Agree. A cellphone with its button-lens is never going to match an actual camera in the kind of flexibility that only real depth of field can offer.

To be sure though, out of convenience I pretty much only take my phone on vacations. (Well, and an old medium-format TLR film camera just for the odd novelty photo — but it only ever leaves the van when I think I have a subject best suited for it. Oh, ha ha, and I have a stereo digital camera in the glove box that gets similar treatment.)

Sensor wise yes, but not for post processing.

All cameras (compact to SLR does post processing) other than for RAW format. And infact even for RAW format SLR cannot beat modern flagship phones [1] [2].

[1] Apple ProRAW https://support.apple.com/en-in/guide/iphone/iphae1e882a3/io...

[2] Samsung's 'Expert RAW' https://www.androidauthority.com/how-to-use-samsung-expert-r...

>even for RAW format SLR cannot beat modern flagship phones [1] [2]

Total nonsense. Of course a modern medium or full format camera outperforms any phone on technical aspects.

>And infact even for RAW format SLR cannot beat modern flagship phones [1] [2].

What is described is those article is the same as a normal raw that DLSR have been doing for decades. Adding the word "expert" or "apple" in front of the name doesn't make your RAW files magically better.

The only advantage for the smartphone here is that it's more user-friendly to edit the RAW files directly on the phone in one click compared to importing your photos in a software like Photoshop Lightroom

Clarification - Mobile Phones can beat SLR in sheer computation and ability to add extra information in RAW files, which SLR cannot do.

Understanding Apple ProRAW

https://petapixel.com/2020/12/21/understanding-apple-proraw/

Excerpt:

ProRAW has one more surprise up its sleeve. A few years ago, Apple began using neural networks to detect interesting parts of an image, such as eyes and hair. Apple uses this to, say, add sharpening to only clouds in the sky. Sharping faces would be quite unflattering.

ProRAW files contain these maps!

> add sharpening to only clouds in the sky

Of all the dumb things in this thread, this has to be the pinnacle!

(Clouds are inherently fuzzy)

Phones have perfect ergonomics for carrying everywhere, and that's my primary requirement for a camera!

Perfect for carrying it in a pocket sure, not at all great for carrying it around in a hand. A compact camera is wider but shorter in two other dimensions, so it's easier to carry.

True. Hand grip with shutter trigger exactly where my finger rests — can't beat that ergo.

Taking photo with phone is utter horrible. I admittedly can't take a decent selfie with one hand. Even holding chopstick is easier.

Are you using the volume buttons to take a picture? I sometimes find that more ergonomic than tapping the screen.

I use the touch button if holding with one hand. The dedicated button for the shutter equivalent makes the photo shaky! How could that with one hand?

In my main camera use case the "gopro" form factor has much better ergonomics than a phone, by a wide margin. Unfortunately, that market is wildly underserved because all existing cameras in that form factor barely consider stills even an afterthought, if they consider it at all. I'd pay real money for a camera that is on par with phones but does not come with an almost face-sized TV attached.

(I use an RX-0, which at first glance seems to fit that bill, but doesn't really: it's an extremely small movie camera that only pretends to be a very small compact for addressing a wider audience than it deserves)

Ergonomics is a mixed bag. DSLRs win at latency and burst, as well as manual mode.

But sharing the pictures is a pain, the UI is hard for beginners. And the most important ergonomic of all : it's easier to grab my phone than the 1-pound DSLR.

I can share pictures from my Fujifilm cameras via WiFi to my phone... I think you are using a pretty outdated kit and trying to judge the current crop of mirrorless cameras against that.

Even Canon and Nikon abandoned the DSLR format, the digital photography world has embraced mirrorless, it's much more compact and the only thing you lose is the analog viewfinder through the mirror. For me it wasn't a loss at all.

I've been a hobby photographer for almost 15 years, had DSLRs, full-frames and ended on mirrorless exactly because I needed something compact and light to carry around.

Yeah, mirrorless won since 5-7 years ago.

True, "only full-frames can beat smartphones nowaday" is nonsense. iPhone 14 Pro Max's sensor size is 1/1.28". Naive physics, 1" is collecting more raw light. Now it depends on how good a person controls the collecting process (and post).

Yes, and that's only on the "primary" wide-angle lens.

The other two lenses have 1/3.5" and 1/2.55" sensors.