Choosing between a camera and a smartphone

@Nando, people often say: you can't compare apples and pears. Yet they have one important similarity. They are both fruit.
I found your article interesting to read.
I mainly use my smartphone for social media, as a route planner or for photography apps such as photopills. I absolutely hate taking photos with a smartphone and so I always buy a smartphone where the camera is of no importance to me. I look at other options instead.
Many people post their photos, even when they were taken with an ordinary (system) camera, on social media and then expect feedback on their photos. I do look at them on my smartphone, but I don't give feedback yet. I only give feedback after I have viewed the photos on a large screen. I think that is much fairer. Only then can you judge whether, for example, the sharpness is good or whether there is disturbing noise visible. On a smartphone, almost all photos look good.
Your article does provide, in my opinion, an objective picture of whether or not to use a smartphone when taking photos compared to using a DSLR or mirrorless camera.
I am happy with the article, because it makes you think. I myself came to the conclusion earlier that I absolutely want nothing to do with taking photos with a smartphone. I'll stick with my R7.

I always say when people say that you can also take photos with a smartphone: With a smartphone you make pictures, with a (photo) camera you take photographs.

Everyone is right. You have to choose what you want to do if you really want top quality,(what for top quality) many people will not see that, I often don't either. But if you just want to take ordinary nice and good photos, you can do just fine with a smartphone and don't have to carry four or five kilos of gear with you, and the noise is actually not too bad, the settings are great and the post-processing options are many times greater, and if you then go further and also want to edit your photos a little (or even more) then a whole new world opens up that even you have never dreamed of. This will take an unprecedented flight in the future, just like we looked at drones years ago. Many saw nothing in them, but hasn't this grown enormously, and it will do even more in the future. Hats off to the photographer who already embraced drone photography back then

During my holiday in Iceland last June I took my Canon EOS 80D and my Google Pixel 7 with me.
I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by my Pixel 7. With my 80D, the wide-angle lens is the most used, both for landscapes and in the city. On the Pixel 7 I have 0.7 up to 2.0 available, so reasonably wide-angle to slight telephoto. The way I photograph, that works excellently. And yes, the "photographic" ergonomics of an 80D are much better than those of a Pixel 7. But the freedom of movement of the pixel 7 is much greater. That was a clear advantage in a number of situations where you had less room to maneuver, such as in the mountains and in a "bumpy" boat on a glacial lake. Also making a good panorama is excellent with the pixel 7. On both cameras I photographed in raw. When I later started processing the results at home in Photoshop on a large screen I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the Pixel 7. It was not a "second choice", so to speak. So the same applies to me, not apples and pears but both fruit. Be open to both and take advantage of that.

Only recently took photos with an iPhone X for the first time. To be honest, the results aren't bad, but leaving my Eos 5D mark 4 at home now is not something I can imagine doing. By the way, the ergonomics of a smart phone are more than bad, it's simply awkward. If the sun is shining on the screen, it's a gamble what you are photographing at that moment. I even use LR mobile, what a hassle, not convenient either. And because most people never print the shots and only look at them on the small screen, it seems that a smartphone takes good photos. Nice to always have with you, but for me it's no substitute for a real camera.

Of course you can technically take much better photos with a camera than with your smartphone.
But, how often does it happen that you think "if only I had my camera with me!"
That is where the big difference lies for me.
With my almost always accompanying iPhone 12, I can -especially during the day- take a photo (or video) at any moment in any place, by default in RAW, of things, people or situations that are unique.
Those images, completely driven by coincidence, are often very spontaneous and interesting and can be worked up into a good photo with Affinity.

For a few years now I have been an enthusiastic member of the National Smartphone group, a fully-fledged part of the Royal Photographic Association. After all, our group treats the smartphone as a fully-fledged camera. We will soon have our second expo. I would like to invite all smartphone lovers or smartphone 'haters' to the official opening of our expo entitled: From Analog to Smart-o-log. Come to ZIMIHC theater Zuilen in Utrecht on Saturday 25 November 2023. It is free and parking nearby is free too. At 3 pm our official opening will take place there by Nico Brons, the world-famous and first Dutch photographer to graduate in 2013 with iPhone images from the Photo Academy in Amsterdam. See for yourself the diversity, creativity and quality of the images and form an opinion! We are happy to talk to you
N.B.: the expo runs from 7 Nov 2023 through 7 Jan 2024.

Dear Donald, I also didn't make a comparison, but only wrote what I myself experienced, as one of the few in the Netherlands I was allowed to take aerial photos practically everywhere, but then an aircraft was needed, a pilot was needed, and then I hung out of the window of the Cessna with my K20 cameras weighing 4 kilos, high costs, for pilot and aircraft, the material roll film sheet film, etc. it was quite a lot of costs that you had to make, and now the drone photographer comes by with his drone for a moment and sends his drone wherever he wants it to be, great right. kind regards.
alje

Nice story, and nice reactions. Maybe an idea to nevertheless go a bit deeper into that fruit sometime and take and compare example photos. What is so bad about one or the other. And under what circumstances. I have a Samsung with wonderful photo capabilities and I don't know what all happens inside that phone, but I can do things with it that I can't do with my Canon EOSR5. But the reverse is also true. And yes, if I zoom in 10 times with my phone (1 of its three lenses) then the quality isn't all that great, but the background in macro is nicely blurry. And the quality with sufficient light and normal magnifications in RAW... oops, not a bad phone. And yes, I can call and app with it and I can use photopills to support my Eos R5. Can't do without my phone and I have it with me every day. My EOS R5 isn't always allowed to come along. And yes, should I ever have an unfortunate fall, my EOS R5 can't warn anyone.
PS: did you know that the GPS data of a photo is retrieved by my Eos R5 from my Samsung. A happy couple.

I increasingly come to the conclusion that I’m taking more and more photos with my iPhone and leaving my Sony A7III in the bag more and more often, even though I have it with me.
Especially the weight and portability contribute greatly to this, besides that I notice that I’m being much more creative when taking photos than with the Sony.

What I find a great advantage is that the GPS location is immediately in your EXIF and that you carry a wide range with you in a compact format, 13mm to 120mm (optical)

Take the Apple event Scary Fast as an example, this was filmed entirely with the iPhone 15 Pro Max. Okay, it’s not photography, but it does show how quickly developments are progressing.

https://www.apple.com/nl/newsroom/2023/10/behind-the-scenes-at-scary-fast-apples-keynote-event-shot-on-iphone/

I’ve been taking photos with compact cameras for decades, because I don’t want to carry around a heavy or large camera and I can take a photo very quickly. I have an acquaintance who spends fifteen minutes looking for the right lens and then the bird has already flown away. The last one (Nikon Coolpix) was a bad buy. Within a few years, dirt between the lenses. Until then, I had never even had a smartphone or a GSM. It seemed useful to me that with this kind of thing nothing could get between ‘the lenses’. Besides, my favorite compact camera brand Olympus had stopped making them ages ago. I then looked for a cheap one with lots of MP's. 250 euros for 64MP (Samsung M31) seemed worth trying and I like it a lot. But after some research I leave it on the max setting and just crop a nice part out of the photo at home. Their zoom software is worthless. I also take all photos horizontally and then the shutter button is at the top left in a perfectly good place. It’s also nice and flat and can fit in an inside pocket. No security at all since I want to take a photo directly. No banking details on it. Also a nice big screen to see whether it turned out well.