Camera vs new iPhone

I think it depends - if you are a photographer and enjoy the process then I still think taking your camera is a good idea. If photography isn't really your thing and you just want some photos to remind you of your trip there is no need to bring a camera. As you said the iphone 7b and 8's do a great job!!!

Zooming in with an iPhone produces real disappointing grainy photos, so if you like to zoom in or take long distance shots then a phone camera is inadequate. SLRs are still superior in this respect. All my iPhone photos are also darker in general and not so great in dim light (aperture too small compared with real camera).

If you need your iPhone for anything other than taking pictures, keep in mind that the camera and the various adjustments you make to the pictures drain the battery. If you are a vivid picture taker, bring a camera.

Its funny to me how many people feel that way. Yet, I take photos with my camera (granted its a 6 not a 7) and I think they are totally inferior to what I take with my DSLR. I don't think the iphones are even close to a DSLR.

If you have a point and shoot camera, then my iPhone takes snaps that are as good, unless zoomed in. The video quality is also good, but you maybe limited by the battery or the amount of storage of the phone.

If you have a digital SLR camera, the quality will be better. It sounds like you are a snapper like me, rather than a photographer like my husband, as he would never consider a camera to be redundant on any trip.

Taking pictures to post on Facebook and not much else? Then the phone would probably be fine.

If you'll ever print or enlarge a picture or feel like you might process your photos at all, take a real camera.

I love my new DSLR and the pictures are superior (although a friend has an iPhone X and those are much better than my 6S). Having said that, I will struggle when our next European adventure arrives as the camera adds weigh, bulk, and I can’t help but feel I’d experience so much of what I’m there for through a lens. I’m taking the Nikon on an Alaska cruise this summer as a test run.

I was in the same boat as you in thinking about my trip in July to Italy. The pixels are MUCH better on my phone so I went ahead and bought a Moment wide angle lens and case for my phone. I am hoping that will help. The lenses aren't cheap but I read good reviews and they have a telephoto, fish eye and macro lens available too.

I went thru the same debate last year. Ended up buying a Nikon Coolpix P6000. I wanted more capability than my phone can give me. Great pictures and features but a little heavier than I would like. Next trip the day bag arrangement will change to make carrying easier on my neck.

This won't be helpful bc it involves spending. BUT, posting anyway.

We like nice photographs, and enjoy photography, but as backpackers, we did not want to carry our Nikon D90 plus huge 18-135 lens. So after several years of taking photos with our phones (in the High Sierra: Yosemite! Ansel Adams Wilderness! etc etc), we bought this. It takes fantastic photos, has a ton of fun options, is the size of your flat palm, and weighs little. This is what we take backpacking and now to Europe and yeah, the photos are WAY better than the ones we also take with our phones (there are 5 of us; the kids fight over who gets the camera).

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/panasonic-lumix-dc-zs70-20-3-megapixel-digital-camera-black/5866714.p?skuId=5866714&ref=212&loc=1&gclid=CKmtzPWK9NoCFTiSxQIdc98INw&gclsrc=ds

I am a retired professional photographer. iPhone 7SE is my only camera now!

It’s always right there, in my pocket ready to shoot. Great for landscapes, city scenes, and candid people photography. Not so good for wild animals. I do miss a nice telephoto lens.

People look at my travel photos and assume I still lug around all my expensive cameras. Sold them.

So here is my three top tips to improve your travel photos: Delete, delete, delete.

I take a lot of good pictures and I delete most of them. At least half. Nobody wants to look at six photos of the same stunning castle or spectacular waterfall, even from different angles. Pick the best one and get rid of the rest. Also almost every photograph, whether from a phone or fine camera, can be improved with post processing. I don’t mean extensive photoshopping, but just basic cropping and adjusting the lightness/darkness.

Anyway have fun.

3lovetotravel thanks for posting some professional advice!

It really depends on your level of interest in photography and what you want to do with your photos. It also depends on what camera you are comparing the iPhone to.

If you just want snapshots to document your visit and to post to Facebook, then your phone will suffice. They do take good photos, but don't offer much exposure control and perform poorly in low light, zoom and movement. I've also noticed they don't handle contrasting light conditions well. But I am very picky about my photos.

If you want to take photos inside churches, or zoom onto details, or print them for display - then you really need a higher performing camera. I recommend a DSLR for that, but there are some good quality higher end P&S cameras that can perform well too.

I'm just back from the Adriatic tour and how I regretted not bringing my real camera with me! In the bright sun, there were so many times that I couldn't see what was displayed on my iPhone's LCD. My mirrorless camera at home with the viewfinder would have made it a lot easier to see what I was shooting. I also missed not having a real zoom feature when we randomly ran into the President of Slovenia.

I decided to leave smaller-than-DSLR mirrorless camera at home because it was more than I want to pack. But for my next journey, I have resolved to purchase a truly compact point-and-shoot with viewfinder.

While my iPhone will never match the quality of a 'real' camera, it's easily better than any point and shoot camera I've ever owned. It's also way easier (for me) than lugging around an extra piece of gear.

I also struggle with the dilemma of which camera to carry on a trip. For years, I carried a DSLR and lenses (often an 18-200) to try to minimize weight. A couple of years ago, I bought a Nikon Coolpix P900 for safaris in Botswana and Namibia. It is a superzoom P&S with a zoom to 2000mm, perfect for safari. I was able to reach birds, etc. that others could not. Great photo quality! I also used it in Alaska for a land trip with lots of hiking and canoeing. Again, a good choice. This spring, I purchased a Sony RX 100 IV for traveling in Europe since generally the photos do not required long zooming. Recently returned from Sicily with great photos - very lightweight camera with a pop-up viewfinder. Excellent with lots of versatility, can shoot RAW, fully manual, lots of scene choices. Fits in my purse!
Not inexpensive but I am extremely pleased. Often, I have used iPhone 8 Plus for quick shots but the quality of the shots is much less than the Sony.

OP-
There is a substantial difference between an iPhone 7 and 8 in terms of photography. Especially the 8 Plus with dual lenses (the 8 Plus smokes the 7). There is a further slight jump in quality with the iPhone X.
You can take exceptional pictures with the iPhone 8 PLUS with the dedicated telephoto lens and image stabilized wide angle lens.
If you want to go with a 'real' P & S camera then I highly recommend the Sony RX100 mk V (newest version).

Are you printing? There is nothing like photos going from the iPhone to the iPad for instant viewing (having the two synch up each night while you sleep-presuming you have wifi).

Sid

If you want to go with a 'real' P & S camera then I highly recommend the Sony RX100 mk V (newest version).

Actually, they just recently introduced the mVI.

I'm not an Apple person (Android all the way) but I suspect there's little difference between the latest Apple phones and the latest Android phones. (The Samsung Galaxy S9 is supposed to have a dynamite camera.)

That said, I can't take pictures with a phone and must use a real camera. I'm especially afraid that I'll drop the phone, especially if I'm in a crowd. I bought a Nikon Coolpix P7000 a few years ago. It's a great compromise between size and power.

With a cheap USB card reader, an adapter cable, and an Android app, I can easily copy my photos to my phone or tablet, and from there to the cloud, at the end of each day. My SD card is big enough to hold all of the pictures that I take on the whole trip, and I have enough Google cloud space to hold all of the pictures uncompressed.

Eric —

“mk VI” ...... your costing me money....... haha

EDIT— No Way,

Lens increases from 24 to 70 to a 24 to 200 but at the cost of lens speed. The vast majority of my pictures are buildings and interiors... I want wide angle and a fast lens. The mk v with a f1.8 at 24mm totally smokes the mk vi slowing down to f2.8 at 24mm. Not gonna happen in my world. Better buy a spare mk v to put away.

Sid

I take my good point and shoot and my iphone. I take a lot of photos and don't want to spend the entire vacation going through them to delete (plane ride home is good for that). Using just my iphone drains the battery and I lose memory. Night photos and zoom are still not great on the iphone.

I use both but not for the reasons already stated. I use my point and shoot Nikon when I am in very crowded "touristy" areas, because I am paranoid about having someone snatch my phone. (I'd rather lose a $200 camera vs a $1000 phone). I have a friend who had her new iphone snatched from her hand while taking a photo in Rome. All it took was a quick bump from a young women, my friend looked away and bam, the young women's partner grabbed my friend's phone and ran into the crowd.

I’m in the iPhone camp, have been for many years. As Sid said, the iPhone 8 Plus is exceptional. I do not want to carry around a separate camera, especially a DSLR.
I also have an Apple iPhone battery case. Gives you two batteries total and plenty of battery for a day of photos (I take a lot), video, and everything else I use my iPhone for.
You can get after-market battery cases for less, but I’m an Apple fan and prefer theirs.
I also carry my iPhone charger cable and adaptor in my bag and recharge during the day while I’m having a meal and a plug is close by.

If you haven't made a decision yet, you may find THIS article interesting.

Just back from a European trip and used a lot of iPhone 8 pictures in our trip album. Quality was great.

That being said, I always take a dSLR as the act of looking through a viewfinder is a way of really focusing on your subject, seeing patterns and angles, and thereby immersing yourself in the location.

For events, dinners, and people, the iPhone is better as it’s not as intrusive.

YMMV

It wouldn't feel redundant if you're really after great photos that you can post-process. Especially on low light environments, a camera would be really useful.

On my trip to Dubai last year, I was not carrying a camera since my old one wasn't that good and did not opt to go for a new one. Although I do not have the iPhone 7 or 8 yes the 6 also does the job really well. Got some really good clicks with the device. And I would not agree with the fact that the camera is going to be redundant soon, because nothing can compare to the quality clicks they provide, nowhere near any smartphone camera.

I use a Canon Ixus compact camera with a 5x zoom. I find this produces excellent photos and can easily be carried around strapped onto my belt. Cameras & Camera Phones have the greatest difficulty with high contrast photos - where part of the scene is in brilliant sunshine and the other part in shadow. On my Canon Ixus is something that Canon call i-contrast (intelligent contrast). Leaving this switched on overcomes the problem of bleached out highlights and blacked out shadows. It may make some some scenes - such as landscapes - lack a bit of ‘bite’. That can be easily corrected by clicking ‘auto contrast’ in a photo editing programme in your computer. So, a camera with only 5x zoom might not be any good for shooting far off animals but it serves for most purposes.

I also have a Huawei Honor 9 lite smartphone. I found that it gives much better pictures with HDR turned on. This stand for High Dynamic Range and seems to act in a similar way to Canon ‘i-contrast’ in getting detail in highlights and shadows. It also offers 4:3, 1:1, and 18:9 ratios for still photos. (A pity no 16:9).

I note that for some odd reason i-phones only shoot still photos in 4:3. (Not sure if that is still the case with recent models). i-Mac screens are 16:9 and to get your photo to fill that screen in landscape mode, that would surely be the preferred ratio? I would suggest that people try and crop their photos to that ratio where possible. On my Canon ixus, I have it set to 3:2 - which is a good compromise ratio. I with it to 4:3 for certain shots - such as those done vertically to shoot a tall building for example.

Remember, if you are constantly getting out a thin camera phone to take photos - there is a chance you will drop it. These phones are not cheap to repair. My little Canon ixus is an easier shape to hold so therefore, less chance of being dropped. Even if it were dropped, the relatively low cost means that one would probably throw it away rather than have an expensive repair bill. Think off all the people you have seen with broken phone screens! (They don't make it easy to fit a new phone screen - possibly done on purpose)? I also have taken people on trips who have used camera phones - only to find they run out of power mid trip. With my Canon ixus, I have purchased a spare battery. So, I let the first battery get completely used up before inserting the second one - and so on. I have never run out of power.

On my trip to Spain this summer, I took my iPhone 7 and a Canon G7xii. I used my phone's camera for casual photos in restaurants, and quick social media pics. I used my Canon for monuments, night time shots, etc. Anything that I might want to enlarge to something that I'd want to frame. There was a notable difference between the two. I didn't always carry my camera, and at times I wished that I had.

I use a hammer for nails, a phone for calls and a camera for photos.