Recently I had a good conversation with one of the real estate agents regarding photography of listings and are the smartphones better than regular DSLRs. The agent was questioning if the new phones have better cameras than entry level cameras and why should anyone hire a pro to photograph listings for them. After explaining to him why DSLRs are still the best choice and to understand how to use them, I have decided to share my knowledge with the rest of you. Yes it is true that the new cell phones such as Samsung Galaxy s8 or the new iPhone X/8 do have great cameras, processors or the lens they are still not even close to what even an entry level DSLRs can do or even point and shoot. Here are few reasons why:
Zoom Is Not The Same: one of the biggest downfalls of the smartphones is the zoom feature. Yes the new models of smart phones from this year or even past year are great but even a point and shoot cameras have better zoom than a smartphone. Todays smart phone can maybe pull of a zoom of 2x optical zoom but a regular point a shoot camera can do ten time that and if we go with DSLR then it’s even a bigger margin. So if you are going for a zoom then a point and shoot camera will do a much better job of zooming in while photographing landscapes, flowers, portraits if zoom is needed without damaging the pixels.
Low Light Conditions: Have you ever tried to get good shot of fireworks on 4th of July or even at a party with smart phone? Yes new smartphones are much better than maybe three year old smart phones but have you ever wondered why the pictures are still blurry or so much noise or even still dark? Well the sensor in a smart phone is extremely small do to the size of the phone but on DSLRs the sensor is at least x5 bigger. That means the bigger the sensor the more light it can take in. One thing to mention would be even the flash on smartphone is small comparing to build in flash on a point a shoot camera. Which makes a huge difference when it’s really dark. Also that is why when a real estate agent uses their phones to photograph a room it looks awful.
More Control: Another major downfall of smartphones camera is the lens. Yes sure there are plenty of apps that can let you do many things with your smartphone camera; such as ISO, White Balance and so on. But in the end DSLR will give you much more flexibility than a smartphone. DSLR have the best thing comparing to smartphone and it’s that you can change lenses. Yes you might say that there are plenty of attachments to the smartphone to make it more wide angle or zoom but still the glass in those attachments is cheap; and the glass is what makes the photo look good or just ok. This brings me to the settings of smartphones; even though there are apps that let you have more control other your camera, yet you can’t still control your aperture (how much light you want in). Even if there is an app, you still have more control over every option of a DSLR than a smartphone. Plus having all the buttons and knobs to change the settings quickly makes it so much easier to control DSLR than smartphone.
So in conclusion, I don’t’ think smartphone have taken over the DSLRs just yet and I don’t think they will anytime soon. Also I don’t believe everyone should carry a point a shoot/DSLR with them everywhere (I surely don’t). But if you think that smartphone can do a better job than a DSLR the short answer is no.
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