Smart phone taking better pics than Canon EOS T5

[codyj]

I'm not sure what the camera was set at but since I've been making adjustments I believe I upped the picture value to 12mb.

On the way back from Las Vegas I'll stop in Death Valley again and take some more snaps.

If I'm not impressed with the camera it's going back b/c my smart phone seems to take some pretty good pics

Ok.. Back to the OP.

If you can, post the metadata of both photos.
This will help determine the way the cameras recorded the images.

 

[davholla]

I looked at your photos and according to Flickr it was a Canon PowerShot SX530 HS that you had not a DSLR, so I am a bit confused
Canon
Canon by cody j, on Flickr

Smart phone
Smart Phone by cody j, on Flickr

 

[wfooshee]

Don't confuse "wide angle" with "aspect ratio."

If you look at the images, the Canon is showing you a wider view of the mountains, even though the aspect ratio is narrower. The picture's not "wide," but the scene is farther away, and thus has more of the landscape in it.

"Wide angle" simply means the field of view of the lens, not the ratio of the presented image. A shorter focal length is referred to as a wide-angle view.

And a powershot is not a dSLR. It's a digital camera, but not a single-lens reflex, i.e. interchangeable lenses, viewfinder shows the scene through the lens.

Your original question applies to the aspect ratio of the image, not the actual scene, because the Canon's scene is "wider" then the phone's; more mountains are shown.

 

[weepete]

What do you mean by better?

To me the Canon shot looks like the blues in the sky are exposed better and the mountains are less blotchy with more detail. But there are other issues with this shot, a terrible amount of atmospheric haze, poor lighting and the composition could be better as well. The latter three are more of an issue than any difference in quality between these two shots.

 

[Soocom1]

Looking closer, the Canon looks better to me.


but thats just me.

 

[Derrel]

Hello everyone!

Passing through death valley, ca I snapped a couple pictures and my smartphone seems to take better pics (attached). Does anyone else have a Cannon T5? Any suggestions?

I had the camera set to "P" mode and the lens was not zoomed (i.e. camera should be in 18mm mode and should be taking pictures with wider angles).

please see pictures on Flickr here cody j

What kind of camera would you have used in such a location?

Cody, welcome to whatever this forum is!
There’s actually a very simple explanation, I thought everybody knew this?!
I’ve had it happen numerous times and since I shoot with a Canon 1Dx the results are even more pronounced than with your T5!!
Your T5 is much larger and has a LOT more surface area than your iPhone. AND since you were at Badwater you were at 282 feet below sea level. Your T5 is calibrated for sea level shooting where it’s at equilibrium with the pressure inside the camera as well as outside.
Now at Badwater you are so far below sea level that the camera has several atmospheres of PSI on it. Now both camera’s are at the same added pressure but the DSLR being much larger than the iPhone it has a LOT more surface area so the pressure in it is way greater than the pressure inside of it. So the T5 is struggling not to implode and you’re adding the extra expectation that it take a decent picture at the same time!! Not gonna happen with such a big surface camera.
The iPhone is so small and skinny that it feels almost zero photographic effect from the added PSI so will always take a better pic at Badwater!!!
It’s obvious and good that you drove out slowly or the T5 could have suffered a catastrophic embolism and actually EXPLODED!!!
I just hope I explained it well enough that you were able to understand it!!!
Cody, again welcome but be careful because there are some here that will just bullsh*t you!!! LoL
SS

Speaking of bullsh*t....lol

 

[Derrel]

Would love to hear about the "added PSI" and cameras imploding. Adding "lol" to outrageous, ridiculous claims does not excuse the behavior, and this is the second time in recent memory that the respondent has alleged that other people here like to spout "bullshit"claims. There is a place for deadpan and sarcasm, but when you start throwing around claims like "bullshit" I think it is time to put a stop to the behavior.

It is pretty clear that the experience level of the OP might make it impossible for him to discern serious from joking claims.

Welcome to whatever forum this is?

 

[TWX]

Warning, wall of text incoming.

So as far as taking landscape shots, I'm not terribly experienced myself, but what I have concluded is that when you're trying to do landscapes with atmospheric haze, the aperture of the lens and the shutter speed matter quite a lot, and additionally because of the large and high resolution sensor, optical problems with a lens will be more pronounced than on the tiny sensor in a phone or point-and-shoot.

I'm still working-out how to snap good landscapes, but I've found narrow (high number) apertures, low ISO settings, and slow shutter speeds provide me with the best results for good color reproduction, better than I can get with a cell phone camera. Additionally if I shoot in a RAW format, I can use software to adjust the thresholds for shadows and for highlights along with mid-range brightness and colors, to further reduce the effects of atmospheric haze.

So it's possible that a cell phone camera, out of the box on automatic, compared against a DSLR right out of the box will take better pictures. On the other hand, that DSLR, or mirrorless, or bridge camera, or even some of the higher-end compact cameras will produce better results when the photographer learns how to control the exposure manually or semi-manually and stops taking photos on automatic or programmed-automatic settings.

The Canon T5, also called the 1200D in other markets, has a "basic mode" setting on the main dial that looks like a pair of mountains. My assumption is that this setting will attempt to change the priority of aperture, ISO, and shutter speed to something more like what an experienced photographer would select when trying to take landscape shots. Now, that said, the results delivered are still going to depend on the lighting conditions and atmospheric conditions at the time. If the lighting is excessively bright and harsh then it may be difficult for the camera to automatically select a slow shutter speed if simply too much light is coming in even at ISO 100 and even at something like f/11. On the other hand, if you take some shots in this mode, like what you see, and use some software to look at the aperture, shutter speed, and ISO that the camera chose, you could use those settings on "M" for manual mode to see if you can produce the kinds of images you like, or if varying those settings a bit one way or the other improves the results. In a nutshell that's what I'm doing as I attempt to teach myself.

The harder part, for me at least, is all of the aesthetic parts of "composing", ie, picking out my subject and finding the best angle, the best distance from the subject, determining how wide I want the shot to be around the subject, what I want out of the rest of the scene for the background, and other framing issues. To me that's the real challenge, I can point a camera in a direction and get the exposure to be acceptable, but taking a picture of something worth looking at is another matter.

Part of the reason I mentioned that the T5 is also the 1200D, is so that if you should want to look up tutorials on using your camera, you can reference non-north-American tutorials too.

As far as aspect ratio, I suggest using the camera's native aspect ratio for still photography. The sensor is being exposed whether or not you're saving the data with the original photos or not, and if you can always crop in-software later if you don't want the top or bottom of an image. I would rather have that information, as sometimes I find some hidden little gem in it that I might enjoy looking at versus what I intended as my subject, or I find that some part gives more context to the photo.

 

[Dao]

LG Stylo 2 V VS835 cell phone
F/2.2
3.5mm (not sure what is the 35mm eq focal length)
1/2747
iso 50
Exposure Mode - Auto
White Balance - Auto
Center-weight avg meter mode
Scene capture type - Standard


Canon PowerShot SX530 HS
f/5.0
4.3mm (based on Canon website, 35mm film equivalent is 24mm for 4.3mm focal length)
1/1000
iso 100
Exposure Mode - Auto
White Balance - Auto
Multi-segment meter mode
Scene Capture type - Standard

Based on the above data, both were shot with auto mode and the only thing I can see the different is the optics, the photo sensor and the pre-defined POST processing algorithm for Standard Scene in Auto mode. The Canon Powershot camera did show some softness at the corner area. If the camera allow manual or aperture priority mode, I will stop it down a little to f/5.6 to f/8 and see if that helps. (i.e. Set to aperture priority mode and dial the aperture to f/5.6 or f/8). That of course will lower the shutter speed which I do not think will have any impact on the photo.

Both photos lack of contrast (primary I think was related to the environment/location), you can try to switch to a different shooting Scene mode and see if that make a different next time. Otherwise, I will increase the contrast of the photo and see. The cell phone photo does appear to be a little sharper in the foreground, and that could be more aggressive sharpening applied to the photo.

 

[Soocom1]

I see alot of differences including the aperture and shutter speed.
Those speeds make a world of diff. especially in a UV rich image.
The image sensor on the Canon will be larger so it will capture more detail and conversely be higher error prone.

The 50 v 100 ISO will have a marked diff. with the shutter speed and aperture. F5 vs f2.2 is a substantial diff. overall regardless of actual FP to image plane.

Eq. to 35mm isnt what you need to look at, but rahter against each other.

Filters on either one might have made a diff. but only under certian conditions.
The canon has a 1/2.3 size image sensor and the LG is un known but prob. Close to a 1/3.2 or such. (I cant find the specs.)

So image quality will be only slightly higher in pixle count. Not enough to make a diff.

All of these aspects only reflect the way the camera was "programmed" to function with in device process in all likelyhood with the lg and auto pumping contrast and exposure.

IMO only and I do mean MY OWN Opinion, the canon actually did a better job.

 

[zombiesniper]

Your T5 is calibrated for sea level shooting where it’s at equilibrium with the pressure inside the camera as well as outside.
Now at Badwater you are so far below sea level that the camera has several atmospheres of PSI on it. Now both camera’s are at the same added pressure but the DSLR being much larger than the iPhone it has a LOT more surface area so the pressure in it is way greater than the pressure inside of it. So the T5 is struggling not to implode and you’re adding the extra expectation that it take a decent picture at the same time!! Not gonna happen with such a big surface camera.

This is impossible since the camera is not air tight. And even dslr's are not calibrated for any pressure level. If so at higher altitudes it'd be near impossible for me to get the lens off, and the first time you took the lens off the calibration would be gone.

 

[Soocom1]

Hello everyone!

Passing through death valley, ca I snapped a couple pictures and my smartphone seems to take better pics (attached). Does anyone else have a Cannon T5? Any suggestions?

I had the camera set to "P" mode and the lens was not zoomed (i.e. camera should be in 18mm mode and should be taking pictures with wider angles).

please see pictures on Flickr here cody j

What kind of camera would you have used in such a location?

Cody, welcome to whatever this forum is!
There’s actually a very simple explanation, I thought everybody knew this?!
I’ve had it happen numerous times and since I shoot with a Canon 1Dx the results are even more pronounced than with your T5!!
Your T5 is much larger and has a LOT more surface area than your iPhone. AND since you were at Badwater you were at 282 feet below sea level. Your T5 is calibrated for sea level shooting where it’s at equilibrium with the pressure inside the camera as well as outside.
Now at Badwater you are so far below sea level that the camera has several atmospheres of PSI on it. Now both camera’s are at the same added pressure but the DSLR being much larger than the iPhone it has a LOT more surface area so the pressure in it is way greater than the pressure inside of it. So the T5 is struggling not to implode and you’re adding the extra expectation that it take a decent picture at the same time!! Not gonna happen with such a big surface camera.
The iPhone is so small and skinny that it feels almost zero photographic effect from the added PSI so will always take a better pic at Badwater!!!
It’s obvious and good that you drove out slowly or the T5 could have suffered a catastrophic embolism and actually EXPLODED!!!
I just hope I explained it well enough that you were able to understand it!!!
Cody, again welcome but be careful because there are some here that will just bullsh*t you!!! LoL
SS

Right......

Couldn't say it any better myself and I live a mile high...

 

[TWX]

Your T5 is calibrated for sea level shooting where it’s at equilibrium with the pressure inside the camera as well as outside.
Now at Badwater you are so far below sea level that the camera has several atmospheres of PSI on it. Now both camera’s are at the same added pressure but the DSLR being much larger than the iPhone it has a LOT more surface area so the pressure in it is way greater than the pressure inside of it. So the T5 is struggling not to implode and you’re adding the extra expectation that it take a decent picture at the same time!! Not gonna happen with such a big surface camera.

This is impossible since the camera is not air tight. And even dslr's are not calibrated for any pressure level. If so at higher altitudes it'd be near impossible for me to get the lens off, and the first time you took the lens off the calibration would be gone.

Not only that, but sea-level air pressure is 760mmHg. Death Valley is 776mmHg, or 2.1% higher. That 2.1% is within the margin of variation that occurs at sea-level with weather. Air pressure within urban area of the United States varies between sea-level pressure and around 520mmHg in the highest elevation city in Colorado, and the snowsports crowd doesn't seem to have any problems getting good pictures and footage.

It's one thing to make a joke, but it's another to proceed to outright trolling, especially to someone that is making a reasonably serious inquiry about improving their results and migrating into this hobby in-earnest.

 

[Grandpa Ron]

The end result is at any given time, one camera my prove superior to another.

Also, when you move off of "Auto", it is no longer the camera's fault. I do a lot of shooting in the "Manual" mode, so when the picture does not come out; I know who made the mistake.

 

[Derrel]

I an still unsure why the OP has called the Canon the EOS T5, when the exif data seems to show a Canon PowerShot 530