Panama City, by Sun Lakes Camera Club member Nancy Thoma, taken with her iPhone camera
Ken Duquaine
It wasn’t so long ago that I thought of my cell phone as being rather cool, because it could also take pictures. Now I find myself thinking that I have a camera in my pocket that can make phone calls. How cool is that?
Like it or not, the smartphone camera has become a major force in contemporary photography. Any photographer who has objectively looked at the capabilities and results that are possible with today’s best smartphone cameras cannot help but be impressed. In the hands of a skilled photographer, today’s smartphone cameras can compete with some of the best professional photographic gear available.
Does the smartphone camera have limitations? Of course it does. But in a pound-for-pound comparison with the camera bodies and lenses in a serious photographer’s camera bag, its convenience, coupled with its capabilities, is compelling. One need only to go online to see the number of instructional videos on smartphone photography being made by well-known photography gurus.
On a recent photo shoot, I took roughly the same number of photos of the same subject matter under the same light with both my regular gear and my smartphone. In a side-by-side comparison, after bringing them into Lightroom and Photoshop, I was unable to see a difference in quality. The shoot was at midday, because its location closed at 4 p.m. One of my subjects was a beautiful waterfall, but knowing that tripods were prohibited, I had not brought along neutral density filters and so was unable to shoot the subject with my camera at the slow shutter speed required to obtain the silky water effect that I prefer. Enter my smartphone. Using live view and shooting around 10 frames in burst mode handheld, selecting one of the photos, and pressing a button, I was able to get the desired silky smooth water effect under conditions not possible with my regular gear. And while my best camera/lens combo does well in low light on a tripod, smartphone cameras do amazingly well in low light, even absent the tripod.
So, am I ready to give up my camera gear? Certainly not! No smartphone can compete with a camera with a good, long telephoto lens. But am I now ready to admit that smartphone camera photography has reached a level at which it deserves to be taken seriously by even the most discriminating photographer? Absolutely!
The Sun Lakes Camera Club meets on the second and fourth Thursdays from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. in the Lecture Hall of the Cottonwood Country Club from October through April. For more information about the SLCC and its activities, call SLCC President Ken Duquaine at 248-342-0790 or email [email protected], or past President Samantha Rose Palmatier at 907-727-0334 or [email protected], and visit our website at www.sunlakescameraclub.com.