Are cell phones as good as DSLRs? My friend says 'yes'.

[photoguy99]

You can do excellent work with any camera. You cannot take every picture with every camera.

There are superb photos that can be made with a cell phone. There are photos that are impossible to make with a cell phone, but easy with a DSLR.

You can replace 'cell phone' and 'DSLR' in the previous paragraph with any two of these, and it will remain true:

DSLR
cell phone
Medium format
Large format
Very large format
Digital medium format
Light-field
Scanning electron

Etc etc. Generalities are meaningless. Any one system can be the best system, depending on what you are trying to do.

It's like arguing whether a hatchet is better than a salmon.

 

[Derrel]

4K Galaxy NOTE 3 V.S. Canon 5D Mark III - Video Comparison | LensVid.comLensVid.com

"
Photographer and videographer Alec Weinstein (from marsmining) was in the market for a new smartphone. He realized that the new Samsung Galaxy S5 and the Note 3 both have 4K video recording capabilities and decided to compare those to his 1080p 5D MKIII pro DSLR – the results are extremely interesting.

What is better – an almost $4000 pro camera (and lens) or a $550 Samsung Galaxy Note III smartphone – when it comes to shooting high res video?

The almost obvious answer would be the Canon – well, after watching this video we are not 100% sure any more. Here are a few notes we have after watching this video (make sure you try and find out which image was taken with what camera – and why do you think that before reading further):

 

[TreeofLifeStairs]

If there's little to no difference ask your friend how he/she'd feel if if they went to get pictures done in a studio and the photographer decided to pull out his iPhone to take his picture. Or better yet, booked a photographer to take pictures at his wedding and the photographer showed up and pulled out his phone and started snapping pictures away.

I was always impressed by the pictures my phone was taking until I compared them to the pics I took with my NEX-7.

 

[CameraClicker]

Someone said the best camera is the one you have with you. If that's true, then sometimes my cellphone camera is the best! The rest of the time it is a very distant second, third, or fourth!

The cell phone has a benefit sometimes, it has a very short focal length, 4 mm, I think. So you can get it right up to your subject and you will still have large DOF.

Unfortunately, it has a really small sensor, so it struggles if light is less than perfect. It has terrible controls which are hard to use, or I have never learned how to hold it to keep my hands out of the shot while keeping it steady and pressing the button. Without an optical viewfinder, it is hard to use in bright sunlight because the screen reflects so much. The really short focal length has no versatility compared to dSLR lenses. Without a hot shoe you can't sync most strobes so you have to rely on the internal flash or continuous lighting. There is shutter lag.
And, that's just the short list!

 

[Derrel]

[Shocking] Getty licenses Nick Laham Photographs Of NY Yankees Taken With iPhone | Fstoppers

Getty Licenses Nick Latham Photographs of NY Yankees Taken With iPhone

This was back in 2012...but the images are STILL on the Getty site, available for licensing. Here they are: Yankees Iphone Pictures & News Photos | Getty Images

 

[bribrius]

proper tool for proper purpose

 

[TreeofLifeStairs]

Derrel,

It seems to me that he picked out scenes where the phone would shine for the most part, and he mentions it at the beginning that they are all very well lit scenes. He also puts all his mkIII settings so that they match the phone's as best as possible. At least he concedes at the end that he's really comparing apples and oranges. I would guess that there are countless other situations where there would be a stark difference between the two. An easy one would be to change the f stop on the mkIII. Something the phone just can't do regardless of how good the image quality is.

Aside from this, I guessed right about 50% of the time. To which I'LL concede is really good for the phone.

 

[deeky]

I would say don't even worry about arguing with them. They have their mind made up and your words probably aren't going to change that. Invite them out on a photo trip somewhere and really push your capabilities. Focus on selective focus, off camera flash, and some of the other things mentioned above that highlight what sets your camera apart. Let him shoot what he wants.

Then, finish the event over a meal, beer, root beer float, whatever you like. But have a laptop along to download your photos so you can help each other with things like composition, etc. Look at his first, then walk through your own. If you know how to use your camera, he will see the difference. If not, he's an idiot and you aren't going to change his mind anyway. Just smirk in silence knowing what you know.

 

[TCampbell]

We don't use most of the pixels we collect anyway... so if you pick a well-lit scene (e.g. "sunny 16" type shots) with really broad depth of field... you're not going to see a lot of difference.

The difference will show up as soon as you do anything challenging... narrow depth of field, slow shutter (e.g. implying motion in a shot), very low light, etc.

 

[Scatterbrained]

A friend asked me and made the claim that cell phones are almost as good or maybe as good as DSLRs because of their MP count. Now, I don't believe this, but what are some reasons I could give to disprove his theory?

A high MP count doesn't make a camera "great" just as a big motor doesn't make a car "great". Beyond that. . .. while there are a lot of technical reasons why a DSLR is superior to a camera phone from a photographic equipment standpoint; I really wouldn't bother belaboring the point. Clearly you're too new at photography to express the differences concisely yourself, and your friend is too new to realize the difference between something as simple as sensor size vs MP count. Whenever I encounter people like your friend I just compliment them on their nice phone, and compliment the pretty* pictures of flowers, coffee, food, etc. and let them enjoy their moment. It's better for everyone that way.

 

[astroNikon]

I was at my 30 yr reunion last night. I didn't take any pics, but photos were taken. Cameras used were one cheap bridge camera and many cell phones. I'd rate the bridge camera pics as "acceptable" and I'd rate everything else as "Marginal to Horrid".

of course NO post processing on probably all of them.

 

[imagemaker46]

Of course they are as good. I'm surprised there is even a discussion about it. Just the other day I made a call from my phone and took a picture of my ear, it's perfect.

 

[Braineack]

yes:

vs my crap DSLR:

 

[photoguy99]

Of course, if you do known how to use a camera of type, oh let's say D, and you have no idea at all how to use a camera of type, let us select a letter at random, say, P, then the photos you take with the one will generally look a lot better then the photos you take with the other.

This is handy when you wish to defend your choice of D over P. And there's an even chance you don't even know you're cheating, because, humans.

 

[snowbear]

Of course they are as good. I'm surprised there is even a discussion about it. Just the other day I made a call from my phone and took a picture of my ear, it's perfect.

Yep. In fact, I'd say that cell phones are much better . . . let's see you call home with a D810 or a 5Dm3.