iphone verses camera

[Nanc]

what am i missing here?
i have an iPhone 6 and have been looking at my pictures and seeing their limitations.
I am hesitant to depend on it for my photojournalistic memories
i am NOT a good photographer!
but the lightest digital with some zoom that i can find is 10.4 oz (294 gm)
All you lovers of iPhone to save weight- how are you getting decent photos of people and distance landscape

and when i have received copies of papers on my phone they are usually illegiblly small- so how do yo have copies of guide pages etc to review?
obviously iphone 101 dunce here
Nanc

 

[evanlow]

Same here. The issue is the phone camera are usually wider angle due to the short distance between the lens and the sensor (for the thiness of the phone). Not exactly a solution but many times when I pull the phone camera out (same for Android phone) I realized that the subject is much wider than my eyes. One just need to get closer to the subject. It is easier if the subject is people. For landscape, just close closer and every 20 meters or so preview again to see if the landscape fits before shooting.

 

[Latecomer]

The iPhone 6 has a decent camera. Actually better than the Nexus 5 Android phone's camera that I took on my Camino. In general, I was very happy with my photos, some of my indoor ones were not great but I very seldom used flash because I find it annoying for other people.

The iPhone 6 is better than many small point and shoot cameras, but the iPhone has so many additional advantages. Such as, minimizing the number of devices and chargers, using it for email (and sending photos to friends and family), Exif data (specifically GPS location data on photos, store copies (or photos) of important documents such as passport, addresses, itinerary, reservations. With your iPhone you don't need to worry about carrying extra memory cards. You can do editing on your iPhone (such as cropping, adjusting lighting / sharpness, and using filters).

Although some modern point and shoot cameras support Location data and GPS, they tend to be more expensive and probably heavier. My personal opinion is that small cameras don't make sense for the vast majority of people and are a dying market. While I was in Spain, my wife was in Asia for two months and chose not to take a camera but rather use her iPad Mini (for the reasons mentioned above).

You should practice with your camera before you go (in a small variety of conditions), so you are comfortable with the (relatively few) settings when taking photos and know how to 'zoom', etc.

I imagine there will be some people who say ~A dedicated camera is worth it~, but for me, the simplicity of a single device and no additional weight strongly favors a decent smartphone.

Relative to "illegiblly small", you want to get comfortable with pinching and unpinching.

Buen Camino!

 

[Waka]

I used my iPhone 5s last year and found that adequate for my needs, I'm not the best photographer out there so I don't think it would matter if I had a super duper camera. The one point charging (as mentioned) is also a bonus.

 

[onwayhome]

t

what am i missing here?
i have an iPhone 6 and have been looking at my pictures and seeing their limitations.
I am hesitant to depend on it for my photojournalistic memories
i am NOT a good photographer!
but the lightest digital with some zoom that i can find is 10.4 oz (294 gm)
All you lovers of iPhone to save weight- how are you getting decent photos of people and distance landscape

and when i have received copies of papers on my phone they are usually illegiblly small- so how do yo have copies of guide pages etc to review?
obviously iphone 101 dunce

what am i missing here?
i have an iPhone 6 and have been looking at my pictures and seeing their limitations.
I am hesitant to depend on it for my photojournalistic memories
i am NOT a good photographer!
but the lightest digital with some zoom that i can find is 10.4 oz (294 gm)
All you lovers of iPhone to save weight- how are you getting decent photos of people and distance landscape

and when i have received copies of papers on my phone they are usually illegiblly small- so how do yo have copies of guide pages etc to review?
obviously iphone 101 dunce here
Nanc

One of the delights of Camino life for me is getting life down to essentials and last time that included the challenge of leaving behind my favourite camera. For sure a phone has its limitations but I'm mostly interested in sharing Camino experiences with friends rather than producing gallery quality prints. The lack of an optical zoom and more precise controls was outweighed for me by the ease of sending photos by email while on the route and only having one device to carry and keep charged. With a bit of practice I was really happy with phone photos so it looks like the camera will be staying at home for future caminos.

 

[NualaOC]

I use my iPhone 6 and I'm happy with it. I've also used a compact Canon digital camera, but as I'm just a 'point and shoot' photographer, there isn't much difference between the quality of the photos.
I send photos to friends and family on whatsapp, so I like the convenience of using one device.

Taking lots of photos can drain the battery life, so I use battery-save mode most of the time (it's in the iPhone settings).

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

Last year I used an older compact camera with a 6X zoom on the camino but I also carried a tablet. Every once in awhile I would pull the micro-SD card out of the camera to transfer photos to the tablet. I only recently got a smartphone. I'm impressed with the photos it takes but I still take a camera with me on a trip. But that might not be for you. I used SLR cameras back in the film days and spent a lot of time learning how to use them to the maximum. Also, I carried a lot more weight more happily than most pilgrims. You might be better off just using the smartphone on the camino unless you first learn how a camera can do better photography.

This webpage make be of help:
http://home.bt.com/tech-gadgets/sma...-worth-buying-a-compact-camera-11363960940202

A couple of tips:

I used a camera that took two AA batteries. If you do too then use lithium batteries and bring plenty of extra ones from home. The are really light and much cheaper than you will get in Spain (if you can even find them, I had to hunt them down.) The lithiums lasted me a week, the regular batteries sold often not even a day.

Don't frame your pictures too tightly when you take them. That way you have room to crop them nicely later for their various uses (such as 3X5 or 4x6 prints, 9X16 for HDTV or other sizes for webpages.)

 

[jirit]

I don't have an iPhone or for that matter any mobile smart phone.

But even if I did I would still use my camera. Sony along with a number of brands makes some decent light weight camera loaded with software intelligent that allows you to take professional style images under some of the most challenging conditions.

I use to carry a heavy Nikon D70 but I switched to a mirrorless light weight Sony after seeing what the camera was capable of doing. My wife has an even easier camera that is small enough to slip into her pants side pocket.

iPhone takes okay images but given its design and given the way people use it, the images tend to look much the same as most others, unless you really know how to work the iPhone well.

 

[movinmaggie]

Nothing will technically equal film. I go back to those days of medium format shooting. IMO, it depends on "What is the ultimate use of the photograph?" If you want 16x20 enlargements, I would choose a SLR camera. I think many phone camera photos end up staying in the phone and are shared electronically. Not all, but many.

 

[jozero]

Hi @Nanc - check out some of the websites offering iPhone 6 photography tips. Lots out there and most have pretty good tips. I used an iPhone 5s this year and took some nice photos that made me miss my DSLR a little less! If you're one of the 99% of photographers that never actually prints a photo anymore, this is a pretty convenient way to make nice Camino memories!
Some websites include:
http://www.imore.com/ten-tips-taking-great-iphone-photos
http://www.trustedreviews.com/opinions/iphone-camera-tips-and-tricks
But many, many more and lots on YouTube as well.
Good luck and look forward to seeing some shots when you're done.
Buen Camino,
Jordon

 

[GreatDane]

I love my iPhone 6+ and would love to take it as my only camera. But my problem with its camera though is my crummy (and yes corrected with glasses or contacts) eyesight. I can't tell if my image is (even with the little yellow focus box) focused correctly. With my Fuji and its electronic viewfinder and variable diopter I bring my camera up to my eye the old fashioned way and can actually see what I'm taking a photo of and if it is in focus.

 

[Nanc]

Thanks all for your comments and suggestions. I'll look into tutorials on the web
Latecomer i didnt even know the iphone could zoom so now you' ve got me hunting!!

As for pinching, use of that to expand attachments had merely resulted in blurry images. So I'll have to look up working that too. It would be nice to take photos of travel insurance documents etc and not haul paper
Nanc

 

[SYates]

If an image or pdf becomes blurry when being zoomed/pinched it was most likely too small to start with. Have a look at the size/dimensions of the PDF. Buen Camino, SY

 

[jozero]

The thing to remember with iPhone cameras is they have digital zoom function. This means that when you zoom in you are losing resolution (unlike optical zoom on a SLR/DSLR LENS). To get the highest quality photos from an iPhone try to minimize zoom (or not use at all) but if you must zoom, let it be with your legs. One of the best techniques to get clear photos is to not zoom at all when you are taking the photo but rather crop the photo afterwards which also lets you have just what you want for the finished product.

 

[Mike Trebert]

what am i missing here?
i have an iPhone 6 and have been looking at my pictures and seeing their limitations.
I am hesitant to depend on it for my photojournalistic memories
i am NOT a good photographer!
but the lightest digital with some zoom that i can find is 10.4 oz (294 gm)
All you lovers of iPhone to save weight- how are you getting decent photos of people and distance landscape

and when i have received copies of papers on my phone they are usually illegiblly small- so how do yo have copies of guide pages etc to review?
obviously iphone 101 dunce here
Nanc

Hi Nanc,

I have an iPhone 6S. Great camera but I took a serious camera with me on my Camino. I did use the iPhone camera a few times - especially for panoramas. The panorama function is remarkable. You end up with a very large file and therefore a lot of detail. The panorama software somehow isolates sharp pictures of moving people while you move the phone to 'pan' through the superwide image.

All those amazingly brilliant published pictures you've seen which were taken on phones were taken by very skilled photographers and/or they were chosen from among thousands of photos. And they were probably post-processed, that is, modified with very sophisticated software to get the absolute best out of the image. This is not cheating but it isn't just the original image either. There's software built into the phone camera to get it to adjust to the lighting conditions. Interiors shot on a phone camera look better because the tonal range is easier for the camera to manage - similar to shots taken outside in the shade. You'll notice that all those brilliant published photos are almost all shot in lowish light or unusual light - sunset, sunrise, interiors, artificial light, etc. If you shoot all your exterior daylight Camino shots on a phone you're asking it to do what it's least best suited for, IMHO.

To get the best results with the iPhone camera you just have to use the basic rules of photography: Try to keep the sun behind you, if you shoot towards the sun it will probably effect the exposure. Try to avoid harsh bright sunlight on close objects (especially people, faces) because the shadows will be too dark for the camera to manage pleasingly. So try to shoot people in the shade or filtered sunlight - the colours will be richer and the shadows will be softer. As jozero says, don't zoom because a digital zoom just enlarges the picture and it goes soft and mushy. If you must shoot towards the light, position yourself in a bit of shadow to keep bright light from falling across the lens. I sometimes shade my camera with my hat - tricky with a phone, though. Also try to avoid backlit people, that is people silhouetted against bright light, such as a window.

Try playing with the 'edit' functions on your phone. View the picture and before you tap on it to enlarge it or see it against black, you will see the word 'edit' in the upper right. Tap that. You can modify the contrast, exposure, colour saturation of your shot after it's done. You can also convert to black and white. Have a play. No serious photographer ever uses the original unimproved shot - they are ALL modified if sometimes just a wee bit.

If you shoot a document for future reference, just make sure you hold the camera flat on to the paper/sign/whatever and be very careful focusing. when you refer back to the pic you can zoom up quite a lot as there's quite a lot of detail in an iPhone 6 file. I often do this on labels - especially wine labels. You can hold the phone steadier if you hold it close to your body, don't extend your arms. Hold your elbows tight to your sides if you can. And hold your breath.

I'll bet there are LOTS of videos on YouTube as jozero said.

Mike

 

[Nanc]

Wow very helpful all
Mike the suggestions are especially useful. I'll play with duplicates in my photo album ( not sure how THAT is happening. And your explanation of the limits of phone photography in outdoor lighting makes sense of what i was disappointed in
Nanc

 

[Mike Trebert]

Wow very helpful all
Mike the suggestions are especially useful. I'll play with duplicates in my photo album ( not sure how THAT is happening. And your explanation of the limits of phone photography in outdoor lighting makes sense of what i was disappointed in
Nanc

Nanc,

If you're getting a lot of duplicates, you might be shooting 'bursts' of pics instead of single photos. There doesn't seem to be a way of turning this off. Look for a burst disable function in future iPhone software iOS upgrades. If this is what's happening, all you can do is be quick on that shutter button without jiggling the camera. Did you know that you can use one of the volume buttons as a shutter button while using the camera? You can get ready and still hold the phone with both hands - you'll be better able to avoid shooting 'bursts' and the camera will be steadier. This burst mode thing used to drive me bonkers.

Also, another reason some of those published iPhone photos sometimes look so great is that there are a lot of apps out there which assist the phone camera in all kinds of different ways.

If you get a small point and shoot camera, try to find one with a viewfinder. If you're always shooting with only that tiny screen to look at you'll soon realise that it's a lot harder to see it out in bright daylight than in the camera store.

BTW, I had to edit this when I realised that predictive typing had changed 'Nanc' to 'Nana'. You must get that a lot.

 

[Nanc]

nope on Nana, but then all my "grandkids" are 4 legged
as for me never really cared what i am called, professionally or personally
and yes you're right on the bursts. I see many in my photo album

 

[MickMac]

Nanc check out my pics I used my iphone I think they were good judge for youself??

 

[Latecomer]

Nanc check out my pics I used my iphone I think they were good judge for youself??

https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/camino-photos/users/mickmac.30791/

Great photos and they appear to be from an iPhone 3GS and the iPhone 6's camera is quite a bit better.

 

[Mike Trebert]

https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/camino-photos/users/mickmac.30791/

Great photos and they appear to be from an iPhone 3GS and the iPhone 6's camera is quite a bit better.

I don't want to be unkind but these are not great photos. The compositions are pleasing. They might mean a lot to people who recall these places. They might mean a lot to the person who took them because they have enormous emotional value by helping to remember wonderful experiences. And that's a different kind of good. And it's wonderful. But please don't try to convince me that these are technically or even aesthetically good photos. Please see my previous posts above. A photo may be good "for an iPhone photo" but that doesn't mean it's necessarily a good photo.

Many of us who are serious photographers try every day to improve our skills. It takes endless effort and it's immensely enjoyable. But it's often very frustrating to hear people say that what isn't good, is good. A very good photograph must be good on its own terms, and that requires a solid amount of technical quality for starters.

I constantly hope that I might in some small way help people to see more clearly when they look at the results of all the effort that I put into my own work. And I'm so often disappointed when people fail to see. (There's an important difference between looking and seeing.) But that's OK (almost). I keep working.

Samuel Beckett said to an actor who said during rehearsal that she had failed to do justice to his text: "No matter. Fail again. Fail better."

Buen Camino, - Mike

 

[MickMac]

I don't want to be unkind but these are not great photos. The compositions are pleasing. They might mean a lot to people who recall these places. They might mean a lot to the person who took them because they have enormous emotional value by helping to remember wonderful experiences. And that's a different kind of good. And it's wonderful. But please don't try to convince me that these are technically or even aesthetically good photos. Please see my previous posts above. A photo may be good "for an iPhone photo" but that doesn't mean it's necessarily a good photo.

Many of us who are serious photographers try every day to improve our skills. It takes endless effort and it's immensely enjoyable. But it's often very frustrating to hear people say that what isn't good, is good. A very good photograph must be good on its own terms, and that requires a solid amount of technical quality for starters.

I constantly hope that I might in some small way help people to see more clearly when they look at the results of all the effort that I put into my own work. And I'm so often disappointed when people fail to see. (There's an important difference between looking and seeing.) But that's OK (almost). I keep working.

Samuel Beckett said to an actor who said during rehearsal that she had failed to do justice to his text: "No matter. Fail again. Fail better."

Buen Camino, - Mike

View attachment 27743

 

[MickMac]

Thanks for the Beckett quote I am deeply hurt . “Quotation is a serviceable substitute for wit.”

I know what you are saying but I just wanted the memory to linger a little longer.

It worked for me the convience of just pulling it out of your pocket and snap its done nothing to serious.

Buen Camino

 

[Mike Trebert]

Thanks for the Beckett quote I am deeply hurt . “Quotation is a serviceable substitute for wit.”

I know what you are saying but I just wanted the memory to linger a little longer.

It worked for me the convience of just pulling it out of your pocket and snap its done nothing to serious.

Buen Camino

MickMac,

I really did not mean to be hurtful. My answer was to Latecomer. There are different kinds of value and quality, as I carefully said. And you used a quote yourself.

Mike

 

[MickMac]

 

[Kanga]

Phew @Mike Trebert I'm glad you cleared that up and that you were answering Latecomer and not MickMac. My mother taught me never to lie but she said sometimes courtesy called for an evasive answer rather than a hurtful one!

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

Try to avoid harsh bright sunlight on close objects (especially people, faces) because the shadows will be too dark for the camera to manage pleasingly.

Thanks Mike. Just adding a little detail here.

Remember, hats cast shadows. Try taking the picture two ways, with the hats and without. In the first you may not be able to see the eyes in the shadow and in the second you may see squinting but then you have a choice. Best is to get the person in solid, not dappled, shade so the exposure across the face is consistent. Tougher to do on the meseta.

 

[Rajy62]

Smartphone cameras can take just as good pictures as regular ones. Only limitation is that they are made with fixed lenses. For some rare scenes, there are clip-on lenses you can buy with telephoto/micro/wideangle capabilities. You can read about the latest iphone lenses kit reviews here: http://www.tomsguide.com/us/best-iphone-lenses,review-2366.html

 

[GRR]

Cameras - the best camera is the one you have with you. That being said, if you are not adept at manual operation of a digital camera (setting exposure, aperture, ISO) then the digital camera is no better than a smart phone camera. If you are skilled in manual operation you will get pics that no smart phone can capture. If you are not you are setting yourself up for frustration. So your technical photography skills do play into this.

I used a smartphone and did not take a separate camera for many reasons. The more stuff you take the more stuff you have to tend to and look after. Also the heavier your pack. Also you have yet another item that you have to position for quick and convenient access. My pics were quite good, and I was satisfied.



I used an iPhone 6.

 

[Latecomer]

Cameras - the best camera is the one you have with you. ...
I used an iPhone 6.

Great pictures! I have learned from experience not to say 'great photos' lest "professional photographers/artists" become indignant.

But please don't try to convince me that these are technically or even aesthetically good photos. Please see my previous posts above. A photo may be good "for an iPhone photo" but that doesn't mean it's necessarily a good photo.
Buen Camino, - Mike

Please don't try to convince me that these are not aesthetically good photos. I believe in aesthetic relativism.

¡Buen Camino!

 

[Mike Trebert]

Great pictures! I have learned from experience not to say 'great photos' lest "professional photographers/artists" become indignant.



Please don't try to convince me that these are not aesthetically good photos. I believe in aesthetic relativism.

¡Buen Camino!

It seems to me that beauty is relative to aesthetic relativism. To each his own.

 

[GRR]

Another thing about cameras ... they detract from the experience of a trip. I learned my lesson when I went to a place quite exotic and quite far away. I was fixated on the damn camera. I wanted to photograph every detail, capture every memory digitally for posterity. As a result I missed out on the real reason for going ... the experience of a new place. Did I get good photos? Absolutely. Did I miss out on being present in the moment? I most certainly did.

Take fewer photos, have more and better experience.

 

[Mike Trebert]

Another thing about cameras ... they detract from the experience of a trip. I learned my lesson when I went to a place quite exotic and quite far away. I was fixated on the damn camera. I wanted to photograph every detail, capture every memory digitally for posterity. As a result I missed out on the real reason for going ... the experience of a new place. Did I get good photos? Absolutely. Did I miss out on being present in the moment? I most certainly did.

Take fewer photos, have more and better experience.

They don't detract if you're a photographer. Sometimes a camera isn't such a hassle. My friend of a previous post thinks that everything is relative. Your house may be relatively cool compared to, say, the interior of the sun. The fact that it's a raging fireball and will soon be ashes could be relatively inconvenient.

To each his won. Everybody and all their relatives are different.

Sometimes these threads go on relatively too long.

Mike

 

[lendog]

If you're getting duplicates with only some photos, it is possibly due to the iPhone auto-HDR (High Dynamic Range) setting to keep a normal exposure along with the HDR. You can turn it off so that it only keeps the HDR version. You can also turn off auto-HDR and just use HDR selectively, rather than letting the iPhone decide. You will usually see more contrast and definition in the sky, for example, with the HDR version of the photo. I turned off saving both for awhile, but then turned it back on 'cause sometimes I like the normal exposure better.

I only took an iPhone 6 on our Camino last fall and was quite happy with it. Better composition skills would be the easiet way to improve my pictures.

 

[Miguel de Flandes]

Same here. The issue is the phone camera are usually wider angle due to the short distance between the lens and the sensor (for the thiness of the phone). Not exactly a solution but many times when I pull the phone camera out (same for Android phone) I realized that the subject is much wider than my eyes. One just need to get closer to the subject. It is easier if the subject is people. For landscape, just close closer and every 20 meters or so preview again to see if the landscape fits before shooting.

Please be careful getting up close to people while photographing with wide angle lense: before you know it everyone's nose looks like a giant potato...

Buen camino, have a great Walk, and happy snapping
Miguel de Flandes