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

[CameraClicker]

We spent a couple of hours going through our local aquarium yesterday. There are some places where a call is possible, but lots of places where there is just too much water. The phone's camera doesn't need a signal and people had them out. I don't know if they were happy with the results, there are 9 adults in this, and 5 phones are visible.


Which reminded me of this post, so I got out my phone too. Since this is about camera quality and not about post processing, these are just resized to the same width and sharpened equally.

Cell: ................ 5D Mk III:

Cell: ................... 5D Mk III:

I've had my phone a while, it's a Samsung Galaxy S2. A quick check shows there is an S5 now! So, the new one might have a better camera, but I think my phone did a reasonable job in a situation that had bad light and many reflective surfaces and random light sources. Certainly "good enough" for anyone who wants to show the folks at work what they were doing on the weekend.

 

[Braineack]

Just wonderful:

just awful:

 

[runnah]

Just wonderful:

just awful:

I bet your DSLR doesn't even have any cool filters!

 

[Braineack]

Should have used color sketch mode.

 

[photoguy99]

While your cell phone samples are not great, I quite dislike the DSLR photos as well. Hosing your victims down with strobes makes the pictures 'sharp and clear', as people say.

The cell phone photos get a lot more of the mood, although they are less 'sharp and clear'

Anyways. It's all hatchets versus salmon.

 

[cynicaster]

I hate to admit it, but I'm quite impressed by what is possible with cell phone cameras. With my current phone, I feel the technology has finally crossed that threshold of actually being worth the expenditure of energy to retrieve the phone from my pocket to take an impromptu picture. That may not be saying a whole lot, but it's a huge leap from my last phone, which had such crappy image quality that I'd hardly even consider using it to snap a photo of a dishwasher for posting in the classifieds.

I'd put my current phone camera on par with a middle-of-the-run point and shoot (at least, the few that I have used), which, under the right conditions, can take really nice pictures.

But the key here is the disclaimer under the right conditions. If there is strong available light, and there is no need for long zoom or shallow DoF, then really nice photos can be made with a phone.

Still, the fact remains that the flexibility afforded by even a modest DSLR system is out of sight compared to a cell phone camera. To argue otherwise is patently absurd.

I've noticed something when it comes to all kinds of technology: it seems like whenever leaps are made that cause people to say stuff like "Wow! The <blank> is really impressive on <blank>, especially when you consider that it is just a <blank>!"--even if the praise may be reasonable in and of itself--there will always be a group of proponents of the new-fangled miracle gadget that tend to ride that wave of jubilation into the realm of delusion with respect to how good that gadget really is. I think we're seeing that phenomenon at play with cellphone cameras.

 

[dennybeall]

The controversy of cheap camera versus good camera has been around since the Nikon F and the Kodak Brownie were the two in the discussion. On a perfect day with perfect light and perfect distance they both take comparable photos. When anything changes the Nikon/Canon et al takes the game.

 

[runnah]

I am going to enter the 24 hours of Le Mans in my ford focus cause that is a car just like the Audi R18 e-tron quattro LMP1 Racecar as they both have a steering wheel.

 

[Braineack]

I am going to enter the 24 hours of Le Mans in my ford focus cause that is a car just like the Audi R18 e-tron quattro LMP1 Racecar as they both have a steering wheel.

 

[Mr. Innuendo]

My iPhone 5S takes an impressive photo, provided that conditions are right.

But it's never going to replace my DSLR's...

 

[pgriz]

Cell phone cameras are probably killing more P&S sales than they are killing DSLR sales. The vast majority (hey, I did the polls! ) of cell phone photos are snapshots for sharing. They have it over the P&S in that you don't need a computer to download (to the computer) and then upload (to the media-sharing sites). Quality? How much quality di you want/need out of a display several inches square? The DSLR has far more creative capability, for those who care, and comparatively speaking that group is very small compared to the other horde. I've used a cell phone photo to show my wife where I'm at, and what I was looking at. I used my DSLR to capture an image we'll probably mount on a wall. Really, different purposes entirely.

 

[Leonidas Kontoulis]

Phone cameras are very limited compared to dSLRs...

 

[astroNikon]

I think my phone camera is great
but not anywhere near my dslr

of course, the first priority of my phone is to be used as a phone.
the first priority of my camera is to be used as a camera

my phone has eliminated my use of my P&S, as the quality is better than the P&S.
plus it's 2 devices in one, a nice swiss army knife .. good at a lot of things but not everything. ANd if you are using all the "filters" for instagram then you have the dslr beat as the dslr image would suffer greatly from those horrid filters if blown up.

 

[JerryLove]

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):

I guessed correctly in all but one instance.

Which raises some interesting questions about the veracity of the test.

- My monitor is only running 1080p. The supposedly 1080p and 4k sources were cut down to take no more than half of that. I should not have seen a difference in resolution.

Indeed: the 5DMKIII looks downright poor. It reminds me of SD video. So why is that?

Is the 5DMKIII simply a terrible video camera incapable of capturing 1mp video on its 20mp sensor?
Is there something else in play? Is there a problem with the compression (and re-compression) used by the person who one must assume wanted the 5DMKIII to lose (or the video itself would not get hits)?

Is any of this relevant to a question on stills?

I don't have a 5D, I have a 6D. I do however have a Note 3. I take pics with both. Every pic thusfar that's been printed for work has been on the 6D. They have looked far better in my hands.

Truth be told: I suspect that the hardware in a modern cellphone is more modern and sophisticated than the DSLR. Simply put: there's far more money put into development of cellphone cameras. That does not seem to trump the physical limitations; at least not in my experience.

Also: Girls on the street don't want to pose for your cellphone.

 

[greybeard]

Cell phones cameras have their place.