And I want to let you in on a little secret I have known for quite some time... your phone is NOT the only camera you need to take on vacation. Oh, the smartphone industry would like you to believe otherwise and spends lots of advertising dollars to promote the camera-aspect of their smartphones, often over their phone functionality, but how many times have you seen photos on Facebook or Instagram of a grainy dinner-in-a-low-light-restaurant pic or an other-worldly-looking flash portrait? Or blurry toddlers (especially their hands) making the great escape? And the list goes on and on.
Geoffrey Fowler, a personal technology columnist for The Wall Street Journal, conducted a test on a recent family vacation in Paris. He took every photograph TWICE, once with his smartphone (iPhone 6 Plus) and once with a mirrorless digital camera (Samsung NX1). I think his family deserves an award for going along with this test. When he and his family looked through their vacation photos, the overwhelming majority of the ones they wanted to print or post were from the "real" camera, not the smartphone.
I commend Fowler for analyzing his photos not just for which ones he liked best but also asking himself why he liked them better. This is a step most hobby photographers skip because it takes time - sometimes a lot of time - and can also be painful when you realize what you captured was not what you wanted to. But in doing so, he determined he (and I would venture to guess, most people) liked the photos that told a story - ones zoomed in to the action or that capture the drama in low-light situations. He preferred the subjects to be sharp and crisp but the backgrounds soft so his eye knew right where to go for the story.
For his test, Fowler used higher end equipment, both smartphone and digital camera. I have a small point-and shoot camera (about $200) that consistently outperforms the camera on my iPhone 5S. It fits in a pocket or slips in my purse. The only downside is that I cannot instantly upload photos to FaceBook or Instagram but that's a small price to pay for not just good photos but great ones.
My camera of choice when weight and size are not an issue is my dSLR. My iPhone is fine for those impromptu photo ops but when I know I will want photos of something or someone and don't want to lug a big camera around, I take my point-and-shoot. I think it's a great compromise and have never regretted having it with me.
My point-and-shoot camera is smaller in length and width and only ¾" "fatter" than my iPhone.
Certainly the smartphone is fast, convenient and very portable but often what's easy isn't what's best.
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