The elephant in the room – Smartphones
We all seem to have them, and the proportion of smartphones per head of population is extremely high (although, perhaps surprisingly, The UK has dropped out of the top 10 countries, in terms of the smartphone per head of population league table is concerned. See Wikipedia for interesting stats on this.)
Smartphones are undoubtedly capable of producing high-quality images these days, and the built-in editing and AI tools available to refine them make smartphones a viable option for many photographers. From a personal perspective, though, I hate using a smartphone for photography.
My phone isn’t a top-end model (Samsung Galaxy A12), so the camera isn’t as good as in more expensive phones. It can take reasonable shots in fairly flat lighting when the contrast isn’t too great, but it’s not the quality of the camera that I find off-putting, it’s the ergonomics. As with compact cameras, it’s the awkwardness of using a phone as a camera that puts me off. I don’t like holding it up in front of my face in either landscape or portrait mode, and when I press the shutter “button” it almost always ends up being skew-wiff. Changing settings is a pain, too.
Having said that, my partner (who claims to have no photography expertise) can produce excellent images on a phone that’s not too far up the Samsung range. She’s particularly keen on taking pictures in churches and cemeteries, and in such low light conditions, she gets some superb images. Stained glass windows, which are typically backlit, often with strong sunlight and high contrast, often come out brilliantly. She uses a decent Sony bridge camera for most of her photography, especially wildlife, but struggles with it in churches, her phone producing better results.
So, I guess it’s horses for courses. Whichever kind of camera you choose, being comfortable using it is a major factor in producing good results. I’m not knocking using smartphones per se; it’s just not for me. I use my phone as a visual notebook, but not my camera of choice.
