Rrmaas

What do you say to people who ask, "Why don't you just use your phone for taking pictures?" I get that frequently.

PAR4DCR Loc: A Sunny Place

You shoot with what you want and I will shoot with I want, case closed. End of story.

Don

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

If all I wanted was pictures, an iphone would be sufficient. I tend to want to make photographs. For that, a camera is required.
--Bob

Eric2018 Loc: Los Angeles, CA, USA

I tell them sometimes I do just use my phone.

Strodav Loc: Houston, Tx

Let's do a thought experiment. I'll take a knowledgeable photography buddy birding at a wildlife preserve and I am to provide the equipment. I give him a smartphone. I pick up my Nikon D500 with 200-500mm f/5.6. Who do you think will get more keepers? How about for sports? My buddy might have a shot at some types of portraits and landscapes.

Grahame Loc: Fiji

I would answer that I don't carry a phone around with me.

Designdweeb Loc: Metro NYC & East Stroudsburg, PA

The difference between humming a tune and composing a song? That said, I've won Press Association awards with my iPhone images, but rarely, compared to my Nikons.

Keen

A phone camera is great....when you have nothing better, or the better is packed away, and inaccessible. Speeding down the freeway, watching a reckless driver swerving wildly in, and out, from lane to lane, nearly crashing, is a great time to video it with a cell phone just before you call the cops. When shooting a safari, for National Geographic, use something more professional. Fit the tool to the task. For personal family picnic images for the family photo album, 8MP, 10MP, 12MP, or whatever cell phone pix are fine. When shooting someone's wedding, product shots for local jewelers, or even just your own 'once in a lifetime' vacation, go with something more...more megapixels, sharper lenses, better flash unit, etc. The more important a shot is, the more imaging capability you should bring to the task. If friends want to use cell phones for all of their photos, that is fine for them. If you want to use something more for your shots, that is fine for you.

Keen

You can 'take photos', or you can 'make images'.

JD750 Loc: SoCal

I think what they are really asking is “what is better about that camera?”

I usually say “Phone cameras take great pictures. Phone cameras are very good at what they are designed to do. I use my phone sometimes, actually often. But I enjoy creative photography, and the camera gives me options for changing things, like lenses and exposure settings, and depth of field, and shutter speeds, and those things gives me greater creative control. I also prefer a viewfinder and being able to hold the camera next to my face which helps to steady the camera and helps me get sharper images.”

rook2c4 Loc: Philadelphia, PA USA

In the right hands and with the right attitude, a camera phone can do amazing stuff.

While visiting a friend, I noticed some truly amazing framed 16x20 landscape photos mounted on his walls. Better than the vast majority of the landscape images I see posted here on UHH. When I asked my friend where he purchased the photographs, he said his wife took all of the pictures on their recent trip to California. To my surprise, I then found out that these images were all captured with a smartphone camera. At up close inspection I could see that there wasn't much fine detail in the prints - as expected. But at normal viewing distance, those details don't really matter... you wouldn't see them anyway, even if they had been there.

I think many photographers have such low expectations of what their smartphone cameras can do, they don't even try to do anything beyond snapshots with it, then accept the resulting images as evidence that the smartphone is not usable for anything but throwaway snapshots. Of course the phone camera has limitations, but if one takes the time and effort to learn how to work within those limitations, one will soon discover that the phone camera is absolutely capable of generating more than snapshots. Particularly if one installs additional apps on the device which can further expand the features of the camera, such as control over shutter speed, ISO and aperture settings.

junglejim1949 Loc: Sacramento,CA

junglejim1949 Loc: Sacramento,CA

Plain and simple!

joer Loc: Colorado/Illinois

It is a reasonable option for many types of photography and far more convenient. At present they can't compete with a ILC but the gap is narrowing.

david vt Loc: Vermont

I really like this reply