jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I'm not comfortable using a phone as a camera. I guess I'm not steady enough, and I always manage to get a finger or two in front of the lens.

Vaun's photography Loc: Bonney Lake, WA

I primarily use my Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G as my camera of choice. I always have it with me! It is good in low light, does pretty well for closeups, and in pro-mode it does well capturing the starry night sky.

If your iPhone has a pro-mode you might get better low light photos. As with any camera, you want your lens to be clean.

sb Loc: Florida's East Coast

On Monday I posted some sunrise photos I took with my iPhone 11 Pro, set in HDR mode. I don't generally like to take my DSLR to the beach. I think they are really good.

http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-750384-1.html

I have a trip to Rome planned for the future, and I think I will upgrade my camera to the iPhone 13 Pro (although the iPhone 14 is expected out this month...) and use that as my only "camera" since I can keep it in a zipped security pocket in my pants. Much easier than lugging a "real" camera around, and since I won't need the reach of a long telephoto it should do fine.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

The best camera you have is the one you have with you when you want or need one!

Don't think for a minute you can't make great images with a smartphone. Most of what you need quite often is in your HEAD, not your HANDS.

That said, there are many things no smartphone can do well (yet). So there is, "room in the box for more than one tool."

For AT LEAST 80% of what the average Jane and Joe, Oingo and Boingo need 80% of the time, the iPhone 13 is a dynamite solution. I'd even say that's a very conservative statement. It's probably over 90% and 90%. Most people with a high end smartphone:

A) Have it near them nearly all day, every day.

B) Use it in place of the point-and-shoot cameras they used to use for MOST of their daily imaging needs.

For those who do what I call INTENTIONAL photography, where every aspect of scene and event capture are considered (pre-meditated, if you will), an adjustable camera with interchangeable lenses is an important tool. It gives you the direct, MANUAL controls you need, when you need them. It gives you the potential to use extreme optics, such as real zooms, super telephotos, wide angles, macro lenses, etc. It gives you a choice of formats from Micro 4/3, to APS-C, to full frame, to medium format. It gives you film options if you use a film camera.

So if that pre-meditative part of photography presents a challenge to a photographer with a smartphone, it presents less of one to a photographer with a smartphone AND an interchangeable lens camera system of some sort.

Especially where telephoto reach is needed (beyond 2X normal lens focal length), actual long lenses are practically required. Smartphones don't have real telephoto optics built into them. (You can bolt them on, but that's just cumbersome, weird, and doesn't work very well.) You really do need a 16X OPTICAL zoom if you are photographing birds and wildlife at a distance, for a calendar. Cropping a 12 megapixel smartphone image digitally to get that 16X normal result is not going to cut it. I wouldn't waste time trying.

I borrowed a 100 to 400mm Leica zoom for my Lumix GH4 once. It has a 4X normal to 16X normal zoom range (equivalent to 200 to 800mm on a full frame camera). It was perfect for the event (bird feeder video and still photography). My iPhone stayed in my camera bag.

The iPhone 14 will be announced on September 7, at 1:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time, US. The faithful fone freaks and the tech rumor mill are already drooling. This year, I'm joining them, since my iPhone 7 Plus with dying battery won't be supported on the upcoming iOS 16.

One more thing... There really isn't a 'versus' here. If you buy a smartphone, there are at least two million reasons to do so. They're called apps, or software applications. The camera is also a reason to buy it, but the iPhone isn't just a camera. It's an Internet-connected supercomputer in your pocket or purse. I use my phone for at least 100 other things besides photography and video. My serious camera just records stills and video. But I only use it for INTENTIONAL photography...

LenCreate

I have a D7100 and a D500 and use them for special photos and/or when I need more control. Like you, I also have an iPhone XS Max and I use it for casual photos with good results. I didn’t want the bulk of a camera and lenses on an Alaskan cruise a year ago and used my phone. Photos certainly weren’t as good as they might have been with a camera, but they were acceptable as memories.

Doyle Thomas Loc: Vancouver Washington ~ USA

its not the camera. but. iphone may be good for street Photography because ppl are used to seeing them

GLSmith Loc: Tampa, Fl

I have yet to hear directly from any Apple employee, or on their website, who is the actual manufacturer of the lens. Another thing is the lens actually optic glass.....My last observation, is the lens is continuously exposed to dust, dirt etc & how many people have accidentally place their fingerprints on it in handling.

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

There have always been "lazy people" who just want to take good snapshots - the motto for the original Kodak camera was "You push the button, we do the rest." In the past those people used point and shoot film cameras. With today's phone cameras they can get much better photographs than they could in the film days. And for highly skilled photographers, they can produce exhibition worthy photographs.

kenArchi Loc: Seal Beach, CA

My wife takes better pictures. Because my composition is not as good as hers.
She has a better eye than me.

Settlit Loc: Baton Rouge LA

Last week, found myself looking at this fleeting sunset. The only camera with me was my iPhone 13 Pro.

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burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Why would the manufacturer of the lens be important, if you like the results?*

YES, the lens is always exposed. It is protected by a very hard piece of clear ruby, if I recall.

I've been using iPhones and their cameras since the iPhone 3Gs in 2009. I quickly developed the habit of wiping the lens with a clean bit of my shirt fabric to remove any dust and finger oils. YES, normal handling will fingerprint the lens. DO clean it, or your photos will be foggy or flared. A good case can help keep your fingers off the camera, but inevitably, it will get dusty and greasy with finger oil. Wipe before use!

*Does Apple ever talk about their component sources as if that matters? No, unless their own chip designs are the subject (such as the A15 system on a chip in the iPhone 13). Do they talk about how much RAM is onboard? No, not usually, because the iOS RAM management and swap memory using a super-fast SSD makes it much less important than it would be on a PC.

Apple sells results. They don't sell specs. They are FULL STACK hardware AND software developers, meaning they design their own processors (as systems on chips, integrating many sub-systems). They design their own devices and spec everything in them. They write the operating system for their hardware designs, and they write the software for many of the applications on the phone, Mac, etc. Then they CURATE the third-party software in the App Store for compatibility, safety, and ethical responsibility.

I've used Apple stuff since 1984. The one lesson Steve Jobs taught the company when he was there was that, "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts." It's a lesson, a philosophy, and way of work that has stood the test of time. You can lose in benchmark comparisons and still win in real-world performance tests, as demo after demo by third parties has shown with the new Macs. Winning the performance match takes more than one feature or strength.

What makes the difference in the Apple user experience is the intelligence engineered throughout the entire ecosystem. If your Apple device doesn't work, you can blame them or a third party developer. If your Android or Intel or AMD device doesn't work, whom do you blame? It could be Microsoft or Google. It could be a maker of a card you installed. It could be a third party RAM vendor. It could be the third party software developer. It could be the guy at Rock Bottom Price Computers who assembled the system.

It can ALWAYS be the user who fingerprinted the lens or shook the phone too hard during exposure...

Good results can be had with smartphones if you know their limits and practice good technique. But PLEASE, for your own sanity, buy the smartphone for the dozens and dozens of other good reasons you will use it. It just happens to make phone calls and photos and videos. You'll be happy you bought it for all the other things, too.

bnsf

The only problem with an iPhone and any other Smartphone camera is that when you are taking fast moving sports or action photos the phones shutter and iso setting cannot keep up with moving shots. Also, a cellphone camera does not have the capability of taking nighttime photos. This is where a digital camera beats out an iPhone or cellphone camera. Plus, there are settings with a digital camera that you do not have with a cellphone camera. So, iPhone and cellphone camera are nice to take photos of still items any camera takes still photos great.

neillaubenthal

Newer iPhone cameras are better than the Xs Max like you and I have…but even they are pretty darned good. Low light capabilities really started improving with the 12 and 13 but even the 11 is better than the Xs was. For a camera you have with you *all* the time it's excellent and even for photos you're just putting in the blog or instagram or whatever it's just fine…especially if you stick to focal lengths that are accomplished by optical zoom and not digital zoom which really isn't zoom at all but computer magic but fewer pixels on target than optical zoom.

Wingpilot Loc: Wasilla. Ak

I shot this with my iPhone 13 Pro Max. At night. Not too bad.

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Wingpilot Loc: Wasilla. Ak

This is an excellent discussion and could easily be included on the smartphone photography forum section of UHH. There are some for whom their cellphone is either their sole or primary camera. That section includes some interesting and excellent photos taken with cellphone cameras, as well as other, technical and interesting topics related to smartphone photography.