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Phone Photography
Will It Replace The Traditional Camera

Another one of those topics that photographers feel strongly about is Phone Photography. There is not even the need to put the word “phone” in that subject any more. Phone camera development will not suddenly stop, and I expect that like Hasselblad, that other camera makers will team up with phone makers in development of the camera in the phone.

I have seen and heard remarks from other photographers that get fired up when people/photographers are making images with a phone and implying they are just as credible of a photographer. And if you really want to stir the pot… just imagine the ire that builds when a pro photographer sees the add shown here for the grip that makes your phone a “pro camera”.

At the same time they can trash the ability that a phone has in capturing photos, they forget to realize that legends like Ansel Adams made several famous images with his parents Brownie. Even George Eastman would emphasize that it’s not about the camera but rather the desire to make a photo.

I would guess that photographers using “real cameras” will claim the phone can’t make as good of an image. I personally am guilty of thinking that as well. So, I decided to actually find out just how good of an image my iPhone 12 will make. When I look at the specs of it, they far exceed my early digital cameras like the Nikon D100 that I owned in the past.

The Nikon D100 was a 6mp camera but my iPhone has a 12mp camera with a 26mm and 13mm lens. Since I no longer have the D100 of course, I will give a run with my new Nikon Z7 and it's 45.7mp image to see how it does compared the iPhone.

The Quick Shot
My first test was just a typical quick shot that I would typically shoot if I was on a trip somewhere or something memorable that I wanted to grab a snapshot.

My first challenge was to find a similar focal range with my Z Glass 24-70mm. Although the iPhone is 26mm, I am not really sure it is like 26mm on my camera. Getting about the same scene with the Z7 ended up being 30mm as you can see the examples in the pop up window.

The resulting image for the iPhone was 4032 x 3024 pixel @72ppi. and the Z7 with 8256 x 5504 pixels @ 300ppi. Image size is very important to me since I am developing most of my images for print Print/Gallery use and often will print at 20" x 30" as well as for image compositing. But for the sake of comparing, I am still going to look at some other attributes of the two camera types. But overall for making a quick snapshot, the convenience of the phone camera doesn't really compromise the image. And with its 10 x 13 print size, it could satisfy a lot of photographers printing needs.

Color Temperature was similar in the two but a little warmer in the iPhone as you can notice in the shadows of the roadway. Also there is a haze color tint noticeable in the headlight of the iPhone image compared to the much cooler temperature in the Z7 headlight section. And you will notice a quite noticeable difference in the shadow details. Although they could be darkened in the iPhone image, you can't really lighten shadows with an iPhone jpeg since the data isn't in the image like it would be a RAW file just in case I wanted to lighten them.

Looking back at one of my carry-around cameras of the past such as the Nikon Cool Pix, the iPhone makes a far superior image. Hands down, the phone as a everyday pocket / event camera does a very satisfactory job of capturing those quick images. All without the need to keep up with carrying around your specialized 35mm style digital camera.

The eBay Product Shot
For me, a very common image need is in the macro arena, weather it be for an eBay auction, commercial product shoot or even my onesixtyfourth.info catalog of die cast cars. Another common scene for me is slot cars and slot racing images that I have offered in my web shoppe.

Just as in the outdoor setting, the indoor images also have the warm color cast and temperature with the iPhone images. The Z7 also has a much cooler temperature in the indoors as well.
Note: I could change the color temperature setting in the Z7, but I prefer a cooler temperature as my default setting.

Since I can more precisely set the focus point and the aperture in the Z7, I have far greater control over the Depth Of Field. The iPhone also has that same boosted saturation and richness as it did in the outdoor setting. But overall, for making a quick image for an eBay auction, the iPhone once again does a adequate job of it. Although if I needed an extreme macro image for an auction, I would have to capture the image further away and crop to the desired simulated macro area I wanted to show.

While the iPhone image may suffice for an auction photo, it will not work for me in creating art works of slot racing as I have in the past with my DSLR and a Macro lens. As shown in the last example in this bunch, I can not control the Depth of Filed as easily or as well as I want to.

When it comes to the thousands of images in my onesixtfourth.info catalog, I have always used a 35mm style camera and macro lens. In an effort to dig deeper into what the iPhone can do for me, I gave a test run at shooting this scene and zooming in close as well.

As in the previous iPhone images, there is a noticeable difference in Color Temperature and Depth of Field plus the perspective distortion that has also been apparent.

For this set of example images I corrected the iPhone Color Temperature to match a little closer to the Z7. There is a noticeable difference in the sharpness of the tampo print on the side of the car. Although the iPhone sharpness is acceptable, it fails in comparison to the sharpness of the Z7 image. And although this type of scene would probably not be what the typical phone photographer would shoot, there are still plenty of people that use their phone for product shots instead of paying a studio or "Pro" to shoot them.

So far in all of the comparisons, I could in fact just use the iPhone and not need a dedicated camera. For quick snap shots, eBay product shots and even my onesixtyfourth images could all be handled by the iPhone. While there may be certain aspects every now and then that give the nod to the Z7, they are not big enough differences to merit the need for a $3000 camera that I can't text or make calls with.

The Proof Is In The Printing
Of course in my mind we are still only looking at unfinished photography since I have not printed any of the images yet. That should be the proof I need to really say that a phone camera is just as a credible tool in making photographs as and dedicated DSLR or Mirror less Camera would be.

I loaded up a couple recent iPhone images into Photoshop to print at 10"x13" @ 300ppi. The resulting print was rather astonishing and certainly would rival early DSLR cameras in image quality. These first two images printed were in lower light situations but other than the iPhone not able to reproduce as many dark shadow shade, it makes up for it in the very wide gamut of mid tones and highlights it produces. With a few tweaks in Photoshop there is no way to look at it and know it was from a phone camera.

Next up its same 2 test images from the beginning of the article. being printed to 10"x13" and no treatments in Photoshop other than click the "Print" button . If I was to cut them apart and show anyone both prints in random and even side by side, you would not be able to tell which print was from the iPhone. Of course at 20"x30", of course you would see the iPhone image can't really print the same quality at that magnification. If my print needs never went beyond 10x13, then I wouldn't really need to shoot with a 35mm style camera.

I could go on and on, and I did actually make some more test... but it's quite evident so far that the phone camera is quite capable in most photo situations and even some select special requirements. For those specialized topics such as large prints, image compositing, RAW image data and a few others, then you already know that you probably wouldn't use your phone. Yet at the same time you must realize that the current phone cameras on the market do an absolutely amazing job.

But... There are Some Limitations After all
Even when using one of the specialized camera apps, you can set ISO and shutter speeds, although I haven't seen any apps that let you set an aperture though. But you can take a lot more control over the exposure with camera apps.

There are auxiliary lens you can put on many phone cameras to make them super wide angle, telephoto or even macro. Gadgets like this can really make your phone camera quite the image maker. Since my iPhone is already providing very good images and large enough to print at high resolution, these auxiliary lens would give the phone camera a lot more potential.

Even with all the bells & whistles I could get for my iPhone, it would never become my go-to camera for a multitude of reasons. The biggest reason would be how far back I go in my journey in photography. I like the feeling of a camera in my hands and the tool it is with the settings you make on it to hopefully capture the vision you see.

There are quite few subjects that I shoot regularly and the iPhone would actually not work out.. or as easily and predictably as my Z7. Those being Auto Racing at Road Atlanta, Shooting for the Airport Authority (Or any other commercial shoot), Shooting any sports and there is no way I would show up with an iPhone to a paying client for portraits or wedding.

This project hasn't changed my mind to where I will shoot some stuff with the iPhone. But I have discovered that I needed a quick shot of something and needed to print it on paper... that it would produce a very good print. Other than that, I will continue to shoot with my Z7 and use the phone for calls and texting.