iPhone?

[David Gever]

First, this isn't about serious photography.

A few years ago before iPhones I used a Fujifilm FinePix F20. For the past few years I have only been bringing my iPhone with me on backpacking trips. Does the dedicated digital camera offer any advantages over an iPhone 5s to warrant bringing it?

[Bob Gross]

"Does the dedicated digital camera offer any advantages over an iPhone 5s to warrant bringing it?"

If you hope for wildlife photography, yes, a tremendous amount.

–B.G.–

[Franco Darioli]

An iPhone is the current equivalent to the Box Brownie or Instamatic of previous generations.
Of course much better in many ways but so are dedicated cameras.

If driving is your thing, chances are that you don't drive a Corolla, however for many a Corolla is good enough.

[Bob Gross]

"If driving is your thing, chances are that you don't drive a Corolla, however for many a Corolla is good enough."

My car is a bicycle.

–B.G.–

[Ian]

If you've been using your iPhone as your only backpacking camera for a while and you're happy with the image quality, then you've answered your own question. I have been let down too many times with the iPhone to trust my pictures to it so I've opted to invest in a mirror less camera system and have found that it's well worth the weight penalty.

Edit: as far as advantages go, I find that the iPhone suffers in low light conditions where I don't have time to set up my shot on an iPod. Typically, what I'm talking about are times when im in the trees, or its hazy out, and a deer or bear walk across the trail in front of me. But, I've had issues with it in full sunlight too. For landscape shots, it does a relatively good job.

[john hansford]

An iphone 6 has a better camera than the 5, and a bigger screen too, but nevertheless as soon as you zoom in to take a landscape shot you will get pixelation when you view it on a TV or monitor screen.

For this reason I am looking for a compact to hike with, but want to charge it from my Suntactics5 solar panel. Any ideas on what cameras will charge from USB?

[David Gever]

Sorry, I should have been clearer. Obviously a dedicated camera has advantages over an iPhone. What I was wondering is weather my older model camera still has an advantage over a newer iPhone.

[Franco Darioli]

If you still have that Fuji, as it seems implied by your comments, why don't you try it out for yourself ?
By that I mean go out and take the same photos with both and then compare them.
(ease of use/speed/screen brightness/low light-flash performance and end results)

After all if I can see the difference but you cannot (or the other way around…) why should that matter to you ?

Apart from picture quality( that may or may not be better..), one advantage the Fuji can have is that it can give you 300 or so photos with one battery charge, leaving the iPhone for the other tasks.

[Kurt Papke]

In the past year I have switched over from carrying my Canon SX120is camera and just bringing my iPhone 6. The only thing the iPhone does not do that I miss is optical zoom, which is needed for close-ups of wildlife. Other than that, it is "good enough" for everything I do.

[Nick Gatel]

"An iPhone is the current equivalent to the Box Brownie or Instamatic of previous generations."

Ha! I used a Box camera and an Instamatic in my early backpacking days. Pictures were okay, but expensive to process or too time consuming if I did it myself. I figured out is was better to go camera-less, which I mostly did until a few years ago. I now take a P&S to document the trips for my kids. If I didn't have kids, I doubt I would bring a camera.

[Gabriel Harper]

The iPhone 6 camera is only slightly better than the iPhone 5S for your purposes. The iPhone 6 has slightly improved speed, image processing and low-light pictures. But only slightly.

That being said, I'm not a professional photographer but I've been taking wilderness photos almost exclusively on smartphones for years now. iPhone 2G, iPhone 3S, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5C, iPhone 5S, iPhone 6, Galaxy 34A, Galaxy S5 and Nokia Lumia 920.

Of all the newer incarnations, the iPhone 6 is usually my go-to for pictures. The S5 is a close second though.

On a typical trip I bring the iPhone 6, Galaxy S5 and a GoPro Hero3+ Black (yeah, not so UL!) Generally the iPhone 6 runs GPS (Gaia) and I use the S5 for still pics and GoPro for video.

The main disadvantages of using your phone for pictures is that it will drain battery life on a trip, meaning less power for GPS/calls/etc. Smartphones also hit a wall pretty hard when it comes to optical zoom and low-light performance. Don't expect much there.

The great advantage is that you don't need to carry an extra device, batteries, lenses, etc. A phone is reasonably light and you are probably going to bring it with you anyway.

A few tips on smartphone photography:

1. Don't zoom. Just don't do it. If you absolutely have to zoom, keep it to a minimum. Zoom on a smartphone is generally software-driven (it just upscales your photo) and leads to rapid loss in quality. I'd rather get a crisp shot at a distance than a fuzzy closeup.

2. Take multiple shots, always. Smartphones aren't the precision instruments that high-end cameras are. Half of your shots will come out slightly out of focus or with poor exposure, especially since you aren't usually mounting a phone. I always take 3-5 shots at a time so I can later prune out the bad ones.

3. Use a third-party camera app that provides focus and exposure lock. Camera+ is a great app for iPhone with focus/exposure lock and also has exceptional post-processing so you can lay in the tent and play with photos at night. :) Focus lock is great for getting macro shots, and exposure lock is going to be very useful in weird lighting conditions where you need to override the camera's auto exposure.

Anyway, just a few thoughts – good luck with your photo adventures!

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