When mobiles were first revealed, few realized the effect these things would have on society. Little wonder – they were the size of bread bins and weighed about as much as an anvil. But a few decades on and the comms whopper that used to be responsible for many a yuppy’s misshapen jackets has gone through several incarnations to emerge as the sleek slice of wonder we all know and love today.
Life without a smartphone is now, to a growing number of people, inconceivable. Our pocket pals have made such inroads into our lives that there are fewer and fewer activities left untouched by them. However, there are some areas in which a phone can’t compete. Professional photography is one of them.
Why can’t smartphones deliver when it comes to serious photography? We’ll focus on three aspects, and see what develops.
Sometimes you need a different lens
This is the biggie. An SLR is infinitely customizable with a huge number of different kinds of camera lenses available.
You might need something really special, like a super-wide fisheye lens for some really out-there shots. Or you might want to snap some distant wildlife with a long telephoto lens. Or you might want to take some pictures in low light, and you don’t want to wash everything out with a flash. In which case you’ll need a large-aperture lens.
In truth, there are lenses for every photographic scenario, and the photographer with a big bag of lenses will be the photographer that is ready for anything.
Check out the best smartphone camera lenses.
Control is everything
An SLR is designed to have its controls manipulated while in use. This means that it has ergonomic controls that can be used by touch alone.
This is invaluable if you’re taking the shots of a lifetime and you need to change focus or shutter speed. If you have to stop the shoot while you wrestle with menus and visually-based controls, by the time you get the thing back into shooting mode, what you were taking pictures of has probably flown off or otherwise vanished. This is precisely what happens with phones.
Cameras are built exclusively to take pictures, so they are designed around the needs of the photographer. A smartphone has to be a more generally useful tool, a jack of all trades. It’s undeniable that there’s been a remarkable evolution in terms of what smartphones are capable of, but the design is an area in which they will never surpass a real camera.
Quality counts
To some, a smartphone’s picture quality is fine. To the pro, however, an SLR makes all the difference. The main reason for the quality gap is the lens and sensor size. An SLR usually has a sensor about seven times the size of a smartphone. This will result in a better dynamic range and cleaner images. This is one of the most important drivers in the recent sharp growth in SLR sales.
Clicking off
How much you really need a digital SLR rather than a smartphone depends a great deal on how important photography is to you. If versatility, ease of control, and picture quality are what matters to you, then cameras are worth a shot.
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I got an SLR from my brother, which made me see the downside of using a phone. Quality and convenience are different. As you said, the SLR gives one a wide range of lens sizes options. You will not get it from a smartphone. Although the smartphone makes it convenient to take shots at different locations without carrying a camera around. But if you love good picks, then you must give a thought to quality
Thanks for your input.
Thank you so much for this post over smartphone camera’s not always being good enough. I love to take photos, but al I have is a smartphone. Of course it is easy to pull out a phone that we always have and snap a picture. The phone is already part of our daily lives. As for the camera, it typically isn’t. Would you recommend a camera that would be easy to carry around and easy to use? Maybe not for every day, but for trips!
Hi Jessie!
Thanks for your input. Glad that you liked the article. Please read my article about Best Travel Photography Cameras. I hope it answers your question.