5 ms·

Why? Why wouldn't anyone with more than a passing interest in photography buy a dedicated camera for much less money that will work much better?

tjr 7y ago
True, but even then, your best camera is the one you have with you. I have a nice Canon DSLR setup, but appreciate good camera quality from my phone, because even if I don't have my camera with me, I almost always have my phone.
- BubRoss 7y ago
  How does that apply to 'pro photographers who make bank off of instagram'?
dsfyu404ed 7y ago
Because you iphone is accessible on seconds notice anytime anywhere. You have to plan to bring a DLSR with you.
- Marsymars 7y ago
  > Because you iphone is accessible on seconds notice anytime anywhere. Not if I'm travelling internationally, as then I'm concerned about the implications of having border officials demand access to my phone. Or if I'm participating in various watersports/snowsports/backcountry activities where a phone is problematically fragile and difficult to keep charged. In either of those scenarios (which account for the majority of pictures I take) I'm more likely to have a camera accessible than a phone.
  - spookthesunset 7y ago
    Okay, so you are an edge case... what's your point?
- BubRoss 7y ago
  How would this 'revolutionize vlogging' for 'pro influencers who make bank off of instagram'?
  - Swizec 7y ago
    Because why lug around all your serious gear all the time to make videos people watch on their phone when they’re bored on the crapper? Or for insta stories? But the part it’s really going to revolutionize is the baseline level of expected image quality. Just like Casey Neistat forced everyone to start using DSLRs for vlogging with his famed 2 or 3 year experiment.
localhost 7y ago
Compared to most new mirrorless or DSLR cameras, an iPhone is cheaper. A mirrorless or DSLR camera may have better sensor and optics (if you buy the right glass) BUT the computational capabilities of the phone far outstrip the computational capabilities of the camera. I find that modern phones are better than traditional cameras a) by nailing exposure more consistently in tricky lighting conditions, b) having a far better display for proofing your shots, and c) can use computational photography tricks to create great HDR photos.
- TylerE 7y ago
  Kinda makes you wonder when somebody will release a DLSR body with minimal controls, no screen, and an iPhone mount.
  - weiming 7y ago
    Sigma cameras are getting close to that form factor. [1] [1] https://www.sigma-global.com/en/cameras/dp-series/ https://www.sigma-global.com/en/cameras/dp-series/
  - aleph1 7y ago
    you mean like the QX1? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_ILCE-QX1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_ILCE-QX1
  - breatheoften 7y ago
    It would need to mount pretty close to the CPU to take advantage of all the DSP hardware in the phone ...
    - TylerE 7y ago
      Built in WiFi hotspot, an app on the phone...
petepete 7y ago
You don't need the best gear for (that kind of) Instagram, an iPhone that takes fantastic photos _and_ lets you edit and post in a frictionless manner is probably a more productive platform. People don't _look at_ Instagram posts in the same way they might a fine art photograph. It's a double tap while scrolling through hundreds of posts. I say this as an avid amateur wildlife photographer who posts on Instagram and gets a handful of likes while friends get hundreds or thousands for an out-of-focus image of a milkshake and bagel.
- TheOtherHobbes 7y ago
  The word that fits here is "lifestyle." The iPhone is a lifestyle product. It does a lot of things, but it does some of them quite poorly. The new camera is better than it used to be, but it's still a long way of short of the quality you'd expect from a high-end professional photo studio camera. As a lifestyle product, the important factor is the narrative that buying it will put you within reach of that professional creative lifestyle. In a sense it will, if your definition is limited to lifestyle social sites like IG and FB. But in a more honest and realistic sense it won't, because it lacks the quality and the flexibility of real professional equipment. A good DSLR + glass will still kill it, and medium format - which is what the most successful full-time studio pros are likely to use - will absolutely destroy it. There are still situations where that high end is needed. Fashion, ads, and high-end portraiture and photojournalism all rely on it. I don't think studio photographers working in those fields are going to be moving to an iPhone any time soon.
  - Swizec 7y ago
    Correct. My point was mostly that the definition of “pro photographer” is much wider these days than many people realize. For many values of “pro” an iPhone Pro is going to be absolutely fantastic and a better fit than higher-end pro.
  - petepete 7y ago
    > In a sense it will, if your definition is limited to lifestyle social sites like IG and FB. That's precisely what I meant. It's what most people do most of the time. Taking a shot of my breakfast smoothie with my 150mp Phase One, editing on a calibrated workstation and exporting to have it resized to 2mp for display on mobile phones is beyond pointless.
mschaef 7y ago
Accessibility and ease of workflow. I've had (and have) some nice cameras, but the phone is almost always with me and almost always more convenient to get at and use. The phone can also own much more of the lifecycle of the image than a stand alone camera. Viewing, editing, backing up, and sharing images are all much easier on a phone than at least the stand alone cameras I've used. Where the standalone cameras are useful are where you need a capability that you just can't get in a phone. (And that's a set of capabilities that's been greatly diminished over the years, although it will never fully go away.)
dkonofalski 7y ago
It's not less money, though. I can buy a telephoto, wide angle, and super wide lens and not have any money left over if my budget is the cost of an iPhone. The point isn't that the phone can replace those things in every situation it's that it's so good that it's more than good enough to replace those things for a significant percentage of the times I need them. Case in point, I have an iPhone X and a DSLR with all of the above lenses and the camera kit + lenses were more expensive than the new iPhone and I probably would use them less.

tjr 7y ago

True, but even then, your best camera is the one you have with you. I have a nice Canon DSLR setup, but appreciate good camera quality from my phone, because even if I don't have my camera with me, I almost always have my phone.

BubRoss 7y ago
How does that apply to 'pro photographers who make bank off of instagram'?

dsfyu404ed 7y ago

Because you iphone is accessible on seconds notice anytime anywhere. You have to plan to bring a DLSR with you.

Marsymars 7y ago
> Because you iphone is accessible on seconds notice anytime anywhere. Not if I'm travelling internationally, as then I'm concerned about the implications of having border officials demand access to my phone. Or if I'm participating in various watersports/snowsports/backcountry activities where a phone is problematically fragile and difficult to keep charged. In either of those scenarios (which account for the majority of pictures I take) I'm more likely to have a camera accessible than a phone.
- spookthesunset 7y ago
  Okay, so you are an edge case... what's your point?
BubRoss 7y ago
How would this 'revolutionize vlogging' for 'pro influencers who make bank off of instagram'?
- Swizec 7y ago
  Because why lug around all your serious gear all the time to make videos people watch on their phone when they’re bored on the crapper? Or for insta stories? But the part it’s really going to revolutionize is the baseline level of expected image quality. Just like Casey Neistat forced everyone to start using DSLRs for vlogging with his famed 2 or 3 year experiment.

localhost 7y ago

Compared to most new mirrorless or DSLR cameras, an iPhone is cheaper. A mirrorless or DSLR camera may have better sensor and optics (if you buy the right glass) BUT the computational capabilities of the phone far outstrip the computational capabilities of the camera. I find that modern phones are better than traditional cameras a) by nailing exposure more consistently in tricky lighting conditions, b) having a far better display for proofing your shots, and c) can use computational photography tricks to create great HDR photos.

TylerE 7y ago
Kinda makes you wonder when somebody will release a DLSR body with minimal controls, no screen, and an iPhone mount.
- weiming 7y ago
  Sigma cameras are getting close to that form factor. [1] [1] https://www.sigma-global.com/en/cameras/dp-series/ https://www.sigma-global.com/en/cameras/dp-series/
- aleph1 7y ago
  you mean like the QX1? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_ILCE-QX1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_ILCE-QX1
- breatheoften 7y ago
  It would need to mount pretty close to the CPU to take advantage of all the DSP hardware in the phone ...
  - TylerE 7y ago
    Built in WiFi hotspot, an app on the phone...

petepete 7y ago

You don't need the best gear for (that kind of) Instagram, an iPhone that takes fantastic photos _and_ lets you edit and post in a frictionless manner is probably a more productive platform. People don't _look at_ Instagram posts in the same way they might a fine art photograph. It's a double tap while scrolling through hundreds of posts. I say this as an avid amateur wildlife photographer who posts on Instagram and gets a handful of likes while friends get hundreds or thousands for an out-of-focus image of a milkshake and bagel.

TheOtherHobbes 7y ago
The word that fits here is "lifestyle." The iPhone is a lifestyle product. It does a lot of things, but it does some of them quite poorly. The new camera is better than it used to be, but it's still a long way of short of the quality you'd expect from a high-end professional photo studio camera. As a lifestyle product, the important factor is the narrative that buying it will put you within reach of that professional creative lifestyle. In a sense it will, if your definition is limited to lifestyle social sites like IG and FB. But in a more honest and realistic sense it won't, because it lacks the quality and the flexibility of real professional equipment. A good DSLR + glass will still kill it, and medium format - which is what the most successful full-time studio pros are likely to use - will absolutely destroy it. There are still situations where that high end is needed. Fashion, ads, and high-end portraiture and photojournalism all rely on it. I don't think studio photographers working in those fields are going to be moving to an iPhone any time soon.
- Swizec 7y ago
  Correct. My point was mostly that the definition of “pro photographer” is much wider these days than many people realize. For many values of “pro” an iPhone Pro is going to be absolutely fantastic and a better fit than higher-end pro.
- petepete 7y ago
  > In a sense it will, if your definition is limited to lifestyle social sites like IG and FB. That's precisely what I meant. It's what most people do most of the time. Taking a shot of my breakfast smoothie with my 150mp Phase One, editing on a calibrated workstation and exporting to have it resized to 2mp for display on mobile phones is beyond pointless.

mschaef 7y ago

Accessibility and ease of workflow. I've had (and have) some nice cameras, but the phone is almost always with me and almost always more convenient to get at and use. The phone can also own much more of the lifecycle of the image than a stand alone camera. Viewing, editing, backing up, and sharing images are all much easier on a phone than at least the stand alone cameras I've used. Where the standalone cameras are useful are where you need a capability that you just can't get in a phone. (And that's a set of capabilities that's been greatly diminished over the years, although it will never fully go away.)

dkonofalski 7y ago

It's not less money, though. I can buy a telephoto, wide angle, and super wide lens and not have any money left over if my budget is the cost of an iPhone. The point isn't that the phone can replace those things in every situation it's that it's so good that it's more than good enough to replace those things for a significant percentage of the times I need them. Case in point, I have an iPhone X and a DSLR with all of the above lenses and the camera kit + lenses were more expensive than the new iPhone and I probably would use them less.