Originally posted by Lord Lucan With all the talk that phone cameras are just as good as ILCs etc etc, how people would feel if their professionally hired wedding photographer used one for the pictures?
I'm not proposing to do this myself, I've never done a wedding and never will, but I'd feel very under-whelmed if I were paying. Is this done? It's a long time since I've been to a wedding, there aren't so many these days. I know some wedding pros use m4/3 which would make me hesitant to bring my own FF to a wedding as a guest in case it looked like I was trying to upstage them.
In film days most wedding pros would use MF cameras (my father did) which set them apart and gave them additional presence and authority, even if some were actually cheating by using 35mm backs
I don't think most people would go for that. There is a certain expectation of gear that folks who are shelling out thousands of dollars to have their wedding photographed expect and showing up with a cell phone wouldn't quite fit the bill.
From a photographer's standpoint there would be problems too.
(1) Accessories -- it is challenging to use phone cameras with off camera flash. It probably can be cobbled together somehow, but flash photography is something that is really important for dark venues and good wedding photographers don't use direct on camera flash.
(2) Ergonomics -- shooting an eight to ten hour day holding a cell phone camera would be miserable. Even if the results were exactly the same, there is something about having physical buttons and dials that makes an ILC more comfortable use -- never mind the grip.
(3) Battery life -- a wedding day ends up being at least eight hours of pretty intensive shooting. I don't think most cell phone cameras can hold up to that sort of usage and most don't have easily replaceable batteries.
(4) Lack of viewfinder -- this probably goes along with ergonomics, but it seems like the most uncomfortable way to hold a camera is at arms length, but that's what you have to do when you are using the back of the camera to shoot with.
(5) Lack of flexibility with lenses -- Many cell phones these days have multiple lenses, but it isn't like you can choose to mount a 85 mm f1.4 and then swap to a 24-70 f2.8 or 70-200 f2.8. A lot of the narrow depth of field photography done with cell phones is through emulation modes.
My wife shoots weddings and she wouldn't dream of using a cell phone camera for anything more than a quick snap of something.