Well, it is folly to overlook the laws of physics. Certainly, the photo quality phones and other miniature devices are capable of has advanced greatly, and will continue to do so. And, they are fine, even advantageous, for some needs including many snapshot situations. If they can take care of all one's needs- fine. I don't even own a smart phone, so the only time I take pictures with one of these is when using someone else's. I don't want a monthly bill for something I rarely use. I rarely use my flip phone, so I grumble about its monthly cost, but at least it does not include another internet connectiveity charge I don't need. When I have used someone's phone to take photos of them, the recipients are often very gratified by the results they get, and that I got these results in such an immediate frame of time. They typically say, looking at the image, something like- "This really looks great!! Thanks a lot! We really appreciate this! My friends often say- "Give Mike the phone and let him take some shots of us- his always turn out so well!" But to me, these shots with their phones are just a matter of immediately recognizing important aspects like background, lighting, frame content (composition), then getting a good angle to omit or include, which I do very quickly. Then, as soon as I see good body attitudes and expressions on faces- I fire instantly! Sometimes I see that everything is especially good, so I frame and fire right away and capture a particularly good moment. That is what that is all about. The device is well-adapted to such occasions and particular need. As to the capture, it's not that I'm special, it's simply their lack of experience.
But there is no way such devices can do some things well or even at all, which are common fare for interchangeable-lens cameras. One example for comparison I can offer is from my recent vsit across the state to attend a grade-school wrestling tournament. My friend there is a teacher and long-time wrestling coach. His two little boys were in the competition, along with the rest of his team. The place was packed, and a mad-house. Sometimes I could get a spot along the sidelines to shoot from, but sometimes I had to settle for a spot a short distance into the stands. My friend, being a coach, could shoot his cell phone from his spot in a corner of the mat. But for framing, sometimes the wrestlers were very near, and sometimes at the opposite corner, etc. His wife, at some distance, was also shooting with her cell phone. Both also included video, so I did not bother with that.
I was shooting with a KP and DA 18-135mm DC WR lens, easily carried in my smaller-mid size holster-type camera case. In a pocket of my cargo slacks I had my compact Pentax AF 360FGZ II flash. When getting ready to shoot, onto the camera went the flash. I was shooting in the Manual mode. Overhead lighting in the sizeable gym was strong enough, but the flash was needed to deal with downward shadows. Often, wrestlers are in a position where faces are turned downward. The cell phones were unable to compensate enough for good results in this matter, while I was quickly able to adjust output for the right degree of fill-flash. The zoom lens was excellent for giving me the framing I wished for each shot. Sometimes I went for close framing of the two wrestlers. Otherwise, I often framed to include some of the onlookers and their expressions to provide content, depicting an action event, as opposed to a practice event. When I could, I'd include team members as well as coaches shouting encouragement. I would also control DOF via aperture so as to slightly blur those in the background, though still fully recognizable, so the wrestlers image stood out better from those in the background. I could also control shutter speed, so rather than totally freezing action, it could be just slow enough to depict some movement, to entail some blur of a hand, leg, or a whole body in motion if I nailed a throw, for instance. Later, I had my friend download my images via a card-reader into his computer. He was delighted with what he received.
---------- Post added 04-08-24 at 06:44 PM ----------
Very nice candids of your kids! Of those lenses, I've long had the 77mm Ltd, a much beloved lens!
