What is the difference and/or benefit of a DLSR camera vs. a standard phone camera?
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Three main points:
1. The ability to use almost any lens you like, and to manually control that lens any way you want (aperture, focus, optical zoom if applicable). Your phone will auto choose the focus and aperture, and has no optical zoom, so those things are beyond your control. Yes there are apps that let you choose the aperture and focus but the range of choice is very small on these lenses to begin with.
2. A much, much larger sensor. A larger sensor will give you a wider field of view, which requires you to use much longer lenses (longer = “more zoomed in” if you will). A longer lens has a shallower depth of field which has a desirable look as it isolates your subject against the background. A typical smartphone comes with a lens of maybe 4mm focal length, while the most typical range used for DSLRs is roughly between 18 and 70mm. If you used an 18mm lens on a smartphone’s small sensor you would get an extremely zoomed-in image and it wouldn’t be very good for typical use. Also a modern large sensor will perform much better in low light. The only way smartphones get good low light is by using AI and software to clean up your photos. If you’re a professional photographer, you want an image that’s clean even before software fixes.
3. An entire software and mechanical system built around image capture. The ability to shoot Raw, removable memory cards, swappable batteries, auto-focus designed to be very fast and accurate, a mechanical shutter that ensures your image won’t have any rolling shutter, the ability to use a flash (or multiple flashes), and of course a camera body that has controls for what you need quick access to and a grip that lets you comfortably hold and use the camera.
Of course there’s a lot more to it but I think these things are what really make a significant difference at first glance.
You can take great photos with a phone nowadays but if you do this for a living you will not have a great time using just your phone, because there will always be cases where the phone just won’t be ideal at all.
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