As the article points out, a cell phone camera will take good to great pictures in a lot of conditions: landscapes, snapshots of people, not too dark conditions

As the article points out, a cell phone camera will take good to great pictures in a lot of conditions: landscapes, snapshots of people, not too dark conditions, and most anywhere you don't need a specialized lens. If you get outside that range of conditions, things fall off fast. The dandelion picture at the top of the article is probably getting close to the limits of what you can ask a cell phone camera to do, but the author is a pro, and knows where the limits are and makes good use of the equipment. For an example of how bad things get when you get past the limits, here are two photos of the same moth (or muppet, we're not sure): Taken with an iPhone X, which was released 2.5 years ago: https://www.instagram.com/p/CA1UNSahipd/ https://www.instagram.com/p/CA1UNSahipd/ (swipe to the second picture; that's me mugging in the first one) Taken with a Sony a7ii with a Pentax SMC Macro Takumar f/4 50mm. By digital standards the body is ancient (released almost 6 years ago), but it's full frame and the price fit my budget. The lens is, well, very old: https://www.instagram.com/p/CA2iXoej3Vx/ https://www.instagram.com/p/CA2iXoej3Vx/ The light is not challenging; this is purely illustrative of what the glass and/or sensor can or can't do. In fairness to the argument that the best camera is the one you have with you, my partner pulled out her phone and got the picture. I had to run back into the house for the camera. If the moth had flown away, she'd have had a picture, and I wouldn't have. We bought the camera principally to shoot finished furniture on a tripod under continuous light. It's mostly long exposures at low sensitivity (for reduced sensor noise) in that use. We use the aperture to control depth of field in that use. This is another case where a phone just doesn't give as much control as we want. We aren't brilliant photographers (yet), but with some time spent, we've been getting good enough photos that I'm not looking to hire this part of my business out yet.