For me, as a hobbyist, camera size is pretty important. I bought a Sony RX100 recently, which is the currently the leader, bar none, in small-sensor compacts. I

For me, as a hobbyist, camera size is pretty important. I bought a Sony RX100 recently, which is the currently the leader, bar none, in small-sensor compacts. It's tiny, but I found that it's still large and heavy enough that if I'm not wearing a winter parka with big pockets, I'm unlikely to bring it with me. The iPhone is what's with me at all times. (I also have an Olympus OM-D mirrorless, which is very good, but that one only goes with me on holidays and special occasions.) One major thing I discovered recently is that iPhone 7 (and maybe earlier models?) supports shooting RAW. With an app such as Lightroom or VSCO, you can shoot DNG images, and you get much better effective dynamic range. Blown-out bright spots or murky dark areas can be pulled down or up to bring out detail that would otherwise be lost with plain JPEG images. That's been a game-changer. It almost makes the RX (which also does RAW) unnecessary. I use Lightroom because it syncs to the desktop version, so you can continue editing there, although the iPhone app is surprisingly good, too.