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I'm so over smartphone cameras now. Earlier this week I did a two week expedition and what I did take on my 13 Pro was pretty terrible. You have to run with the

by baz00 3y ago

I'm so over smartphone cameras now. Earlier this week I did a two week expedition and what I did take on my 13 Pro was pretty terrible. You have to run with the fact that these cameras are all three shitty prime lenses and a lot of computation making up for that. My initial playing with the 15 Pro Max in store confirmed that it is of course, exactly the same. I figured if I can drag my mirrorless camera half way across the world I can chuck it in my bag when I'm out. And that allows me to buy a considerably cheaper phone. Pixel 6A output is a fine example of where digital processing goes awry: https://imgur.com/a/YLNyYnb https://imgur.com/a/YLNyYnb . I regret not retaking that photo with my mirrorless but I learned to use the right tools for the job there.

Moldoteck 3y ago
oh god, that looks bad. I too, started using my dsrl more. Even if it's heavier, the result is much more natural both in colors, grain & better at zoom...
shinycode 3y ago
I did a two week holidays with only my iPhone 13 PM. In most cases the photos were amazing given the resolution. Sure when you zoom in 100% it’s not that great. But the fact that I could take everything with such a light camera, edit right on spot and create an album that I could share without ever touching a computer is amazing. For a professional setup it’s not great. But to capture nice memories and stay light at all times it’s perfect. I really prefer the quality of my dslr but it’s so cumbersome to carry around and to process photos then share them that it’s a compromise I’m willing to accept. It’s a nightmare for me to process thousands of picture from my dslr.
- mettamage 3y ago
  I find the iPhone more than adequate for my social media shenanigans, which is not a whole lot compared to generation Z. I need good looking pictures in certain cases and I've seen the difference in having my social circle expanded because of it. I don't need a pro camera.
- baz00 3y ago
  Some of the modern mirrorless cameras are tiny and integrate with things like apple photos (via snapbridge in my case mine). I was doing most of my editing on my phone until recently.
  - shinycode 3y ago
    True but they cost more that my iPhone which can do much more than photos … with the budget I’ll probably have a mirrorless
londons_explore 3y ago
How did you manage to get such bad output from a pixel 6A? Is that a tight crop from one corner, or taken in darkness?
- baz00 3y ago
  Just default zoom. Digital assistance at its finest. If it was an unprocessed crop it'd be workable into something that doesn't look like an oil painting by Dall-E
  - olabyne 3y ago
    But what do you expect from a fixed lens exactly ? Digital zoom is not a zoom. Just a crop.
    - baz00 3y ago
      Well the thing is it's not just a crop. It's a crop plus adding a lot of processing to make it not look like a crop. Instead it looks like a crap!
  - The_Colonel 3y ago
    You can configure Pixel to take JPEGs + RAWs. Your picture looks pretty good when looking at it zoomed-out (small picture), it gets really bad only when you zoom in. But then this was likely heavily (digitally) zoomed, so even the original RAW crop likely wouldn't be usable in anything other than small format.
neogodless 3y ago
It felt like there was an arc, where the hardware was getting better as they shrank components and managed to do decent things with the small lenses. Light computational touches were fine! But then things seemed to get weird. I had a Samsung S21 Ultra, and while it did some neat party tricks, I tended to dislike most of the photos, especially if you get anywhere near 100% view. Just so much automatic editing that maybe looks OK for a compressed web photo, but is not a high quality photo. I'm on a OnePlus 9 Pro and I am back to loving taking photos with it. They aren't as "impressive" as the 10x zoom photos, but they look good and do not look massively overworked. But it makes me nervous for when I need a replacement and have to come forward on this arc.
matwood 3y ago
OTHO, I find myself using my iPhone camera more and more. It's fast and easy on so many shots. I tend to leave a long zoom on my z5, giving me the ability take all types of shots really easily. This way I can skip lens swapping so much. At the end of the day, they are all tools with pros and cons. Use what works for you.

by baz00 3y ago

Moldoteck 3y ago

oh god, that looks bad. I too, started using my dsrl more. Even if it's heavier, the result is much more natural both in colors, grain & better at zoom...

shinycode 3y ago

I did a two week holidays with only my iPhone 13 PM. In most cases the photos were amazing given the resolution. Sure when you zoom in 100% it’s not that great. But the fact that I could take everything with such a light camera, edit right on spot and create an album that I could share without ever touching a computer is amazing. For a professional setup it’s not great. But to capture nice memories and stay light at all times it’s perfect. I really prefer the quality of my dslr but it’s so cumbersome to carry around and to process photos then share them that it’s a compromise I’m willing to accept. It’s a nightmare for me to process thousands of picture from my dslr.

mettamage 3y ago
I find the iPhone more than adequate for my social media shenanigans, which is not a whole lot compared to generation Z. I need good looking pictures in certain cases and I've seen the difference in having my social circle expanded because of it. I don't need a pro camera.
baz00 3y ago
Some of the modern mirrorless cameras are tiny and integrate with things like apple photos (via snapbridge in my case mine). I was doing most of my editing on my phone until recently.
- shinycode 3y ago
  True but they cost more that my iPhone which can do much more than photos … with the budget I’ll probably have a mirrorless

londons_explore 3y ago

How did you manage to get such bad output from a pixel 6A? Is that a tight crop from one corner, or taken in darkness?

baz00 3y ago
Just default zoom. Digital assistance at its finest. If it was an unprocessed crop it'd be workable into something that doesn't look like an oil painting by Dall-E
- olabyne 3y ago
  But what do you expect from a fixed lens exactly ? Digital zoom is not a zoom. Just a crop.
  - baz00 3y ago
    Well the thing is it's not just a crop. It's a crop plus adding a lot of processing to make it not look like a crop. Instead it looks like a crap!
- The_Colonel 3y ago
  You can configure Pixel to take JPEGs + RAWs. Your picture looks pretty good when looking at it zoomed-out (small picture), it gets really bad only when you zoom in. But then this was likely heavily (digitally) zoomed, so even the original RAW crop likely wouldn't be usable in anything other than small format.

neogodless 3y ago

It felt like there was an arc, where the hardware was getting better as they shrank components and managed to do decent things with the small lenses. Light computational touches were fine! But then things seemed to get weird. I had a Samsung S21 Ultra, and while it did some neat party tricks, I tended to dislike most of the photos, especially if you get anywhere near 100% view. Just so much automatic editing that maybe looks OK for a compressed web photo, but is not a high quality photo. I'm on a OnePlus 9 Pro and I am back to loving taking photos with it. They aren't as "impressive" as the 10x zoom photos, but they look good and do not look massively overworked. But it makes me nervous for when I need a replacement and have to come forward on this arc.

matwood 3y ago

OTHO, I find myself using my iPhone camera more and more. It's fast and easy on so many shots. I tend to leave a long zoom on my z5, giving me the ability take all types of shots really easily. This way I can skip lens swapping so much. At the end of the day, they are all tools with pros and cons. Use what works for you.