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There’s a saying that your best camera is the camera you have with you. After all, what good is a camera that’s sitting at home when you’re out and about? Missed shots are missed opportunities at capturing images, preserving memories and sharing experiences.
Cameras on cell phones mean that people have the ability to take photographs almost anywhere they go, without having to remember to take a separate camera along. Photo opportunities often present themselves without warning, especially if you have kids or very cute pets. Having a camera ready at all times can be very handy, so perhaps you’re in the habit of relying upon your cell phone as your primary camera.
The quality of smartphone cameras has improved dramatically in recent years, so many people don’t feel the need to use a separate camera at all. Those looking to upgrade their digital cameras often consider investing their funds in a new smartphone instead of a new camera.
Professional photographers require the capabilities of sophisticated equipment but a smartphone may be sufficient for the average person. Apps for iPhone and Android have enhanced smartphone cameras to provide more features and improved results. National Geographic has even published an article offering photography tips for the iPhone. Tips for Better iPhone Photography
Smartphones also give you the ability to share your photographs with others immediately. If you’re connected to the Internet, you can post pictures on Facebook, Flickr, Picasa, Pinterest and Twitter straight from your smartphone. That instant gratification from sharing your photos immediately may be more rewarding to you than the benefits you could get from using an actual camera.
In the unlikely event that your photo doesn’t turn out exactly as you had planned, or would benefit from enhancement, apps are available to improve your images. Instagram (now available for Android as well as iPhone), Dynamic Light, iPhoto, Pro HDR, Snapseed and others allow you to add filters, effects, frames and other edits from your phone so you can enhance your pictures before you post them.
Unedited (iPhone image):
Edited (using Dynamic Light):
The Wonder of Tech wonders, what do you use as your primary camera? If you’re going on vacation, do you pack a separate camera or do you rely upon your phone? If you don’t have a smartphone, do you use the camera on your regular cell phone (non-smartphone)?
Take today’s poll and let us know how you take pictures.
Eastman Kodak filing for bankruptcy earlier this year may be the strongest indication yet that people are moving from using separate cameras to using the cameras on their cell phones. But the results of today’s poll should be very interesting to learn as well.
If you use a smartphone as your primary camera, do you use photo editing apps? Do you post your pictures to websites such as Facebook, Flickr and others? If you use a camera, do you edit and share on your computer? Let us know in the comments section below!
* Canal image (using iPhone plus Pro HDR app) by Al Ebnereza
Interesting poll Carolyn!
I would any day opt for a really good camera, as I feel the real kind of effect doesn’t come through a smartphone or normal cell phone camera. I have seen some wonderful pictures come through smartphone also, but when you enlarge or print them out, you do see the difference. However, if there are some latest versions of smartphone with wonderful cameras attached within, I wouldn’t know about those.
For me, cameras work best, and nowadays you have the ones with the videos as well and they are quite compact so really don’t take much of place. But yes, when we are home or just visiting casual friends, the cell phone cameras work fine. I guess those pictures you really aren’t going to upload or print out. 🙂
I wonder what the results of the poll would be – looking forward to check it out. 🙂 And those are some awesome pictures indeed!
Thanks for sharing, and nice to see you back! Hope you had a wonderful weekend and Happy Easter as well. 🙂
Hi Harleena, Good point, you can do more with a camera than you can do with a cell phone, but often your cell phone is all you have with you, so that’s better than having nothing. The most popular camera on Flickr is the iPhone so I definitely was wondering whether people used cameras any more. It sounds as if you make good use of your camera, Harleena!
Thanks so much for your good wishes. My Easter was lovely and I hope yours was too. 🙂
The biggest single drawback of phone cameras is lack of an optical zoom. Even the most basic point and shoot cameras have this and it’s often hard to get close enough to a subject for a good picture. I love all the photo apps and I have over a hundred on my iPhone and iPad. And don’t overlook the HDR setting on the standard iPhone camera app. It compensates for high contrast scenes by taking three exposures and combining them into one. It saves the original shot and the composite version so you can check to see if it helped.
Hi Gary, I’m so glad you have offered the perspective of a professional photographer. Yes, I should have mentioned the native HDR setting on the iPhone (which I have used).
That’s fascinating that you have over 100 photo apps on your iPhone and iPad and that you love them all. It’s interesting that each one can produce such different effects.
How interesting that Facebook announces its purchase of Instagram today. After they purchased Gowalla they closed it down, but I imagine they have other plans with Instagram.
Great read, Carolyn! I am in love with the pic quality of iPhone. It looks sharp, gets brilliant color reproduction. Has a slightly wide-angle lens, which gets good result.
With half-a-dozen apps with filters, it lets me creative while on the road, and lets me share pics with whoever (via, FB, email or Twitter).
Not to confuse, I still love my still camera. Heck I even love my film camera which I haven’t used in years (remember Canon Elan series?). I take that when I go for bigger trips.
One of my mobile enthusiast friends launched a new blog for mobile (smartphone) Photographers last month – its called Photocruncher.com. Its got tips and all knowhows for the camera inside the smartphones.
Hi iRewardChart, I’m so glad you enjoyed this article. I think you’re right, why not take the best of both worlds and use the iPhone with its apps to edit and share but also use the camera when you want higher quality shots.
That’s great that you still have your Canon Elan camera. Who knows, someday you might want to use it again.
Thanks for sharing Photocruncher with us. That sounds like a brilliant idea for a blog. I will definitely check it out. I would love to learn some tips for taking pictures with a smartphone. 🙂
I saw you at the Photocruncher. I think they are looking for writers too, so if you know any (mobile) photo freak writers, feel free to connect them up.
Besides, what do you think of the $1B acquisition? You prolly wrote this post before the news came out. That shows how thinking ahead you do when you write your posts. Which is awesome! (May be I should take some stock buying tips from you too) 🙂
I find the buyout of Instagram by Facebook very interesting. Facebook bought Gowalla and shut it down, but I don’t think they will shut down Instagram. It will be fascinating to see what they do with it though.
I’ve had a pretty good track record with reporting on sites right before they were taken over. I reported on Peggle right before Pop Cap was taken over by Electronic Arts and Zite right before it was bought by CNN. I haven’t had any inside information, just good instincts/luck, lol!.
Darn, you really put Wonder in the Tech! You are a danger to the stock market and American economy.
Actually, I would like to think of these coincidences as my ability to identify great tech, such as The Best App Ever! 😀
Hi Carolyn
I have a Canon IXUS 80 IS that is about 4 years old. I am using my smartphone to take pictures from time to time, but I do think that a real digital camera is still the best. I am considering buying a new more up to date Digital Camera sometime soon.
Hi Thomas, I know quite a few people whose cameras are old enough that their smartphone cameras are better than their phone cameras. They are debating whether to purchase a separate camera or stick with their smartphone camera. From the results so far, it seems that about half of the people who voted still prefer using a traditional camera. This will be very interesting to see how the results of the poll progress.
I love my camera but I do find myself using my android phone more and more just because of the ability to share. Also it seem I don’t have to do as much editing on the phone as the camera for some reason, but I usually have both with me! The phone doesn’t always take all of what I want to show if it’s a large area and I have to zoom. i’m a rookie though so still learning!
Hi Ann Jane, You’re right, it can be tempting to take a picture with a smartphone even if you have a camera with you because of the ability to share and edit right from the camera. If you want to post something to Facebook or another website, it’s a lot easier and faster to take the picture with your phone than with your camera. I’m sure a lot of people sacrifice the quality of the shot for the convenience of sharing easily.
As cameras continue to improve and as photography apps continue to flourish, this entire field will change rapidly in the coming years. Today’s purchase of Instapaper by Faceboo for $1 billion will certainly hasten the launch of new photography apps for smartphones, I predict! 🙂
I probably use my phone more than anything else but I often carry my Nikon to the kids’ activities because it always takes better pix than my phone.
Although truth be told my phone isn’t bad either.
Hello Jack, That’s a solid plan, to bring your camera along to your kids’ activities but have your cell phone camera always at the ready. Based upon the purchase of Instagram by Facebook today for $1 billion, It looks like others are betting the future of photography is with smartphones!
Hi Carolyn,
At the moment, my camera is my new iPhone 4S 🙂
It’s so much better than the old one, but I am actually thinking about buying a Canon 600D (I think that’s the right number). That’s mostly because I want to learn a lot more about photography and take pictures that I can’t possibly take with an iPhone. But, I always have my iPhone with me, so it works great for most pictures.
Hi Jens, You’re right, the iPhone 4S camera is great, but I can see how you would want a new high-quality camera for your new business. It is very handy to have such a good camera on your phone that you have with you all the time though.
It’s an unusual privilege to read quality articles these days.
Your article has the qualities of great professionally written content that’s unique, original and interesting.
Hi Reyna, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Thank you very much for your kind words.
Hi Carolyn,
I think that camera phone though getting better with time are still not a substitute for serious photography. I have a Nikon 3000 camera and the kind of photos it takes are just awesome. The reason is that the lens which is the most important part of camera. My Samsung s2 though very good can never capture the details what Nikon can capture.
But there are advantages of phone camera, one being the ability to quickly share your pics and less time needed to take them . Also lens cameras are difficult to carry around.
If I want a great shot, I use Nikon which uses NEF format of recording which can be converted to JPEG at any bit rate thus providing absolute control over size and quality.
Hi Ashvini, That feature on your Nikon camera to adjust the size of your image must be very useful. How handy to optimize the size of your images before you upload them to your computer.
But your Android phone is also handy to share images immediately and easily. It’s also readily available for when you need a camera and your Nikon isn’t with you.
Although I now have the iPod Touch that has a built in camera, I have found that the pictures are not of good quality. It’s convenient, just horrible picture taking.
I still rely on my good old trusty camera for shooting photos but I’ll only take it with me when I’m going to a function or something I know I’ll want to take pictures of. I don’t just take pictures of things because they’re pretty. I already have over 30 photo albums throughout my life time and what good are pictures if you just leave them on the computer. Not everyone who comes over wants to run and check them out online.
Yep, I still vote for the good old camera. Interesting to see the poll because so far, others agree with me. Now that was surprising.
Hi Adrienne, You’re right, no one buys the iPod Touch for its camera. But I suppose that if you were out and about and wanted to take a quick picture of something to post it right away on Facebook, the iPod Touch could come in handy.
You’re right, the majority of people do agree with you, though it seems that Facebook is betting that people will be using their cell phone cameras more and more, as it spent $1 billion on Instagram. You can use Instagram with photos you take on your camera and transfer to your Android, iPhone or iPad, it’s just much more difficult to jump through those hoops.
You’ve just inspired a future poll, Adrienne, about printing out pictures. Thanks for that! 🙂
I am a “camera-holic” – I had 4 cameras with my on my recent vacation! One D-SLR, one quick point-and-shoot, one waterproof, and one iPhone camera. Used each and everyone of them at some point of the trip. And I am coveting a brand new “hybrid” since my DSLR is now 3 years old – ancient in digital life. So I had to say YES to both the camera and the smartphone because depending on what I am taking a photo of/for, will determine which one I use.
Hi Carol, Wow, sounds as if you haven’t given up on traditional cameras quite yet! Did you use all of the cameras equally on your trip or did you use one more than the others? Do you use one SD card for all of them or does each camera have its own card? I would have a difficult time remembering which photo was on which card if I used 3 different SD cards. But if I used one for all of the cameras, I might have a difficult time remembering to switch the card between the cameras.
It sounds very complicated to be a camera-holic! :-??
Not such a problem for me. I keep a separate SD-Card for each camera – moving them from camera to camera not only can be forgotten, leaving you with no card, it also puts the SD-Card at more risk for damage since you are pulling it and out of cameras. With frugal shopping, you can get decent SD-Cards for less than $20 a card. I bought new cards for each camera on this trip, spending about $15 on each one. Sometimes I simply retire a card if it has lots of “keeper” photos, other times I will reformat and reuse the card, but what I always do is write the date window on the card so I know when it was used. And I try to remember to retire my SD cards at the end of the calendar year, and start fresh the next year.
As to whether or not I use them equally, no, each camera has it’s own “purpose”. For example, the waterproof “tough-one” gets used whenever we are in wet or rough conditions. Like this past vacation, skiing, this was my go-to on the slopes so I didn’t have to worry if it got wet. I use the iPhone whenever I intend to send photos to others as it is so easy for that.
Hope that helps explain my madness!
Fascinating, Carol. You could write an entire blog post on SD cards! (hint, hint). I don’t think you’re mad at all. Your methods are very clever, thank you for sharing them with us. 🙂
Hi Carolyn! I confess that I wouldn’t use anything else but my trusted Canon with prof L series lenses! Although I am not an i-Phone owner I have seen plenty of phone photos recently on Twitter using the various upload media and in most cases sadly they just don’t do justice! I prefer taking a quality photo to just taking a photo! Thanks for the thought provoking post! The survey is providing some interesting results!
Hi Zoe, You’re right, because there are so many people with smartphones, there are a lot of photos being taken with them now because people always have their smartphones with them. They don’t always have their cameras with them.
You’re right, the quality of photos taken with a camera can be much higher quality than smartphone photos. The survey results are always fascinating to me when I do polls.
I would prefer a camcorder as an optical zoom is a true zoom lens, like the zoom lens I would use on a film camera. They produce much better-quality images.A camcorder lens will typically offer a far more robust zoom, giving me greater magnification.I can adjust the field of view, shutter speed and white balance to tweak my image.
Hi Adrian, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech. You’re right, a true camera will give you much more control over your shot as well as a higher quality image.
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Hi Kenneth, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! I am so glad you are enjoying the blog. Stay tuned to The Wonder of Tech for more articles about awesome tech! 🙂
I agree !! Photos captured with smartphones can be beautifully edited into some serious masterpiece. I have an android phone and i love doing a lot of post processing using various apps 🙂