My trusty Pentax P&S needs replacing & my mobile phone is so old it isn't funny so I'm wondering - is now the time to combine the two & just get a mobile with a good camera? And if so, which one to choose?
Any thoughts/ideas/recommendations much appreciated.
With apologies in advance if this has already been covered - I've searched but can't seem to find anything.
I'm currently using Sony Xperia Z3 compact and I love the camera in this! Previously I had iPhone5, pretty good as well. But from what I've read, the very best cameras are in Lumia-phones. They lack in applications though.
iPhone 6 has an amazing camera and lots of good apps. iPad cameras were much lower resolution, although latest iPad Air 2 has pretty much levelled that out.
May I join in this conversation? I have a rubbish camera in my Nexus but there is no way we could ever afford an iPhone - any recommendations for Android phones with good cameras? Apps really are not required, I prefer to work on my desktop machine.
@runestone Which Nexus do you have Beth - I had the nexus 3 and 4 and was pleased with the phone in both. Unfortunately you get what you pay for. The Nexus 6 has a better camera but costs more than an iphone. The iphone 4S still has a decent camera and can be bought quite cheaply. It's the old adage that you get what you pay for I'm afraid.
@net yes. My daughter bought them off eBay for Christmas for me. You can pay £50 or more for them but she found me a little bag of three, macro, fish eye and wide angle that she found for £5. It comes with a rubber coated clip which clips over your phone lens and then you can screw any of the lenses in.
@iwatts wow - that sounds great! Still trying to get my head around which way to go re. an iPhone. Locked, unlocked, data, contracts etc are all a mystery to me as I have an ancient, basic as basic, pay as go mobile!
@runestone Samsungs and LGs are great. We have all brands in this household. I have Samsung5 but the 4 was going for nothing last i looked. I loved my Samsung S3.
@net I always go unlocked and sim only contract. Get the best one I can afford and then upgrade every 12 months. So even though iPhone 6 cost me a small fortune, I'll only lose about £150 in a year on it. Then I upgrade to iPhone 7. Most contracts you are stuck for 2 years. Ivecfone the maths and it works out cheaper in the long run if you can afford the initial outlay. Sim only contracts are cheaper than ones that come with phones.
@iwatts Many thanks Ian. That's all really helpful. I've no idea if it's the same here in Oz - Heaven knows when we arrived here getting internet access was totally different: we needed to know how many gb we needed a month!
@net the iPhone 6 is an expensive phone but actually the top range android phones are too. If you can afford it well worth buying outright and paying for your SIM card separately. People get wowed with offers of free phones without realising it costs more in the long run. And the iPhone 6 is an awesome phone. I was android for years but don't regret changing at all.
@net I use my iPhone 5 a lot. If you're interested and have time have a look at my project. There are quite a few iPhone pictures there and all done with just the camera lens. However having seen Ian Watts comments about extra lenses I might have to try those!!!
My Samsung Galaxy is the only thing I use for all my photos, and the editing /processing I do afterwards. It's great - I'm amazed at what can be achieved.
@darylo@thistle@mothermalarky many thanks everyone - really helpful advice. I thought I was set on an iPhone but then read about Samsung just yesterday so all undecided again! Reckon I need to have a good look & play in the mobile shops!
@net The iPhone 6 is the best all around mobile phone camera. I won't argue that there are others that are better according to technical specifications. It's true. But in my opinion manufacturers bank on us getting caught up in the specifications so that we spend our money with them rather than someone else. So in truth, even though in my opinion the iPhone 6 is the best all around, my most honest answer is that it doesn't matter what cell phone camera you get; the variances from a *practical usage* point of view are relatively insignificant. The saying goes "it's the photographer that makes the images, not the camera". The best image I have in my portfolio was taken with an iPhone. There is also a photographer who took 4th place in the WPPI competition with a wedding album shot with an iPhone (but it could have just as easily been any other phone camera): http://www.jerryghionis.com/the-wedding-of-josh-and-amber-select-shots-taken-with-the-iphone/
The iPhone platform has a solid camera and the key is getting to know that camera inside and out, how it performs and behaves, and to maximize its capabilities. There are a *lot* of good apps for the iPhone camera, you will probably be most interested in the third-party camera apps like Camera+ and/or ProCamera which provide a much broader feature set then the default camera app that comes with the phone. The SlowShutter app will allow for long exposure/night photography. There are numerous other camera apps and editing apps. And as others mentioned, it is possible to get attachable lenses. I've used just about all of them but to be honest, after an initial "this is cool" period, I use them exceedingly rarely now, maybe once every couple of months when I remember I have them and make a point to use one, so I'd encourage holding off that expense.
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@iwatts Ian dumb question time - what do you mean by a set of lens for your iPhone? Are they something you literally attach to your phone?
The iPhone platform has a solid camera and the key is getting to know that camera inside and out, how it performs and behaves, and to maximize its capabilities. There are a *lot* of good apps for the iPhone camera, you will probably be most interested in the third-party camera apps like Camera+ and/or ProCamera which provide a much broader feature set then the default camera app that comes with the phone. The SlowShutter app will allow for long exposure/night photography. There are numerous other camera apps and editing apps. And as others mentioned, it is possible to get attachable lenses. I've used just about all of them but to be honest, after an initial "this is cool" period, I use them exceedingly rarely now, maybe once every couple of months when I remember I have them and make a point to use one, so I'd encourage holding off that expense.
Hope these thoughts help,
Joe