Forgot Password
Pentax Camera Forums Home
 

Closed Thread
Show Printable Version Search this Thread
08-21-2021, 07:37 AM - 1 Like   #91
Pentaxian
normhead's Avatar

Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Near Algonquin Park
Photos: Gallery | Albums
Posts: 40,442
Mobile Photography: 36 Amazing Photos Taken with a Cell Phone

I know, I know, you guys are such connoisseurs none of these are good enough for you.

I feel like I'm the only one who thinks being there with a camera is more important than gear. MY issue would be a phone good enough to compete with my cameras, costs almost as much as one of my cameras, more than some. I don't think I want all those cameras and a quality phone as well. I'd rather buy a lens.

08-21-2021, 08:03 AM   #92
Moderator
Loyal Site Supporter
Wheatfield's Avatar

Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: The wheatfields of Canada
Posts: 15,903
QuoteOriginally posted by Rondec Quote
Personally, I am not satisfied with images from my phone camera (an iphone 8). But obviously many people are and few people print images these days. Most seem to upload to social media and then they are done.

Likes on social media are not based on the content of your image, they are mostly based on who your friends are, so there is little drive to get better images.
People who are satisfied enough with cell phone images to make their cell phone their only camera are probably not spending time in camera forums.

This pretty much makes the entire discussion moot.
We gather around whatever camera brand tribe we have chosen because we want a higher quality image than cell phones can give us.
Cell phones are chipping away at low end ILC sales now because that customer is happy enough with what their phone produces to be satisfied with their cell phone, not because it takes better pictures, or offers better ergonomics, or a nicer user experience.
It's convenient, and it's good enough.
That's all that matters.
08-21-2021, 08:46 AM   #93
Site Supporter
Site Supporter




Join Date: May 2019
Photos: Albums
Posts: 5,976
QuoteOriginally posted by normhead Quote
Mobile Photography: 36 Amazing Photos Taken with a Cell Phone

I know, I know, you guys are such connoisseurs none of these are good enough for you.

I feel like I'm the only one who thinks being there with a camera is more important than gear. MY issue would be a phone good enough to compete with my cameras, costs almost as much as one of my cameras, more than some. I don't think I want all those cameras and a quality phone as well. I'd rather buy a lens.
That's exactly my reasoning for having a cheap phone for ~200€. It's gonna last about as much (maybe a bit less, but... frankly, not much less) as any other expensive phone, and the main difference for my use would be the camera module.

I have a camera for the "taking photos" thing. I'd have to throw 300 or 400€ more at a phone to have a decent camera in my pocket for, say, 3 years. At that point, I'd much rather buy a GR.

RE: the photos in question - a good bunch of them are photos I'd like to have taken myself. Some might not be printable at large sizes because of technical limitations, but most are perfectly viewable at a decent size.
08-21-2021, 01:11 PM   #94
Pentaxian




Join Date: Oct 2010
Photos: Gallery | Albums
Posts: 6,241
QuoteOriginally posted by normhead Quote
Mobile Photography: 36 Amazing Photos Taken with a Cell Phone

I know, I know, you guys are such connoisseurs none of these are good enough for you.

I feel like I'm the only one who thinks being there with a camera is more important than gear. MY issue would be a phone good enough to compete with my cameras, costs almost as much as one of my cameras, more than some. I don't think I want all those cameras and a quality phone as well. I'd rather buy a lens.
QuoteOriginally posted by Serkevan Quote
That's exactly my reasoning for having a cheap phone for ~200€. It's gonna last about as much (maybe a bit less, but... frankly, not much less) as any other expensive phone, and the main difference for my use would be the camera module.

I have a camera for the "taking photos" thing. I'd have to throw 300 or 400€ more at a phone to have a decent camera in my pocket for, say, 3 years. At that point, I'd much rather buy a GR.

RE: the photos in question - a good bunch of them are photos I'd like to have taken myself. Some might not be printable at large sizes because of technical limitations, but most are perfectly viewable at a decent size.
I did have a look, and while these photos look nice, the thing is that they have to my eye ugly grainy texture. What is great, is light and subject in all of them.

What is also tue is that it is important to have camera with you for the right moment.

I have iPhone 7. Not the greatest, but okayish. It does fare quite well for capturing everyday stuff, but I have also been several times in the situation where I want that -extra- bit of quality and this is why I always carry my camera bag with me

08-21-2021, 01:30 PM - 1 Like   #95
Senior Member




Join Date: Jan 2021
Location: Scotland
Posts: 291
QuoteOriginally posted by normhead Quote
Mobile Photography: 36 Amazing Photos Taken with a Cell Phone

I know, I know, you guys are such connoisseurs none of these are good enough for you.

I feel like I'm the only one who thinks being there with a camera is more important than gear. MY issue would be a phone good enough to compete with my cameras, costs almost as much as one of my cameras, more than some. I don't think I want all those cameras and a quality phone as well. I'd rather buy a lens.
Put it bluntly there is not one of them I would be proud to call mine and you can see varying degrees of technical deficiency. They're just snaps, and pretty shitty ones to be honest.
08-21-2021, 04:55 PM   #96
Pentaxian
reh321's Avatar

Join Date: Nov 2014
Location: South Bend, IN, USA
Photos: Gallery | Albums
Posts: 23,128
QuoteOriginally posted by repaap Quote
I did have a look, and while these photos look nice, the thing is that they have to my eye ugly grainy texture. What is great, is light and subject in all of them.

What is also tue is that it is important to have camera with you for the right moment.

I have iPhone 7. Not the greatest, but okayish. It does fare quite well for capturing everyday stuff, but I have also been several times in the situation where I want that -extra- bit of quality and this is why I always carry my camera bag with me
I have a iPhone 8. I have been without my camera bag on several occasions and it has been more than adequate to capture the moment.
08-21-2021, 06:12 PM - 1 Like   #97
Pentaxian
normhead's Avatar

Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Near Algonquin Park
Photos: Gallery | Albums
Posts: 40,442
QuoteOriginally posted by SFTphotography Quote
Put it bluntly there is not one of them I would be proud to call mine and you can see varying degrees of technical deficiency. They're just snaps, and pretty shitty ones to be honest.
Now you have to post a few of your images so we can see what you think is good.

08-21-2021, 07:49 PM   #98
Pentaxian
builttospill's Avatar

Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Utah, Idaho
Photos: Gallery
Posts: 2,396
I don't take photos with a phone, ever. I buy a phone to make phone calls. I buy a camera to take photos.

I know I'm not the typical user though. My wife buys a phone to text and take photos. I don't text with my phone. We both have Samsung S20s and it suits her fine for taking photos of the kids.
08-21-2021, 11:21 PM   #99
Pentaxian




Join Date: Feb 2015
Photos: Gallery
Posts: 12,177
Original Poster
QuoteOriginally posted by normhead Quote
Mobile Photography: 36 Amazing Photos Taken with a Cell PhoneI know, I know, you guys are such connoisseurs none of these are good enough for you.
I admin the image massaging is pretty good in smartphones. I took some pictures with K1 tethered via wifi/ImageSync, downloaded the files and processed them with my phone editing apps (there is a bunch of built in filters producing various effects), and the results don't look amazing, they look surreal, or as if my images came out from botox injection and amphetamine pills. I admit I was not able to produce the same strong effects processing raw files on my PC, or it would have required tons of layers and masks to reproduce what the phone is doing to images automatically.

ILC cameras do rather limited image processing, and offer robust image file in raw format, leaving image processing task to users who want to do it. The analogy with food would be, you buy ingredients and cook your own recipes.
The philosophy of phone imaging is like the polaroid, you press one button and you get an image, right out of the box, ready to share on social media.The analogy with food would be, you drive thru McDrive, pick up a burger and eat it.

Last edited by biz-engineer; 08-21-2021 at 11:36 PM.
08-22-2021, 12:17 AM - 2 Likes   #100
Site Supporter
Site Supporter




Join Date: May 2019
Photos: Albums
Posts: 5,976
QuoteOriginally posted by normhead Quote
Now you have to post a few of your images so we can see what you think is good.
There are three one page back, post #86.
08-22-2021, 02:52 AM - 1 Like   #101
Loyal Site Supporter
Loyal Site Supporter




Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Gladys, Virginia
Photos: Gallery
Posts: 27,606
QuoteOriginally posted by normhead Quote
Mobile Photography: 36 Amazing Photos Taken with a Cell Phone

I know, I know, you guys are such connoisseurs none of these are good enough for you.

I feel like I'm the only one who thinks being there with a camera is more important than gear. MY issue would be a phone good enough to compete with my cameras, costs almost as much as one of my cameras, more than some. I don't think I want all those cameras and a quality phone as well. I'd rather buy a lens.
I don't really like most of those images. I am not sure I would like them any more if they were shot with an ILC either. Maybe a couple of them.

I don't think this is a gear issue. I certainly am not out buying new camera gear every chance I get. At the same time, when I shoot photos with my phone, I know how much better it would have looked if I had shot the same image on a tripod with a K-3 or K-1. And there are plenty of times where it is handy to have a wider lens than what your iphone has, or a longer lens, or one that has a faster equivalent aperture. Fokeh still looks kind of fake to me and I don't really like HDR any more, which is the cell phones answer to high dynamic range situations.

I don't think I'm a snob, but I mainly shoot with my cell phone for snap shots in situations where I didn't/couldn't bring my SLR along and I'm never super happy with them.
08-22-2021, 04:43 AM - 1 Like   #102
Senior Member




Join Date: Jan 2021
Location: Scotland
Posts: 291
QuoteOriginally posted by normhead Quote
Now you have to post a few of your images so we can see what you think is good.
With pleasure - below 645z












Full frame Nikon















08-22-2021, 05:33 AM - 5 Likes   #103
Site Supporter
Site Supporter




Join Date: Dec 2012
Photos: Gallery | Albums
Posts: 2,787
QuoteOriginally posted by SFTphotography Quote
Put it bluntly there is not one of them I would be proud to call mine and you can see varying degrees of technical deficiency. They're just snaps, and pretty shitty ones to be honest.
To put it bluntly you're trolling us, you decided before looking at them that you didn't like any phone pictures. If those exact same pictures had been posted in the Show us Your K-1 or K-3 Photos threads you'd have loved most of them.

---------- Post added 08-22-21 at 08:48 AM ----------

QuoteOriginally posted by Rondec Quote
I don't really like most of those images. I am not sure I would like them any more if they were shot with an ILC either. Maybe a couple of them.

I don't think this is a gear issue. I certainly am not out buying new camera gear every chance I get. At the same time, when I shoot photos with my phone, I know how much better it would have looked if I had shot the same image on a tripod with a K-3 or K-1. And there are plenty of times where it is handy to have a wider lens than what your iphone has, or a longer lens, or one that has a faster equivalent aperture. Fokeh still looks kind of fake to me and I don't really like HDR any more, which is the cell phones answer to high dynamic range situations.

I don't think I'm a snob, but I mainly shoot with my cell phone for snap shots in situations where I didn't/couldn't bring my SLR along and I'm never super happy with them.
It's a silly argument to ask if a cell phone can stand up to a large print or pixel peeping compared to a good ILC image, especially one that plays to the ILC's strengths like birds or sports. Of course you can pull more out of an ILC's RAW files than a phone's in most cases. Someone who's good at post processing can get much more out of their files, and the ILC images will certainly look better at close inspection.

But I'll also say that in 2019 I took a family trip to Austria and Germany. My wife, my sister-in-law and brother-in-law only took pictures with their phones. I took the K-3 II and variety of lenses. We also took my K-30 and a kit lens and my then 11-year-old used that some of the time. When we came back I made a large photo book, with some images 14" on a side. I know, or I think I remember, which photos were taken with which. But no one else would. When I show the book to others who weren't on the trip not a single person made any comments about resolution, or dynamic range or anything else besides the subject of the photo. Sure, people oohed and ahhh'd over some shots of Neuschwanstein or the Austrian Alps taken with the K-3 II and a LTD lens, but they had no idea what camera or lens those were taken with. I picked and chose sizes to minimize the impact of resolution or other aspects of some of the cell phone shots, but they were seamlessly integrated into the story.

Also, I once posted a thread here asking people to identify two nearly identical photos of a car at the top of the Grossglockner High Alpine Road. One taken by me with a K-3 II and a 21mm LTD, one by my 11-year-old with the K-30 and kit lens. Nobody could really tell, the answers to the poll were indistinguishable from guessing.


And that's really the point. The cell phone (or the lesser ILC) allows you to tell a better story than just using your best camera. Even me, during the trip, took any number of photos with my cell phone because of a variety of reasons. I wasn't allowed to take the K-3 II to the soccer match. I didn't want to bring a whole camera kit walking to dinner, but there were many opportunities for pictures. The idea that all the cell phone pictures were all technically inferior to all the K-3 II shots, that's totally irrelevant. Except for people arguing on photos forums nobody cares, at all. What they care about is the story, the subject, the memories. Especially when the photos are good enough that no non-photographer even thinks twice about the tools used to capture the image.

Last edited by ThorSanchez; 08-22-2021 at 05:52 AM.
08-22-2021, 06:21 AM   #104
Pentaxian
normhead's Avatar

Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Near Algonquin Park
Photos: Gallery | Albums
Posts: 40,442
So this image isn't as good as yours?


Why not?
I understand the value for people selling their images or printing large of the larger files but, some of my best sales were from 12 MP point and shoots. I can push the value of my K-1 but also understand the value of my smaller cameras. I'm not seeing what you see. And the vast majority of shooters, neither sell their images nor do they print large enough to need 36 MP or more.

This seems to me to be more the argument of a pro emphasizing the value of larger formats (that he happens to employ) as a selling point, than a criticism valid for every day photographers.

Last edited by normhead; 08-22-2021 at 06:30 AM.
08-22-2021, 07:19 AM - 5 Likes   #105
Veteran Member
johnmflores's Avatar

Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Somerville, NJ
Photos: Gallery | Albums
Posts: 5,361
Are we still having the camera vs. phone debate? For 99% of the people 99% of the time, the phones have won.
Closed Thread

Bookmarks
  • Submit Thread to Facebook Facebook
  • Submit Thread to Twitter Twitter
  • Submit Thread to Digg Digg
Tags - Make this thread easier to find by adding keywords to it!
camera, cameras, development, dslr, ff, files, gr, image, k-1, k1, magnification, milc, milcs, ovf, pentax news, pentax rumors, performance, plastic, price increase, prism, revenue, sales, size, time, unit, units, upgrade, vs
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Canon R3 under development surfar Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Other Camera Brands 24 04-19-2021 08:29 AM
Canon R5 under development plus 9 news RF lenses in 2020 surfar Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Other Camera Brands 349 04-09-2021 04:22 AM
New K-series DSLR under development to be exhibited Class A Pentax News and Rumors 3487 11-13-2019 02:52 PM
FF Under Development leonsroar Pentax Full Frame 1291 10-23-2015 03:04 PM
Pentax at P&E2013: FF under development, APS-C compact camera and more Mistral75 Pentax News and Rumors 82 04-30-2013 06:30 AM



All times are GMT -7. The time now is 02:52 AM. | See also: NikonForums.com, CanonForums.com part of our network of photo forums!
  • Red (Default)
  • Green
  • Gray
  • Dark
  • Dark Yellow
  • Dark Blue
  • Old Red
  • Old Green
  • Old Gray
  • Dial-Up Style
Hello! It's great to see you back on the forum! Have you considered joining the community?
register
Creating a FREE ACCOUNT takes under a minute, removes ads, and lets you post! [Dismiss]
Top