jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Each has its advantages, but I don't see wedding photographers shooting a wedding with a phone. Basically, cameras are better. Some good links below -

https://www.att.com/techbuzz/trending-now/smartphone-vs-digital-cameras-do-you-need-both/
https://feltmagnet.com/photography/Best-Smartphone-for-Photography-DSLR

adm

Cameras may become "obsolete" for the mass market but not for those who see photography as a passion or really care about image quality. They are becoming more and more of a niche market for professionals and serious hobbyists. Camera phones are the instamatics and disc cameras of their day. If one has only a casual interest in taking pictures to record events, why spend the money for a camera when you already have one on your phone? Having said that, I recently went to an event where there was a surprising number of people using real cameras, mostly DSLRs.

SuperflyTNT Loc: Manassas VA

Do we really need to hash this out at least once every week?

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

A side effect from this being a forum and so many members.
It probably happens on all the other forums also.
It's something I have accepted.
Moving on...

jiminnee

I have a Canon SX510. Pretty basic low priced camera,but it's what I can afford. It has just enough features that it can be adjusted to take a better picture than a phone camera under certain conditions. Under the right conditions, the phone camera actually seems to do a pretty decent job & oftentimes is handier. The only pictures I take are basically for my own collection;no professional shots. I think the handiness factor is the most attractive feature for phone cameras

Fotoartist Loc: Detroit, Michigan

Cameras going obsolete will make good photographs more valuable.

ngrea Loc: Sandy Spring, Maryland

Phones are going to win the battle because they are there more often. The best camera is the one you have with you.
That doesn’t mean more complex cameras will die completely; because some people will enjoy the challenge of manual settings and different lenses.

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

And today's phone cameras are way better than the old Instamatics.

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

A camera is a camera, standalone or in a phone. Go see what Emil Pakarklis can do with an iPhone and Snapseed on YouTube.

xt2 Loc: British Columbia, Canada

With where phone hybrids are heading, they are cameras! Yes, somewhat limited, but so much better than what we called "cameras" just a few years ago. Matthew must have seen this coming... "And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet." Mt 24:6-8

Cheers!

hammond

A camera can be created in many formats; but whether its as part of a mobile device or a dedicated DSLR or MILC, it is ultimately machine that captures light to create an image.
The most simple explenation I offer people who ask me this question is that a dedicated camera and quality lens are able to physically capture and control light in ways that a small mobile lens and sensor cannot.
This does not mean you can't take great pictures with a phone cam, but you are inherently capturing less light with a smaller device.
Phones have steadily improved sensor resolution, and so too have DSLRs and MILC format cameras.
Beyond that, are the lenses that arguably have an even greater impact on the type of images one can create. I show people images I've captured with an fisheye at 8mm, a wide angle at 10mm, a 600mm telephoto, or a 58mm f1.4 and they seem to understand it better than trying to explain the phisics of it all.
Most of then seem to get it.

Of course, I also have plenty of pictures taken with my mobild phone of which I am equally proud.

Dannj

Phones take great pictures for a lot of people and that’s a good thing. They can capture things on the spot, share events, preserve memories. I was on vacation recently and took almost as many pics with my phone as I did with my DSLR. I’ll spend more time editing the DSLR than the phone pics but it’s nice to have the phone pics on hand to share casually with friends/family.

haren

Anyone compare the cost differance?

BigDaddy Loc: Pittsburgh, PA

Good post processing works great on cell phone pics as well as DSLR pics. My daughter who lives in Denver, takes only cell phone pictures of my granddaughter and posts them online where I can download them in Pittsburgh, process them, print them or put them on my desktop background slide shows, or web page. The pictures are fantastic, especially after I photoshop them. After almost 50 years of taking pictures with SLR's and then DSLR's, I have (almost) quit taking pictures with the DSLR's. When I compare my pictures, the DSLR is no better than the cells. The good pics are good, the bad ones bad.

The cells today take very good pictures with no effort. Shooters can focus almost completely on the most difficult part of picture taking, and that is subject and composition. If they miss, you can usually fix it in any good photo editor, same as a DSLR photo.

For years I've heard the mantra that it's not the camera, it's the shooter. Well, I never fully agreed with that but I sure get the point, and cell phones are more than "good enough", they are generally fantastic.
No, they don't have a 600mm lens, but neither does any of my DSLR's. My cell camera has 3 lenses, one for normal, one for long distance, and one for selfie's.

DSLR's will not go away, just as buggy whips, blacksmiths and film will likely never go away. That's not a bad or good thing, it's just what is.

There may be a real downside to cells though, and that is the abundance of pictures flying around, good, bad and ugly has become humongous, and this is causing photo interest to seriously wane, at least as I know/knew it.

For example, a big thing today is SnapChat. You take pictures and send them instantly to all your "friends". The pictures automatically disappear, never to be seen again, and this includes movies. You can take a screen shot, but often they put text and crap over the pic so it is pretty lame. So it's much worse than not printing pics, kids today don't seem to want to keep pictures at all, just look and toss. I myself have noticed that after 50 years of looking at millions of pictures, I spend way less time looking at even great pictures (other than of my granddaughter). If a picture on UHH causes me to pause more than a second, it's a rare, fantastic picture of a fantastic subject/composition. I thought it was just me being old and curmudgeonly, but realistically, I think it's just photo saturation, been there, done that so many times it's getting old. Kids today get there in WAY less time I reckon, thanks to the cell phone.

berchman Loc: South Central PA

I can put a clamp on my Induro tripod to hold my iPhone and using Slow Shutter Cam together with a Bluetooth remote shutter release I can take long exposures with a phone. Advice: A little research goes a long way.