Anyone who has paid over $500 for a phone, if they did it for the camera, they wasted money. For the same amount of money one can get an old second hand pro camera and a more basic phone.
The camera will be infinitely better and the smartphone will still smartphone just fine.
Old “pro” cameras like full-frame SLRs are bulky though. That’s not always ergonomic to have.
And honestly, modern phones/gadgets with a lofic sensor (like Xiaomi or Hisense now, Apple soon) are absolutely crazy. They blow the dynamic range and shadow noise of old full frame sensors out of the water, and give new ones a run for their money:
Don’t get me wrong; you are preaching to the choir here. I love cameras. I am trading in my Canon and buying a Fuji or Panasonic ILC soon.
But I think its a mistake to underestimate modern smartphones based on how bad older phones were. The sensors have gotten big, their sensor tech is a few years ahead of dedicated cameras, and you can bypass the overprocessed look with 3rd party apps. That, and lofic is the biggest jump in sensor tech in a decade+, and its only coming to small sensor cameras for now.
Ricoh, Leica, Olympus. There are pro level compact alternatives. Ricoh’s are almost as small than a smartphone while being more ergonomic to use and better featured. The reason there needs to be such technologies as LOFIC for tiny sensors is precisely to compensate the size and achieve what larger sensors already achieved decades ago by shear force of being larger. But you don’t need to go that much larger, just a micro four thirds camera with mediocre glass from a decade ago already blows away anything that big tech put last year on flagship phone cameras.
Well each has its quirks. Leica is hilariously expensive. Ricoh is fixed lens, fixed focal length. I nearly got an OM-3 myself, but honestly it is big, and M43 lenses and sensors are starting to show their age.
I’d probably point the average person to an L10, an X-E5, an S9, or the A6700 with a pancake lens if they can swallow the price.
I think the S9 in particular is a glorious “smartphone replacement.” Its a full frame ILC, its connectivity app is fantastic, yet with a pancake lens it is no bigger than an OM or Leica.
Anyone who has paid over $500 for a phone, if they did it for the camera, they wasted money. For the same amount of money one can get an old second hand pro camera and a more basic phone.
The camera will be infinitely better and the smartphone will still smartphone just fine.
Old “pro” cameras like full-frame SLRs are bulky though. That’s not always ergonomic to have.
And honestly, modern phones/gadgets with a lofic sensor (like Xiaomi or Hisense now, Apple soon) are absolutely crazy. They blow the dynamic range and shadow noise of old full frame sensors out of the water, and give new ones a run for their money:
https://www.cined.com/dji-osmo-pocket-4p-lab-test-rolling-shutter-dynamic-range-and-exposure-latitude/
Don’t get me wrong; you are preaching to the choir here. I love cameras. I am trading in my Canon and buying a Fuji or Panasonic ILC soon.
But I think its a mistake to underestimate modern smartphones based on how bad older phones were. The sensors have gotten big, their sensor tech is a few years ahead of dedicated cameras, and you can bypass the overprocessed look with 3rd party apps. That, and lofic is the biggest jump in sensor tech in a decade+, and its only coming to small sensor cameras for now.
Ricoh, Leica, Olympus. There are pro level compact alternatives. Ricoh’s are almost as small than a smartphone while being more ergonomic to use and better featured. The reason there needs to be such technologies as LOFIC for tiny sensors is precisely to compensate the size and achieve what larger sensors already achieved decades ago by shear force of being larger. But you don’t need to go that much larger, just a micro four thirds camera with mediocre glass from a decade ago already blows away anything that big tech put last year on flagship phone cameras.
Well each has its quirks. Leica is hilariously expensive. Ricoh is fixed lens, fixed focal length. I nearly got an OM-3 myself, but honestly it is big, and M43 lenses and sensors are starting to show their age.
I’d probably point the average person to an L10, an X-E5, an S9, or the A6700 with a pancake lens if they can swallow the price.
I think the S9 in particular is a glorious “smartphone replacement.” Its a full frame ILC, its connectivity app is fantastic, yet with a pancake lens it is no bigger than an OM or Leica.