What is the difference and/or benefit of a DLSR camera vs. a standard phone camera?
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Mainly Zoom and focus are better on DSLR cameras. You get less image distortion from a DSLR.
The size of the sensor in the DSLR is much larger, resulting in better quality pictures.
You can change lenses on DSLR cameras with dozens of choices to meet your specific needs. I have 13 different lenses for my cameras.
DSLR lenses have adjustable apertures and you have full manual control over all camera settings. All settings have a wider range of adjustments than what’s possible on a phone camera.
This list could go on forever with a bunch of technical stuff. Pretty much the only advantage a phone camera has is that the phone is pocket size and you always have it with you.
To note something else in addition to the other responses there’s also mirrorless cameras which basically have all the practical advantages a DLSR gets you. The mirror specifically didn’t make the camera better, rather all the other stuff like better sensors and lenses.
The reason you need a mirror in a DLSR is because the resolution and speed of older, non mirrored camera screens was simply too slow and low resolution. Having a direct optical path through the lens to your eye bypassed that. You can see it in your cell phone camera too as the slight lag between when you move it and the image is updated.
So for a while you would never see a professional camera that wasn’t DLSR. Modern electronics are fast enough now, and provide real advantages like faster capture speeds to make them proper competitors to DLSRs for some time, and most manufacturers have moved to mirrorless for their new flagship cameras.
Size of the sensor and the amount of light allowed in by larger lenses allow for more actual physical adjustments like aperture or shutter speed vs computer processed changes to adjust photo.
The basic ELI5 is that a DSLR/mirrorless focuses faster/better and it makes better quality images in low light. Also, you can zoom in or out based on what your lens choice is without sacrificing the quality of the photo. Lastly, a DSLR/mirrorless can work together with a powerful flash either on or off the camera to better light the scene.
Yes, some phones have dongles that can do these things but they don’t hold a candle to a DSLR and professional accessories. That being said, I still take my phone on vacation over my $6000 camera and some of the video features on modern phones can rival some lower end DSLRs.
DSLRs are better for low light and bokeh. I’m an avid photographer and I can tell you my smartphone can take almost identical photos to what my $4k camera can.
phone cameras use ai to turn the crappy images you take into super-vivid pictures with quality that exceeds the physical abilities of your phone lens/camera. also that specific look is now a benchmark of sorts. many photographers shooting for clients who shoot with ‘actual’ cameras and iphones will end up with clients preferring the iphone shots.
Phone cameras in the last few years have improved immensely to handle low light and movement. However, they use software to compensate and correct for their limitations when they are physically limited by (1) lens size – which allows the amount of light through, (2) sensor size – which limits the light detected – so low light conditions are worse and (3) zoom – most phone have 3 lenses – wide (0.5x), normal (1x) and zoom (2x to 3x).
The software will compensate for zoom (usually digital zoom for anything greater than5x) which can be seen in the grain and noise of zoomed images, long exposure shots impose multiple images and taking the average of the images.
The comparison with DSLR may soon be obsolete with mirrorless cameras. They remove the “SLR” component which makes them (1) take more frames per second (5 to 20 fps), (2) quicker to focus and (3) more intelligent to monitor the photographer’s eye to locate where the subject is located.
The one area in which phones cannot beat cameras is lenses. A 5mm lens on a camera compared to a 72mm lens on a DSLR camera is a difference of 200x the area for light to go through. That is a huge difference.
Having said all of that, know the limitations of the camera on your phone or DSLR and use it wisely! 🙂
Camera sensors cover much more surface than smartphone ones.
Your average smartphone sensor covers about half the surface of a mini-SIM card. The best camera sensors cover half the size of a credit card.
That makes a huge difference in how much light the camera sensor can pick up, and there’s also the fact that camera sensors usually offers a wider ISO range (the sensitivity to light). Bigger sensors cost significantly more to manufacture, but being more complex, they capture more light and more of its details.
When it comes to form factor, your smartphone is a Swiss knife of different devices. It often gives you the “*lite*” experience of those devices.
* Typing on a physical keyboard beats an on-screen keyboard that is smaller than your palm.
* Watching movies on a wide screen beats your pocket size display.
Similarly, taking photos with a smartphone doesn’t give you the same control that a prosumer or professional camera does.
Yes, the smartphone makes up for it by heavily relying on software, and by having different angle lenses. But a camera with interchangeable lenses opens up possibilities that you don’t have with a smartphone.
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