is that true iphone camera is good enough to take photos?

[727]

hi! i wonder whether it's true to buy a brand new iphone for camera rather than spending thousands of dollar on a high end dslr. i know about the quality, but then if i upload on instagram, it looks almost the same. seems like iphonephotography is thriving nowadays

[B K]

No it's not true for good photography, but probably good enough for snaps and posting on social media sites.

However, all phone cameras are basically total crap - including those on all of Apple's mobile devices, all Android phones, and tablets and such devices

The problem with all phones is that the sensor is tiny, plus there is no optical zoom, and you are stuck with a wide angle lens. This will never improve, because phones and such are small devices, and the parts of the camera are miniaturised to find inside the device casing. The quality problems of using tiny sensors and inferior optics is particularly noticeable when you have to enlarge the photos, and quite frankly the images are not even good enough quality for even small prints. The results are noticeably fuzzy, and not sharp, in comparison to proper photographs taken with a proper camera.

There is no comparison between any phone camera and a DSLR. Phone camera photography is thriving only because lots of people have phones with cameras - it doesn't say anything about the quality of the images. Just because something is popular doesn't mean it's any good.

Sure having a camera on a phone is a handy thing when you find yourself without a proper camera, but it can never and will never be a substitute for a real camera.

You don't even have to spend that much money to get something way better than any smart phone camera. Many cheap modern point and shoot cameras have larger sensors and optical zoom. $100 or so should be enough to get you a point and shoot camera that is much more versatile than any phone camera could ever be. Of course there are phones such as the Samsung S4 Zoom http://www.simplyelectronics.net/showpro...?pid=22628 which is kind of like a hybrid between a phone and a camera. However, as you can see, it's not exactly small. I'd say more camera than phone!

By the way, these days you can pick up a brand new entry level DSLR for about the same price as an iPhone.

[Vihang]

It is true that iphone cameras are better than others but if you are taking an iphone for a camera,instead take a good SLR which comes of the same price.

[Anastasia]

I am a photography and have done many courses. I find that when used right the iPhone 5 camera it amazing and just as good as and low range market professional camera.

[Markus]

Well no cellphone is a dslr. Iphone has a great camera but if you want professional type photos then cellphone is not your answer.

[Mark]

http://blog.mingthein.com/2014/01/06/pho...revisited/

Every picture in that article shot with an iPhone.

Should answer your question.

[deep blue2]

A cameraphone will take reasonable pictures in good light - so it's ok for those conditions. The images Mark linkied to are all taken outdoors on a very sunny day, so no issues.

The limitations outweigh the pros though;
- the depth of field will always be very deep because of the lens
- you won't have the ability to produce large prints because of the small sensor size
- in poor illumination or at night the cameraphone will struggle, producing noisy poor qualtiy images
- you have little or no control over exposure parameters, (you won't be able to change settings) so if your goal was to learn about the technical side of photography, forget it.

The cost of a second hand DSLR on eBay will be way less than an iPhone - you're better off with that if you want to be a 'real' photographer.

[joedlh]

Yes. It can take photos. In fact, if your photography is such that you prefer to have every single thing in sharp focus, this is the system for you. As deep blue2 mentioned, the combination of a wide angle lens and small sensor will result in a very deep depth of field. However, all the other limitations that have been mentioned do not go away. I might add one that didn't come up. The sample images linked to by Mark all have quite high contrast and are somewhat underexposed by about 1/2 f-stop. The primary reason for the high contrast is the narrow dynamic range of the sensor. This contributes to featureless shadows and blown out highlights. The photographer perhaps dropped the exposure in order to mitigate the blown out highlights.

[Eric Lefebvre]

Small sensor with low dynamic range, no manual controls, crappy lens ... can you take pictures with it? Sure. Will they compare to pictures taken with a beginner DSLR by someone who knows what they are doing? Hell NO!

I just came back from Vacation in Cuba ... we took my 5DMkII with my 24-70 f2.8 and my wife Olympus waterproof point and shoot.

Portraits of my daughter are not only crisper and better lit (since I had more control) but skin tones look more natural due to the wider dynamic range offered by the larger sensor.

Can you get good pictures with an Iphone? Yes, will they compare to what you could get with a proper camera? No.

That being said, you might want to check out Fstopper.com, they did an entire modeling shoot with an IPhone and lots of lights.

http://www.fstoppers.com/iphone/

[Steve P]

... ummm ... to "Anastasia", ... you, my dear, are a blithering idiot.

steve