So is it a Phone, a Camera: OH Wait, It’s a Phamera!

When did the emphasis switch from good call quality to how good of a picture you can take with a phone be the deciding factor when upgrading or purchasing a phone?  A good friend of mine was phone shopping and asked me what I thought the best camera in a cell phone was?

That is a difficult question to answer since there are so many on the market. There was no way I could conduct a test. So I turned to a publication that I trust and consulted the Consumer Reports February 2015 issue.  They tested 56 of the most popular phones on the market.  The top three phones tested are the:

#1. Samsung Galaxy S5- score 79 – good video & stills. It can take a 30 minute dunk in 3 ft of water, the battery life is excellent.

#5. Apple I Phone 6 camera is one of the best cameras we have seen. Battery life is very good. Score 77.

#12. Sony Xperia Z3’s excellent photos-even in low light & very good video: Score 74

That’s what Consumer Report says.  Oh before you ask why didn’t I pick # 1, 2 and 3, because #1, 5 and 12 were the phones my friend had it narrowed down to.

The phones with the larger screens are definitely easier to see the subject you are photographing. Tablets are like using your TV to take photos. They are not easy to put in your pocket when you are through taking pictures. Having photographed with 35mm cameras, the camera phones are easy to see what you are photographing.

If you are like me and not looking for a new phone you can do what I did.  I installed a different camera on my iPhone, it is called Camera Awesome- it has a level, image stabilization, different grids for the screen, a larger shutter release button etc. These are the features I use in the program.  There are so many apps its difficult to keep up with all of them.

I usually try apps that another photographer has already tried and likes. Let someone else figure out which one’s work better for photography.  The programs I use are Waterlogue, Snapseed, Aviary, PicCollage, & FrontView.

The cameras on phones have made photography more available to everyone. Everybody has a camera with them always. What’s most important using a camera in a phone is good technique.  We all know it’s the Wizard not the Wand that makes the magic.

Want to learn more about good technique for any camera….. keep watching my blogs.