Originally posted by Fenwoodian I doubt any of you clicked on the above link. If you had, I expect you might have mentioned this eye opening article in your comments - but no one even mentioned this article. Have any of you ever seen a large print from one of the latest cell phones?
Obviously, most members here already have their minds made up regarding cells phones, and are not open to rethinking their position as cell phone cameras continue to evolve. I too thought the same, until I went on a photo safari with one of the latest models.
I have seen many camera for sale ads here and on Ebay where the elderly photographer was selling their big cameras because age or infirmity made it too large/heavy to carry. I would think all photographers would be excited about the incredible developments we continue to see in smart phone cameras. Everyone is aging all of the time, who knows when you or I might not be able to carry a big camera. It's nice to know when I'm disabled I can still shoot good images with a smart phone that's only a few ounces in weight. If you live long enough, I suspect many of you will eventually embrace smart phone cameras as a way to continue to practice your hobby long after you're no longer able to carry/handle your big camera.
If I gave the impression that I'd made up my mind against cell phones, my apologies, Dave... That's not the case at all. My mind is rarely fully made up about anything, and my views are never set in stone. I'm always open to new ideas, and change my views as my experience grows and technology moves forward. I'm willing to embrace any tool if it helps me to do what I want better and/or more easily, without giving up things that are important to me. I'm not a camera snob... phone, compact, bridge, DSLR, mirrorless, fixed or interchangeable lens, leading edge or vintage, any brand... It's all good to me, if it works how I want and need it to.
That article demonstrates quite well how the latest and greatest phone cameras might be used to good effect in reasonably-well-lit nature landscape photography. This is a use case that's well-suited to the phone's sensor size and wide angle lens combination. And if that use case covers a large part of what a particular photographer wants to do with his or her equipment, fantastic. Personally, though, I wouldn't call that general photography, and when the use case is outside the ideal conditions for the sensor / lens combo, the limitations are considerable.
As for smart-phones being light in weight, absolutely - and this is a big deal. There are other options, too, though... The little Panasonic DMC-FZ62 bridge camera I mentioned in an earlier response weighs just 550g including fitted battery, memory card, strap, lens hood and lens cap. Its lens and sensor combination offers the equivalent of 25 - 600mm on 35mm, it generally feels like a DSLR / mirrorless camera in use, and I can get a busy weekend of shooting from one fully charged battery, with juice to spare. I suffer from the early stages of rheumatoid arthritis, and it's a good day indeed when I can lug my full frame camera and a couple of decent-sized lenses around for more than an hour or so without getting tired. But, even if I'm suffering a "flare up", I can shoot the Panasonic all day if necessary, barely noticing it's hanging from my neck. Of course, under close scrutiny, the image quality doesn't come close to matching that of my full frame and APS-C DSLRs, but at reasonable reproduction sizes and realistic viewing distances, it's fine. Actually, pretty darned good for many purposes. The latest version of that camera, the DMC-FZ82, costs just GBP £275 here in the UK... a fraction of the price of the best photography-optimised phones. Like those phones, it's far from perfect and is better for certain use cases than others - but it's quite versatile and provides a lot of bang for the buck.
My pursuits might be considered the very definition of general photography. I don't specialise in one area (which might explain why I'm not especially skilled in any of them
). I shoot some landscape, flowers, historical and modern architecture, vehicles, birds and animals, portraiture, street, products, abstract, macro etc. A bit of most things, really. I shoot outdoors and indoors, in well-lit and low light situations. I mostly use available light, occasionally one flash, every now and then two. I use field of view, lens to subject distance, depth of field and shutter speed to create the look I'm after for each shot. So, a wide range of use cases and applications that encompass what I would call general photography. For a few of those, I expect I could get nice results with one of the newer phone cameras. And if I was more forgiving of the phone's limitations, I could probably achieve acceptable results in a few more - albeit with less creative control and/or lower image quality than I'd like. But there are still a number of remaining use cases - quite common ones - where the phone is simply a poor choice.
As always, it's a case of picking the right tool for the job at hand. If the job is compatible with the phone's sensor size and wide angle lens combination, it can be an excellent choice of tool
Last edited by BigMackCam; 05-11-2019 at 03:35 AM.