7 Reasons To Use a ‘Real’ Camera Instead of a Smartphone

There's no question that modern smartphones can take great pictures, so is there any advantage to using a real camera? PetaPixel's Chris Niccolls has seven reasons why it's absolutely worth bringing a camera with you when you want to take beautiful photographs.

Rental equipment provided by The Camera Store

0:00 - Intro
1:28 - Handling
2:58 - Viewfinder
4:16 - Flash
5:33 - Lenses
7:00 - Depth of field
8:23 - Image quality
10:50 - Selfies!

[AhdaAhda]

For me the biggest advantage is the low light, especially low light videos, the difference a bigger sensor +aperture makes is so much more apparent and it's something that's a lot harder to bump up with computational photography

[joepublisher]

For me, the ergonomics are a huge benefit when using an actual camera and that includes the fully articulating screen which has so many benefits over the smartphone.

[manaphyex]

If you really love photography, the question is not whether to buy a ‘real’ camera, but how much money you can save on your smartphone to buy a ‘real’ camera. Now there are many people whose smartphones are more expensive than some ‘real’ camera, but they don’t have ‘real’ camera.

[yash_kambli]

My biggest complaint with the smartphone photography is the image processing. Don't know why but they always look over processed (heavy hdr, saturation and sharpness). This wasn't the case tho 5-6 years before, nokia 808 & 1020 were the epitome of quality, images taken from them had 3D pop, plenty of micro details and colour accuracy. If decade old smartphones can do this why can't current one?

[MrRTMcguire]

Spot on conclusion. Cameras are great if you enjoy the process of making pictures and geek out over having control of the outcome. I'd also add that sometimes the phone's software gets it wrong or muddles a great scene. Taking a sunrise or sunset picture with my iPhone 12, I can see where the camera is trying to artificially emphasize the orange colors and in the end, the scene often looks just a little off.

[CianMcsweeney]

Honestly the main advantage is the user experience, devices dedicated to one thing tend to be a lot nicer to use than devices that try and do everything

[vj_great]

Smartphones images are good when viewed on phones....when u try to view them from a laptop or bigger inch screens then image falls apart

[AstroCampTV]

I think the main reason I personally enjoy using a camera instead of my phone is not even something technical like all you mentioned. My mindset is completely different when I am operating my camera than when I am using my phone, which I use for many things. My focus and my way of seeing around me changes if I have the camera in my hand, let alone having to actually learn a bit about photography to use it. Even if I had a phone/camera with large sensor and interchangeable optics all in one device... I think I would prefer the dedicated camera. Really good video and made me think a lot! Cheers and greetings from Mexico City!

[laneye]

Honestly, dynamic range and color reproduction is pretty much my biggest one. I've never seen a smart phone camera even approach the kind of performance in difficult lighting situations that my trusty APS-C camera with its massive lens does. And let's be honest, the difficult lighting situations are quite often the most beautiful ones (sunset, sunrise, golden hour). All the scenarios where you don't have a ton of light and most cameras struggle to process colors accurately.

[PieterBreda]

I explained to my family last Sunday that the difference between a good camera and a phone is substantial unless you only look at pictures only on your phone. They were not convinced. However, they saw that the photo albums printed by a pro grade printing company looked fantastic.

[cesarm]

I am hobbyist photographer and 70 years old, I been using a camera for most of my life; film, DSLR and now mirrorless camera. So I prefer a stand alone camera versus my iPhone camera. But my adult daughters, who have children, they use exclusively an iPhone for all their photography and videos. The main reason, they can immediately post their videos or photos to a text message, Facebook, Instagram etc.. They never print a photo, since they don't own a printer, so they come to dad for prints of photos that I have taken or in rare case get a photo printed thru some sort of service. These days it's rare to see young adult and young parents at Disney, parties, vacationing, etc. with a stand alone camera. It's the time we live in, I guess....

[evilhamsters]

Make this a start of a series. For example, Nighttime photos are getting better on smartphones, but if your aim is to capture more of the nightlife, then highlight how a dedicated camera can help you dial in the better shot compared to crossing your fingers that your smartphone took a decent one.

[brucegraner]

An often overlooked option is the superzoom camera. Usually the sensor is not much bigger than what you find in a smartphone but the range of lenses can often go from the 35mm equivalent of a 21 or 24mm lens to 800mm's or longer. The more expensive versions offer 1-inch sensor like the Lumix FZ1000 (25-400mm optical) and produce video and stills at the same time. I've used such a camera to easily produce prints larger than 16x20. Not bad for a camera that is basically a pocket system.

[BrentODell]

I've had people tell me Micro 4/3 aren't 'real' cameras because their sensor is too small, and then in the same conversation claim that a phone can take pictures just as well as a larger camera. For those curious, last time I looked up specs, the biggest sensor on a phone(whatever the top iPhone was at the time, a couple years ago) was 10% the size of a 4/3 sensor, or about 2.5% the size of a FF.

[drchtct]

I already bought a camera but I'm just here to see Chris Niccolls talk

[chefegzyle]

The backpacker here. The one thing I absolutely love my phone camera over my "real" one is the waterproofing. When I'm hiking and it's down pouring, I put my xt4 away and break out my s21, and I don't have to worry. Other than that, I have come to be grossed at the images that come out of my phone they're so digitally enhanced that they no longer look normal. Maybe they parts just me
great video, yall

[Janis_Celms_Channel]

All your arguments are valid BUT to get a good picture from a good camera you need everything you mentioned. For each situation you need a suitable lens, settings, lights, softbox and so on and so on. That one beautiful picture costs you literally thousands of dollars and years of experience. Buy a phone that automatically selects settings, press a button and that's it. 90% beautiful picture. Not to mention that any Action camera has 10x better image stabilization than any camera with a lens!
So unless someone has big plans for photography, I always say buy a better phone and you'll be happier.

P.S. I recently bought my first serious camera (X-T4) and I am very happy with the choice. At this point, I have already invested more than 3500 USD in just the camera, 2 lenses and basic equipment. But until I have gained experience, any iPhone takes better pictures...

[helgeschneider]

One thing that is important to mention regarding Megapixel count, is that pretty much all phone sensors use pixel binning to end up with a 12MP shot. This does make sense though, since 180MP shots from a tiny phone sensor will probably hardly look good in any other condition than bright sunshine.

[lean]

I like photography as a hobby. I bought a real camera cause upgrading a phone every year seems to be more expensive than buying a camera one time. I still own my camera for 4 years and same with my phone. My friends kept upgrading their phone every year and always says that their new phone has better camera.

[Rajamh]

The main reason why I love my D7200 and often prefer it over my iPhone 14 Pro is first the bigger flexibility especially with longer zooms and also that smartphones nowadays are just taking it way too far with their processing.
Sometimes I think "oh this shot looks really great" but then as soon as I look at the image from my D7200 the shot from the iPhone looks absolutely terrible in comparison...