The smartphone camera: real competition for SLRs?
Two lenses, three lenses, telephoto lenses, and up to 48 megapixels Manufacturers such as Samsung, Huawei, and Apple are constantly improving the cameras in their smartphones. As a result, they install ever higher-quality and more powerful lenses. An untrained eye sometimes no longer even manages to recognize the difference between the photo of an SLR camera and that of a smartphone. But does the smartphone also have what it takes to replace the SLR camera?
As part of our photo award, we saw many great pictures.
Many of them convinced me not only with an interesting motif but also with beautiful contrasts, depth of field, and exposure. Quite often, we asked ourselves whether there was a professional at work here. Most of the time we came to the conclusion that yes, at least one professional was responsible for the picture—the outstanding camera. In recent years, smartphone cameras have evolved from a single lens that simply took photos to sophisticated systems. Dual cameras are no longer uncommon. One lens must have a zoom feature and a camera app with several filters and editing choices. Manufacturers such as Huawei even rely on professional help. The company has been working with the German camera manufacturer Leica since 2016 to manufacture the lenses for its smartphones.
The advantages of the smartphone camera
The camera, like the phone, follows us around in our daily lives. It is always on hand and ready for use when we need it. The operation is intuitive, and no major settings are required to take a nice photo because the camera does most of the work automatically. You can still take great pictures if you have no idea about white balance, ISO values, or aperture. Another advantage has made Instagram and Facebook successful: Images can be edited directly and uploaded to the Internet.
The best are never found together.
Some of the advantages are equally disadvantageous. Constant availability and portability require technical equipment. Mobile phone cameras, and especially front cameras, must not be large and should not protrude from the housing if possible. In addition, manufacturers want to make their devices leaner and slimmer. In short, space is scarce. Thus, features such as optical zoom are not possible.
With optical zoom, the mechanical settings in the lens are changed. The angle at which the image is taken is adjusted. The resolution and, thus, the quality of the image remain the same. Digital zoom, on the other hand, greatly enlarges the recorded object and thus changes the resolution.The camera calculates missing picture data, resulting in hazy, barely visible photos
The SLR camera offers you many setting options, and thus also a lot of freedom.
One feature that is beneficial for many people but can ultimately be at the expense of image quality is ease of use. Start immediately if you can make a few parameters, but originality is limited.
Smartphone photographs are similar due to settings.
Retroactively edit SLR photos.
Smartphones only save JPG photos, which limits processing. . Speaking of saving: Other data—apps, music, will smartphone camera replace dslr and the operating system—are also stored in the smartphone’s memory. There is significantly less space for the images than on a digital camera. Another benefit:
The battery lasts longer because the camera just takes photos.
For the exhibition or for the photo album?
Both the smartphone and the SLR camera offer advantages. In the end, of course, it depends on what you want to take photos for. If you mainly collect memories and want to capture them nicely to share them with friends and family, then the smartphone camera is the best choice. It’s always there when you need it, and many gadgets include high-quality cameras for portraits and landscapes.
However, you don’t have to be a professional photographer to find out that an SLR camera takes significantly better photos than the best smartphone. However, SLR cameras cannot replace smartphones. Professional gear is best for publishing high-resolution photos. A real camera offers significantly more settings and, thus, more possibilities. In addition, you can replace the lens and thus adapt it to the situation.
