cambriaman Loc: Central CA Coast

This morning's Los Angeles Times Travel section showed the results of the Times' Summer Vacation Photo Contest. Fourteen images were published. Seven of them were taken by iPhone (6) or other Smartphone (Samsung)! The remainder were taken by Canon (2), Nikon (2), Panasonic Lumix (2) and an uncredited camera (1). All were excellent images, at least as far as newspaper-quality printing shows. I think we will see more of this in the future in public, broad-appeal photo competitions. If everyone has a camera with them and uses them, there are bound to be a lot of decent cellphone camera images just because of the rule of large numbers!

Racmanaz Loc: Sunny Tucson!

It's a wonderful thing isn't it? :) Photographic equality for all. ;)

G Brown Loc: Sunny Bognor Regis West Sussex UK

No and No......Technology allows people to do 'some' things badly and yet remain in post....How many documents do you read and think 'this must have been written by someone with English as a second language'.

Photographic equality? How many contradictory suggestions does a photographer have to listen to when asking where to crop an image: never mind the 'value' of an image.

Roll on Artificial Intelligence....it will get rid of the wannabee's

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

For the most part there's no way to look at the images and say what camera / type of camera was used (beyond the details in the captions). With some experience, you can guess at the minimum focal length needed, but nothing else. Hopefully, some of those with the worst cases of GAS will note a camera discontinued 11-years ago was included in the Gallery (Rebel XT). New leaders like the D500 and 5DIV are included with superb examples, but the images are not obviously different or better when presented in this format with other equally interesting images. (Love the llama!)

Regarding phone vs DSLR, the better phone work has also been processed ... A few do seem SOOC ...

The link is http://www.latimes.com/travel/la-tr-reader-summer-photos-20170917-htmlstory.html

Thanks for the heads up cambriaman!

Racmanaz Loc: Sunny Tucson!

I think it's a great thing that those who can not afford to flop down hundreds or thousands of dollars on a DSLR can now compete with just a phone camera, why do you feel threatened by this? "Technology allows people to do 'some' things badly and yet remain in post"? Yes, but it also allows those people to do some things very well.....it's unstable and you will just have to deal with the consequences or embrace it and rise above it. :)

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Right! It's the image that counts. Lots of people take better pictures with their cell phones than I do with a D750.

insman1132 Loc: Southwest Florida

Sort of brings to light the old saying, "It is not the camera that takes the picture, it is the photographer!" Wasn't it Ansel Adams who once said, "A good photographer can get a great picture with a pin hole camera!"?

chasgroh Loc: Buena Park, CA

...totally agree! I think of my phone camera as another tool. It does great "flat" work when I'm not carrying one of my bigs. Subject matter/composition rules...

Racmanaz Loc: Sunny Tucson!

DXO to test phone cameras more seriously now testing Zoom, Bokeh, low light ability.


https://www.slrlounge.com/dxo-to-test-phone-cameras-more-seriously-now-testing-zoom-bokeh-low-light-ability/

rook2c4 Loc: Philadelphia, PA USA

If I were to select my top 20 favorite images I've captured over the years, the list of images would represent the use of a variety of different cameras - DSLR, pocket cameras, film cameras, and probably a few from my phone camera as well. Ultimately, it's the content and impact of the image that matters, not which camera was used.

LFingar Loc: Claverack, NY

If you are judging a photo on such things as subject, composition, color, and so forth, then there is no reason why smartphones can't compete quite well against a purpose-built camera, such as a DSLR. It's when you start enlarging the print size, cropping, or enlarging the view screen that you will start to see where most smartphone cameras fall short. The fact is though that in today's world the vast majority of people never view their photos on anything but their phone screen or Facebook page.
I still can't understand why so many "real photographers" get so bothered by the fact that now just about everyone has a camera and that some of them even have the nerve to enter photo contests. The shame of it all! Probably similar to the attitude of the Pierce-Arrow owners when Henry Ford introduced the Model T. "Well, there goes the neighborhood. Now everyone will have a car and I won't be special anymore".
Quality will still rise to the top, both in cameras and the results they produce.

Murray Loc: New Westminster

Agree completely.