What Are The Main Differences Between A Phone Camera And A Camera?

What Are The Main Differences Between A Phone Camera And A Camera? Hi and welcome to Episode 75 of the Photography Explained podcast.

I’m your host Rick, and in each episode I will explain one photographic thing to you in plain English in less than 10 minutes (ish) without the irrelevant details. What I tell you is based on my lifetime of photographic experience. And not Google.

Here is my answer
Phone cameras have smaller sensors than cameras, have fixed lenses and are used in a slightly different way than cameras to take photos. The accessories you can get for phones are relatively limited. Cameras have larger sensors and you can change the lenses. There are more accessories available for cameras than there are for phones. Cameras are generally still better than phones for taking photos, but you can get great photos with phones.

Listen for more, or check out the transcript and even the blog post - so many ways to find out more!

What’s next?
Episode 76 - Is It Better To Take Photos With A Camera Or A Phone?

Transcript

This is not a transcript - this is the actual script. The ad libs and mistakes are in the spoken bit! 

I’m your host Rick, and in each episode I will try to explain one photographic thing to you in plain English in less than 10 minutes (ish) without the irrelevant details. What I tell you is based on my lifetime of photographic experience. And not Google.

 Before I go on if you have a question you would like me to answer just go to photographyexplainedpodcast.com/start.

 Here is the answery bit

Phone cameras have smaller sensors than cameras, have fixed lenses and are used in a slightly different way than cameras to take photos. The accessories you can get for phones are relatively limited. Cameras have larger sensors and you can change the lenses. There are more accessories available for cameras than there are for phones. Cameras are generally still better than phones for taking photos, but you can get great photos with phones.

Let me compare some stuff quickly, using my Canon 6D and iPhone XS as the examples – the two things that I use.

1 Sensor size

• Canon 6D – 36 x 24mm
• iPhone XS – 7.01 x 5.79mm

The larger the sensor, the better the image quality, in general terms.

2 Lens

• Canon 6D – pretty much whatever I want
• iPhone XS – two lenses on the back of the phone and a forward facing “selfie” lens.

3 Focal length

• Canon 6D – whatever I want
• iPhone XS -  main lens 4.25mm – equivalent to 26mm on my full frame camera – wide angle
• iPhone XS -  telephoto lens 6mm – equivalent to 52mm on my full frame camera – not telephoto

Telephoto on a full frame is anything over 60mm. 52mm is a standard lens focal length.

Now I found lots of different numbers for this – the important bit is this

Canon 6D – any focal length that I get a lens for

iPhone – comparing to full frame equivalent, I have a wide angle lens and a standard lens.

4 Aperture

• Canon 6D – whatever I want, from F1.2 to F32 depending on the lens and the money I spend
• iPhone XS - Wide-angle les: ƒ/1.8 aperture
• iPhone XS – Telephoto lens: ƒ/2.4 aperture

There are crop factors that apply – I won’t get into that. What matters here is that on my Canon 6D I choose the aperture, on my iPhone it is fixed for each lens.

5 ISO

• Canon 6D – 100 - 25,600
• iPhone – 24-2304 - I did not know that.

I do not know how to change the ISO on my phone, nor do I know if I can.

On my Canon 6D I have full control of the ISO.

6 Resolution

• Canon 6D – 20.2 mega pixels
• iPhone XS – 12 mega pixels

The Canon 6D has a much higher resolution (on a bigger sensor let us not forget), but the iPhone has a remarkable 12MP.

7 Accessories

• Canon 6D – pretty much anything I want
• iPhone XS – a relatively limited range of accessories

8 Apps

• Canon 6D
• Canon Connect App – that is it!
• iPhone XS – pretty much everything and anything available on the App store

9 Video

• Canon 6D – 1920 x 1080
• iPhone XS – 720, 1080 and 4K

I am not sure what the difference is. I have taken hundreds of videos with my phone, and 1 with my Canon 6D.

I know that 4K is the best.

10 Taking a photo

• Canon 6D – love it 
• iPhone XS – hate it

I love taking photos with my Canon 6D, but hate taking photos with my phone. It’s a handling thing.

11 Viewing a photo

• Canon 6D – hate it 
• iPhone XS – love it

The LCD screen on my Canon 6D is quite frankly rubbish. The screen on my iPhone is amazing.

12 Sharing a photo

• Canon 6D – give me a couple of days
• iPhone XS – give me a second

The immediacy of the iPhone is amazing. The lack of immediacy with the Canon 6D was never a problem until phones with cameras were unleashed on the world! And immediate sharing is of course so popular these days

13 Other stuff

• Canon 6D – not a lot
• iPhone XS - lots

I know, my Canon 6D is a camera, my iPhone is so much more than a phone.

14 Speaking to other people

Well I can’t phone anyone from my Canon 6D, but I can from my iPhone. Just saying….

The talky bit

I have to say that in some ways comparing phones to cameras is a bit unfair, cameras are cameras, and phones are our day to day everything.

One fits in a pocket, the other does not, unless you have massive pockets that is.

But this is what we do – we compare things, we need to know which is better. But do you know what? They are both amazing.

Cameras can take amazing photos. But they don’t do a lot more.

Phones can take amazing photos. And they do do a lot more than that, as we all know.

And you can take rubbish photos with a camera or a phone.

One last thing – taking photos with a phone is different from taking photos with a camera. Now whilst that might sound obvious lets just think about that for a second.

With my Canon 6D there are lots of settings that I have to make sure are correct, with my iPhone I just take the photo.

And for anyone getting into photography with a phone first all the stuff that you need to do with a camera might just seem completely alien. And I think this will drive the cameras of the future. See what a visionary I am!

My one line summary

Cameras are bigger than phones, and that applies to everything. Cameras take photos. Phones take photos and do lots more.

Next episode

Episode 76 – Is It Better To Take Photos With A Camera Or A Phone? What do you think? I am going to wrap up my thoughts on phones and photography for now, and get onto some more nitty gritty photography stuff.

Going weekly

I am loving being weekly. It gives me more time to think and work on what I am saying, and also to work on other stuff in the background which will make for much better listening and reading for all of you good folks out there.

Shout out

This weeks shout out is to Terry all the way over there in New South Wales, Australia. Thanks for the emails Terry, it was lovely to hear from you and I am glad you found my podcast helpful.

I’m done

Thanks for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast. To find out more about my podcast and do stuff to help me check out Photographyexplainedpodcast.com/start.

Brought to you by

This episode was brought to you by a very nice coffee. Cheers.

I’ve been Rick McEvoy, thanks again very much for listening to me and for giving me 10 (ish) minutes of your valuable time, and I will see you on the next episode.

Cheers from me Rick