> AFAICT, regular cameras with vastly bigger apertures, which should be able to take better photos, in fact are generally much worse until you get into huge bul

> AFAICT, regular cameras with vastly bigger apertures, which should be able to take better photos, in fact are generally much worse until you get into huge bulky DSLRs. Why? Are you sure about this? The last point-and-shoot camera I owned I bought around 2010, and other than zoom, my smartphone gives much better results. But then I met someone with a new hobby-level Panasonic point-and-shoot camera and I was flabbergasted at the quality of the photos she gets out of it. I tried taking some pictures with it and compared to my smartphone they all looked they belonged in a magazine. Smartphones have a ton of processing power and sensor quality packed into a small package, but I think it's still hard to outperform a half-decent lens and good quality sensor that are much, much larger, and it seems like point-and-shoot cameras have gotten really good.