fstoppers.com/wedding/entire-wedding-shot-iphone-and-processed-using-instagram-5286

Yes, she used an SLR addon and a tripod... but this is with the iphone 4s!!!

http://connect.dpreview.com/post/2355497650/photographer-50-weddings-one-day

"At recent photo shoot of Civil War reinactors, Kuster primarily used his DSLR but also took some shots with his iPhone just for kicks. At a photo conference, he showed an audience the DSLR/iPhone photos side by side and they overwhelmingly preferred the iPhone images."

The future is now people...

 

[DelJo63]

Well shut my mouth. I bow to your marketing prowess.

 

[Shawn Knight]

The link to the wedding shot using an iPhone 4s and processed using Instagram looks exactly like it was shot with an iPhone 4s and processed using Instagram. The couple preferred this look and it's what they got, good on them. Lots of people like the "hip" Instagram filter look; I'm just not one of them.

 

[Squid Surprise]

Just one of thousands of links... the second one is a little more telling anyways...

 

[Arris]

The link to the wedding shot using an iPhone 4s and processed using Instagram looks exactly like it was shot with an iPhone 4s and processed using Instagram. The couple preferred this look and it's what they got, good on them. Lots of people like the "hip" Instagram filter look; I'm just not one of them.

Totally true. Let's throw in the usual idioms I hear and read around photography forums:
"The best camera is the one you have with you."
"A photographer can take a great picture with any camera."

The wedding photos are well composed, good use of light and she has obviously good communication and people skills to get the results, but they look flat, lacking in detail. As Shawn says they look like iphone pictures edited with Instagram.

There is no doubt that you can get great pictures with a phone camera:

2015 Mobile phone photography award winners - http://worldphoto.org/shortlist/2015-mobile-phone-award-winners/

2014 iPhone photography award winners - http://www.dpreview.com/articles/0027835995/2014-iphone-photography-awards-winners-announced

But there is also no doubt in my mind that the same pictures taken with a DSLR/Compact Camera system/Mirrorless would be even better, allow larger prints without losing quality doing software upscaling, have wider colour gamut captured using AdobeRGB or ProPhotoRGB rather than SRGB and many other areas that proper cameras still outclass phone cameras in. In the end the optics play a large role and they are something that can't be compressed down and the tiny fixed aperture lenses that exist on phones cannot compare. The laws of physics dictate the size of the optics required for that particular size of sensor/capture media.

 

[Tanstar]

I started to really get into photography a few years back, then realized I was so focused on getting a "great shot" that I was missing the event itself. I'll used my LG G4 for 90% of my picture taking and enjoy my outstanding memories more than the photos anyway.