Technology has finally evolved to the point when smartphones produce quite decent quality photos and the best thing about it is that device fits into your pocket and is capable of so much more than just a camera or just a phone. Recently I realised that my DSLR is having a very long holidays in the storage cupboard and I don’t see many reasons why should I use it. So after thinking about this topic for some time I decided to compare how do I produce photo material with a digital camera compared to the phone.

DSLR versus Smartphone

The professional workflow with expensive camera usually follows:

  • Take pictures in RAW uncompressed format
  • Get back to your PC and adjust colours, exposure, perhaps do some retouching too
  • Save into real world JPEG image files
  • Publish, furthermore online you usually downsize and reduce quality too, to load quicker.

With a smartphone you usually do:

  • Take a picture, perhaps do a little tuning within the preferred app & publish it straight away, no more steps!

Device choice and purpose

By talking about DSLR and the phone, I’m comparing my old Canon EOS 600D DSLR with Samsung Galaxy S8. While the DSLR may still be handy for portraits when using prime lens, however considering the weight and form factor as well as S8 capability of handheld low light or night photography – the natural question arises: why to carry that monster DSLR? After all you’d additionally have to do all the editorial work. That is why I choose the smartphone. Okey, let’s admit, I’m comparing devices from different times, but because I’m not producing commercial content I see no reason why should anyone invest huge amount of money into professional camera, but use it for reduced quality online publications. Phone-made photos at the gallery below speak for themselves.

Conclusion

If you’re not a professional and not even a hobbyist making or planning to make at least a little profit from your photos, why would you invest thousands of “money” into your gear? What is more, most of your photos they land onto social media, perhaps some end up on your blog – all downsized, while the rest stays somewhere in the storage and forgotten for ages. You rarely print, and if you do, A4 is probably the maximum size of the print. A good smartphone can do that without all the time consuming job and without carrying additional bag with kilograms of components.

My answer is that most likely you don’t need an expensive camera 🙂