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

[Lightsped]

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?

 

[jake337]

Show examples.

 

[W.Fovall]

Ask him to attach his phone version lens 70-200 f:2.8 .

 

[rudimaes]

DSLRs, Systemcamera's and compact cameras (apart from the very cheap ones) are better.
DSLRs, System cameras and high end compacts have larger sensors so they will have
less noise in the pictures. Most of them have optical zoom, while smartphones have only digital zoom,
wich detoriates the picture quality.
More MP doesn't mean better quality and is only interesting if you want to print large posters or crop
your pictures.
But on the small screen of a smartphone, you will barely see any difference.
If your friend likes the picture quality of a smartphone, that's ok, because beauty is in the eye
of the beholder.
Rudi

 

[hamlet]

Using a phone for photography is like using a butter knife as a cleaver. All the best to your friend.

 

[Overread]

Your friend is either:

1) Seriously misinformed to the extreme

2) Trolling you

3) Bragging about his new phone

 

[Lightsped]

Well, he is new to photography, but he is seriously passionate about cell phones. Specially the ones with little pieces of fruit on the case... Since he is somewhat interested in photography I don't want to cause him to be discouraged with what he thinks is good and give up with photos. Still, he asks me why I have to spend so much on bodies and 2.8 lenses. While the quality of his cell phone pics look ok, I just am not familiar enough with the technology in cell phone cameras as compared to DSLRs.

 

[Overread]

Tell him that your camera and lenses are the same ones Nat Geo photographers use and that that is the difference

 

[PropilotBW]

I think phone cameras work OK in bright daylight. They are horrible in low light.

 

[sashbar]

Do not argue with your friend. If he is interested in photography, give him a good book on photography as a present. Some book that explains how to work with the exposure triangle, depth of field, flash, low light etc. He will discover very soon that something is seriously lacking in his wonderful mobile camera.

 

[407370]

The technology used to make digital pictures is down to the user.
If a person gets what they want out of a phone then good.
If (like me) they get what they want out of a bridge camera that is OK too.
To achieve what other people want will need a DSLR and a lot of equipment.
There is no right way to take a digital picture, it is entirely down to being happy with the end result.
Tell your friend to stop focusing on the technology and concentrate on the pictures.

 

[pgriz]

Try doing a good separation of subject and background with a cell phone. Not going to happen. A DSLR with f/1.8 50mm, or 200mm f/4 will.
Try doing low-light with a cell phone. It'll be great if you love noise.
Try getting a RAW so that you can truly tweak the image. Not going to happen with a cell phone.
Try doing something (anything) with additional light sources like off-camera flash - not going to happen with a cell phone.
Try more complicated lighting scenarios such as strong backlight, with front fill. Don't think most cell phones have that programmed in.

 

[KenC]

Try getting a RAW so that you can truly tweak the image. Not going to happen with a cell phone.

As if everything else summarized above weren't enough, this is the clincher. I've taken some decent pictures with a cell phone, but in contrasty lighting I don't get what I could get from a raw file because I have no control over the settings used to make the jpg file the phone produces. Although I would probably have this objection to shooting jpg on a DSLR, which is why I don't do it, I'm sure the dynamic range on an SLR sensor is better as well, which would produce a much better image than the cell phone, even on Auto/jpg.

 

[JohnnyWrench]

Try stopping a fastball the instant it contacts the bat with a cell phone.

 

[KmH]

A big advantage a DSLR has over a cell phone camera is being able to change the lens on the camera.

Many don't realize that image sensor pixels are not digital devices, they are analog devices.

Image sensor size and pixel pitch (pixel size) have a big influence on what a camera can and cannot do, from the control of depth-of-field to signal-to-noise ratio (low light performance).
Obviously the image sensor in a cell phone will be quite a bit smaller than the image sensor in a DSLR.
The 8 MP iPhone 6 camera has a pixel pitch of 1.5µ (micrometers or one millionth of a meter). The 24 MP Nikon D5300 has a pixel pitch of 3.9µ (microns).
Note the Nikon has 3 times more pixels yet still has a pixel pitch that is 2.6 times larger than the iPhone.
Understanding Digital Camera Sensors
Digital Camera Sensor Sizes: How it Influences Your Photography
Understanding Depth of Field in Photography

Camera megapixels: Why more isn't always better (Smartphones Unlocked) - CNET
The size of the image sensor is extremely important. In general, the larger the sensor, the larger your pixels, and the larger the pixels, the more light you can collect. The more light you can catch, the better your image can be.