Why do people buy expensive cameras when they can just use the smart phone camera?

Question

I've noticed that many people buy expensive cameras to take clear pictures but I've also noticed how clear the smart phone camera's pictures come out. The smart phone cameras like the iPhones and the Samsung Galaxies are really high quality cameras and the pictures come out great surprisingly. People are spending hundreds to thousands of dollars on professional cameras when smart phone cameras are probably just as good. I have a friend who takes photography with only his Samsung Galaxy S4 camera and they come out magnificent. The pictures come out so clear and detailed you would think it's from a professional camera. So again, why do people buy professional cameras when they can just use the smart phone cameras? Is it to seem official/professional? Do people really spend all this money just to seem professional if that's the case? Thanks!

Answer 1

Yes, you can shoot some awesome shots with a camera phone—any camera can do so given enough light. Now try to shoot in your room at night. Notice the change in quality?



Professional cameras, in the hands of professional photographers, shoot high quality images in a much wider range of situations. They also give complete control of the shot to the shooter—a camera phone decides for itself what it thinks is best.



The image sensor on professional cameras is much larger than the dot-sized one on the camera phone. It's like catching rain in a swimming pool compared to a bottle cap. The glass in the lens is of much higher purity and bends light more precisely, with much less distortion and alterations. And as ioerr suggests, professional cameras are not interrupted by calls or messaging.



Still, I'm much more likely to carry my phone around than my camera. My phone has proven very useful for photographing serial numbers on the backs of monitors, codes inside of boxes, prices on store shelves, and other situations I wouldn't consider using a DSLR for.

Answer 2

There is a boundary between consumer products and professional products. Consumer products often go to the automatic side- where your smartphone is sitting on right now. Smartphones are good in taking photos mainly because they're automatic. Your smartphone gets to decide the best photo and best settings for every condition.



On the other side, professional products offer manual settings. You might ask, "Why would anyone go manual in 2014?", the main reason is because you want full control over your devices. Most people cannot explain the manual settings thoroughly. So I will do it though comparison. I can compare this to a video/photo editing software. There are many apps out there that offer free visual effects. I've tried installing one for fun. It's really incredible. However, with a more professional software, you can customize the speed of the animation, looks of the animation, just everything. You can translate what you have in your creative mind, whereas you are stuck with what you have in automatic devices. The downside is, you need professionalism in order to fully utilize the more advanced software.



The reason why consumers products are geared towards automatic settings is because the average consumer does not bother in setting up the camera/phone and experiment the best shot that's applicable. (Just imagine, if you want to take a selfie, would you even bother setting up the best ISO, aperture, shutter speed, etc. ?) Instead, he/she lets the phone take a good photo and decide the best of the best.

This is also the reason why automatic point and shoot cameras are phasing out at a fast rate. It's target audience are the average consumers, but because camera phones are roaming around, there is not much use to point and shoot cameras.

Answer 3

Any name band camera (Nikon, Sony, Canon, Fuji, Panasonic, Olympus, Casio) at that price point will be a better camera than what you get in a phone. The off-brand cheap stuff will not, like Norcent or Vivitar or any "house brand" crap. Some of the smart phone cameras are actually decent, but you still have very little control over the process. Some, but not all, have some sort of LED flash or at least LED hot light to help in low light or dark conditions, but their range is very, very short. Phone cameras are a convenience, not a serious photographic tool. If you want to take pictures, buy a real camera. All of the point and shoots from the major players have HD video, although you have to check the specs on the exact type of HD video they can support.

Answer 4

If all you are ever going to do with your pictures is put them up on facebook for your mates to view on their phones and tablets then it doesn't much matter how crap the camera is. If you are looking a a 6" screen or even a 10" screen everything looks clear.



Try printing out a 12"x8" enlargement - or even a standard 7"x5" print - of a zoomed in image from a smartphone and see just how "good" you think the image is then.



Next, try taking a picture late in the evening and see how much noise you get as the ISO cranks up.



Can your tablet freeze the action or blur the background the way that you want? Can you get good, crisp close-up macro shots? I doubt it.



Take a look at the published images from the Wildlife Photographer of the Year or Landscape Photographer of the Year exhibitions. Out of the hundreds of published photographs, how many were taken on smartphones? Or tablets? The answer is none. Zero. The quality from those devices is just not good enough. There's millions of people using them and billions of images on the web from them, but not a single winner or even finalist. Co-incidence? Of course not.

Answer 5

For many people the holiday photos and selfies they snap on their cellphones are exactly what they want.



With a DSLR comes cleaner images in any lighting conditions, the ability to use lenses of different focal length instead of being forced to use the single wide angle lens on a phone cam which give portraits the classic 'Pinnochio' nose. Then you can add complicated lighting solutions to get rid of nasty shadows and keep the colours vibrant or sublte if that's what you prefer.

Lastly a professional photographer adds craftsmanship and creativity to their photos so that any image they present to the client or media will be of good quality.

Answer 6

For me it's a couple of things. It's well known world wide that so called "cameras" in phones and tablets are pure junk. If you want real photography, if you care about real quality in your photos you don't buy junk, you but quality equipment.



So when was the last time you set foot in a real portrait studio and saw a phone sitting on a tripod. The pour photographer would be laughed out of town for using such junk.



Real photography isn't about "snapping" friends at parties, it's about pictures that draw viewers to really look at them, to see what it was like to be there, to actually get something out of a photo instead of just some body laughing and goofing at a party. That's no photography, that's snapping.



Don't get wrong, there's nothing wrong with snapping for snapping's sake. But calling it photography is a great injustice to the word "photography".

Answer 7

Reason #1: The cameras on a phone use fake zoom. Its a digital zoom that simply makes a picture larger than it really is. While real cameras use optical zoom. Even the Galaxy S4 has trouble keeping up with a real camera. Merely due to size issues. Plus with real cameras, you can change lenses.



Reason #2: Smartphone cameras have a small sensor, while real cameras have a much larger one. Thus they're able to capture better pictures under any light conditions. This is another example where size does matter.



Reason #3: Shutter speed is crap on smartphone cameras. If you want to capture real fast action with a camera, you need to get a real camera.

Answer 8

You can take very good pictures with smart phones, and with inexpensive cameras. What a better camera would do is (1) provide greater flexibility- like being able to take pictures in low light or moving objects, Or (2) specialize in something that is totally out of reach of cheaper cameras or smart phones- like dynamic range higher than 10 EV, Or (3) have a large number of tools that make shooting convenient. Without them, if you care about quality and your time, you would give up very soon with a cheaper alternative.



For a clearer, detailed look and classification of smart phone cameras and real cameras, go to http://www.TraitMix.com/Smartphones-versus-camera-comparisons.html

Answer 9

Cameraphones will give you a 'reasonable' quality image, suitable for web posting, under good lighting conditions. That's it.



A DSLR will give you;

- the ability to shoot in raw

- full manual control over exposure

- very fast focuscapture rate (no lag)

- huge sensor which gives better low light performance & higher resolution (= large prints, up to billboard size in most cases)

- ability to control off camera lighting incl studio lights

- range of optical superior lenses tailored for specific uses

- abiltiy to add filters to allow for eg long exposures in daylight (ND filters)

- much greater range of apertures from f1.2 to f32

- shallower depth of field achievable

- longer shutter speeds including bulb mode for long exposures and night photography

- a viewfinder so that you can properly frame (& hold the camera more stable)

- tripod mounting so you can keep the camera steady.



That'll do for starters

Answer 10

People Like me prefer better quality than anything a Mobile phone offers and My camera has a 44 x optical Zoom

Answer 11

You're right.

I don't know what I've been thinking. I'm going to sell my DSLR bodies and lenses and invest in a pair of Galaxy S4 phones.

Just think of all the trouble I'm going to save myself. I can charge $3000 to shoot a wedding using my phones and then use instagram to edit the photos and they'll look just as good!



I don't know why I didn't think of this before.

Answer 12

Smart phones are the Kodak instamatics (simple box camera) of the 21st century. I have a duaghter in law who use to shoot with a SLR (single lens reflex-film using camera) and now shoots everything with her cell phone. She never maks a print larger than a 4x6, even when she had her SLR-How sad for her and others who cannot appreciate quality.

Answer 13

DSLR photography doesn't need to be over-complicated. This online photography course has been developed for beginners - intermediate levels and will teach you how to make the best use of your DSLR camera. https://tr.im/NjZLc



Learning how to confidently use your DSLR will help you get full value out of this awesome camera you have already paid for!



This course has been developed after seeing many potential photographers give up far too soon, wasting good money they have spent on the purchase of their DSLR camera.

Answer 14

Words like

Image quality

User control

Proper flash guns

Answer 15

I can't believe you just asked that question. Comparing s4 and iphone with DSLRs is just insane. one thing is for sure, you don't know **** about photography. And that friend of yours....tell him to shoot a movie with his so called piece of plastic. camera on smart phones are just for memory purpose......there are 1000 things that a smart phone camera can never offer.



One serious advice.......don't dare ask this question to a pro photographer....he will beat the **** out of your head man.....stay safe

Answer 16

There Are many Features which are not availible in Phone Cameras..

Answer 17

1

Answer 18

I'm late to the party on this question. Can anyone possibly be this clueless, or is this just a troll trying to get everyone's "dander" up? Surely no one is actually this stupid? Ooops, ... wait, this is Yahoo Answers, ... yes people ARE this stupid.



steve

Answer 19

Because I have no interest in paying the stupidly high monthly rates charged by the cell phone carriers for those things. I use phones to make phone calls.

Answer 20

http://keerok-photography.blogspot.com/2012/09/facepalm_285.html