A phone vs a camera

Different tools for different uses.

Most people are going to be carrying a phone on their person pretty much throughout the day. Many 'hard-core' photographers will have their camera nearby, but not on them. It's generally too bulky for normal activities, and because it's expensive you'll usually have it hidden away somewhere. The phone is therefore great for capturing memories; the camera is better for taking photographs.
 
The phone is therefore great for capturing memories; the camera is better for taking photographs.

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the camera is better at both.
 
Rock .. Paper .. Scissors

funny
 
lol. viewed full size there's a HUGE difference.
 
I guess I should added what I was trying to show, camera phones are getting better for sure, but they will not compare to a well prepare shot with a camera. Phones can't handle the dynamic range, DOF, or color rendering that cameras can do.

Also the shadows/reflection on the S5 photo is almost impossible to fix, a circular polarizer solved this issue with the camera in 30sec.

Overall and no offence to the OP, if you like cell phone images better then a camera then I am not sure if you know your equipment enough. Cell phones set everything to auto which usually doesn't make a good photo.
 
I guess I should added what I was trying to show, camera phones are getting better for sure, but they will not compare to a well prepare shot with a camera. Phones can't handle the dynamic range, DOF, or color rendering that cameras can do.

Also the shadows/reflection on the S5 photo is almost impossible to fix, a circular polarizer solved this issue with the camera in 30sec.

Overall and no offence to the OP, if you like cell phone images better then a camera then I am not sure if you know your equipment enough. Cell phones set everything to auto which usually doesn't make a good photo.
Honestly Mike your food shots are good, both very good considering limitation of each camera, testament not to your equipment but your skills!
 
A shot like this also wouldn't be possible using the kit lens included with most DSLR cameras, but certainly is possible with any DSLR camera if you select the appropriate lens (I used a 100mm macro at f/4 on a full frame camera, but this could also be done using a 60mm macro lens at f/2.8 on an APS-C camera to achieve an extremely similar result.)

I think one of the bigger problems people have with food photography is TOO narrow a DOF.

I agree. That shot was f/4 (even though it was shot with an f/2.8 lens), but I'll usually shoot several different apertures and we'll judge the quality of the blur and choose the one we like best. Usually the one we like best is not the shallowest. Depending on the subject, sometimes the one we like best is f/5.6 or even f/8.
 
In Bright daylight, the iPhone is great. It's convenient, quick, always there. It captures life's spontaneous moments.

Where the iPhone is awful is low light. Nothing but a low-resolution grainy photo. Long exposure apps are also a joke. They measure motion, not light.

Both are useful in their own ways.
 
The cameras built into mobile phones are getting quite good. The latest iPhone 6s has an amazing camera (and the 6s Plus has built-in optical image stabilization). I've also noticed that it's possible to get much closer to a subject with the latest iPhones even over the previous year's model.

But there are some things you can't do with a tiny camera. To create a narrow depth of field requires a combination of factors including longer focal length lenses, lower focal ratios, and physically larger sensors sizes (as well as a closer subject.) You can certainly cover the "close" subject focusing distance and even the lower focal ratio issue, but camera phones don't have long focal length lenses nor large imaging sensors. This means it isn't really possible to create a deliberately shallow depth of field and allow for selective focus on just one part of the image.

Here's a food shot taken with a 100mm macro lens at f/4 (this was an f/2.8 lens but we decided to slightly decrease the intensity of the background blur to the point the the background objects are more recognizable, even if they aren't intended to be the center of attention. The focus is on the food -- the center of attention -- but the background creates an atmosphere for the food to help create a mood.

A shot like this would not be possible with a mobile phone camera.


Pasta Carbonara
by Tim Campbell, on Flickr

A shot like this also wouldn't be possible using the kit lens included with most DSLR cameras, but certainly is possible with any DSLR camera if you select the appropriate lens (I used a 100mm macro at f/4 on a full frame camera, but this could also be done using a 60mm macro lens at f/2.8 on an APS-C camera to achieve an extremely similar result.)

No not possible with the phone but the OP shot is difficult to do on a DSLR because it has very good DOF and to get the same amount of DOF you would have to stop the lens down to minimum aperture. But then your shot isn't possible with the phone as it has very selective DOF. So each has its own advantages and disadvantages. If you can pick your photo to suit the camera then you can have excellent results.
 

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