uhaas2009

The best camera is the one you have in your hand.....😉

Retina Loc: Near Charleston,SC

Speaking of skin mutilation, good light, a pocket ruler, and a cell phone are perfectly adequate for tracking changes in epithelial dysplasias as well as any D850 with a Medical-NIKKOR.

Fredrick Loc: Former NYC, now San Francisco Bay Area

dino21 Loc: McAllen, TX

Yes but not to post online. People used to carry pictures in their wallet for personal use but not post them worldwide. It is a mental disorder.

olemikey Loc: 6 mile creek, Spacecoast Florida

My daughter did that recently. Deleted her fb account and didn't cull and/or backup photos. All lost. I still couldn't gift her a camera, to inconvenient, so was backing up photos. Oh well..........

Shooter313

A number of years ago a photo magazine did a "cell phone" photo contest. I couldn't believe that many of them had even come from cell phones! Some were quite amazing photographs.
It would be interesting to see them do it again, with the newer cell phone camera capabilities of today.

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

I am reluctant to call anyone a "snob", mainly because I don't subscribe to name calling and deriding others. I do find, however, that many folks' interests in photography are biased with a preoccupation with equipment as opposed to artfulness and technique. Many will associate themselves with a particular brand of camera- to a fault! Many approach things with what I call reverse thinking in that they aspire to the latest and greatest equipment somehow believing that this will facilitate their mastery of the craft as opposed to mustering their talents and honing their skills, perhaps on more modest equipment and advancing to more sophisticated gear as they outgrow the equipment that might be posing limitations to their work. I feel this is a misconception or misapprehension as opposed to outright snobbery.

Beyond these misunderstandings, there is some rather silly stereotyping- all this talk about things like "white lenses" connote professionalism or someone with a virtual "camera store" hanging around their neck means that they are a good photographer- not necessarily so!

Many folks in this forum complain about the mistaken notion on the part of non-photographers that a good camera makes a good photographer. They become upset when someone says, "wow, that camera of your takes great pictures" and the post here, asking for suggestions as to how to retort with some kind witty answer. Yet, many of the folks who are upset by this mistaken notion, are actually operating under the same misconception- perhaps subconsciously?

Almost from the very beginnings of photography, there have always been both complex and sophisticated ways and means of making photographs for the scientifically, technically and perhaps artistically inclined and accompanied by a simple way for the average "consumer". In the very early days, photographic practitioners were found (sometimes dead) working in a mysterious darkened room with poisonous chemicals and evil-smelling vapors and the may have been perceived as "mad scientists". Professional cameras were massive wooden boxes with brass barreled lenses- the flash was supplied by gunpowder-like incendiary explosives- not stuff for the casual amateur. Remember, George Eastman did not invent photography, he just popularized it. He created a consumer-friendly box camera and told folks to "press the button (click-snap) and leave the rest to us"!- or something like that.

So..there has always been professionals and advanced amateurs who used or craved more complicated gear and the folks who just want to push a button! All the cellphone cameras did is replace the Brownies, Instamatics, Polaroid ( "A picture in a Minute" was a big deal- now it's instantaneous) and all the other point-and-shoot cameras that ran right into the digital age! Even so, not everyone had a camera but nowadays just about everyone has a cellphone- excuse me- a "DEVICE"! That's great, moor folks are taking pictures, using photography to record just about everything in their daily lives, and using the devices for great visual communication. Theses DEVICEs are absolutely wonderful in that the average amateur "snapshots" are usually better than ever before and in the hands of a truly visually talented person, some of y'all would be surprised as to what can be produced! Besides, it's fun! It's handy to have a photographic device that you can keep in your shirt pocket and use spontaneously.

For serious amateurs and professionals, these devices will not replace a full-featured DSLR or mirrorless camera. Obviously, they can not be fitted with all the highly specialized lenses and a vast range of focal lengths that are required for many kinds of work. Presently they cannot be synchronized with more sophisticated flash systems. The pixel counts in cellphone cameras are getting up there but they are not yet in the domain of the latest full-frame bodies. Seriously though, how many casual snapshooters are viewing their image on the Jumbotron at the local arena or are producing photo murals or billboards. Many prolific amateurs are not even making prints and view all of there work on a computer screen.

All that happened is that the cell phone, Smartphone, and iPhone cameras have replaced many of the point-and-shoot cameras in the marketplace. You will see more of them in public, at events, and at tourist attractions mainly because everyone has one- well just about.

As a full-time professional photographer, I find my cell phone camera an indispensable accessory. I use it to record setups for teaching purposes, I can exchange images with clients and art directors for remote locations. I use it when I am scouting locations, selecting and hiring models, doing quick edits on-site and love to take it with me on my days off when I am tired of lugging around a carload of gear- just for fun!

Anyway, last I heard, "snobbism" is not a mental illness, a psychological disorder or an addiction. One can choose to be a snob- or not!

williamfales

I agree with @Strodav

Larry22

Good morning, I'm not sure how to get a question answered, this is my dilima I'm pondering being buying the new Nikon 70-200 F 2.8 instead of upgrading my Nikon D800 that Is in perfect condition. My current 80-200 F 2.8 is old but in very good condition, thinking what Is best ?

bertloomis Loc: Fort Worth, Texas

I have two pet peeves about cell phone photos and videos. The first is all the selfies where people linger taking their selfie photos and videos and blocking the view for you.

The second is the fact that almost all are taken in vertical format. Even videos although I have never seen a commercial movie in vertical format. How would CinemaScope look to you in vertical format? Pretty lousy, just like these cell phone videos.

Horizontal format is appropriate for most photos. If vertical works better it is pretty obvious. But these folks take vertical shots because their cell phone is used in vertical format when calling and it is basically a vertical device. It kind of shows they know nothing about photography.

Joe51 Loc: Connecticut

I see that a lot too, and wonder the same thing. I think cell phone cameras have there place but they are not going to produce the same quality photo as your DSLR. Cell phones take great pictures if the scene is well lit. But not so much if it's a dark scene or it's a back lit scene. Your DSLR will give you lots of options for dealing with these types of situations. They also use a software zoom; not an optical zoom. But cell phones do have their place. My wife uses hers all the time when we travel. She can share her photos with friends immediately; whereas it takes me a week or two after our travels to share my photos. (I have started to use my cell phone for about 1% of my travel photos just so I can share them immediately. )

Also, I can zoom in and crop just 1/4 of the frame and get a presentable photo; I don't think you're going to do that with a cell phone.

Cell phones have their place, especially for people who only want to point and shoot. So don't give up your DSLR. And no, you're not a snob.

Retina Loc: Near Charleston,SC

Vertical orientation used to make me wonder, too, until I realized that occasional video shot in portrait mode are almost always expected to be viewed on a phone.

carl hervol Loc: jacksonville florida

you are so right I hardly take out my dslr, the pictures off my Samsung are ever bit as good I don't need to try to impress some one as an experiment I shot a wedding with my cell phone and the people could not believe the 11/14 prints

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

I've noticed that casual photographers with "real" cameras tend to always shoot horizontal photos and don't think to turn the camera sideways for photos which make more sense in vertical orientation.

LCD

I remember when black and white photographs took a week to develop from the local drug store, how they were placed in albums, and how the albums came out on special occasions. I remember the magic of a darken room, when the home movies were threaded in the Bell and Howell projector. I remember the click-click-click as Kodachrome slides slipped from their place in the carousal projector and the images (once called magic lantern pictures) appeared the the screen. The plenitude and ubiquitousness of today's imaging technology has cheapen our appreciation of those captured moments. If done by a brownie box camera, as my grandparents did, or a Canon Ftb as I later did in my college years, those moments were preserved in hard copy. The quality of even a mediocre cell phone these days exceeded what my parents could do with their Kodak camera in the 1960's at our Myrtle Beach vacation. How many of today's image files will be around for our descendants in 2060? Even if they were all safely stored up there in the Big Data Cloud, the shear number snapped every day is making the family photo album an impossibly large tome, one that our grandchildren will probably never be tempted to causally leaf through on a rainy Sunday afternoon.