Potentially the longest thread in history...

[SirCyber]

That last statement is precisely why my phone has seen all of about 15 minutes outside of it's Otterbox case... and that was just the time it took me to get from the store to home to put it in. if I took the case and screen protector off it would be a mint condition phone. On the camera issue, you are absolutely right. There is more to taking pictures than the camera itself. The person behind the lens has to be competent as well.

 

[Oreo]

I don't even try to take good pictures with my phone, because the lack of manual controls is frustrating. Auto mode is pretty hopeless. I don't even like the result fully auto gives me on mega expensive DSLRs, so a phone has no hope at all. Auto is fine at getting a technically sound photo, but (obviously) it has no artistic or creative judgement.

I think they are useful for "oh **** look what is happening, must reliably take a photo showing whats happening" situations. They are good at that.

The video modes are more useful, as very few DSLRs are any good at it either.

 

[PP Mguire]

I actually find video to be more frustrating for me because I like to manually set focus on something close. I don't usually take video but if I do it's going to be of something that needs a closeup. Whereas to me I like having a decent camera on a phone just for convenience. I always find something I want to take pictures of but I don't own a DSLR and if I did I wouldn't want to drag it around everywhere. I mean I own a decent Coolpix but I don't like using that either unless I have my tripod. Having a good camera on my phone also means the battery will always be charged since it's my communication device. Pretty much each time I want to use my Nikon the battery is dead because I forget about it.

 

[Yami]

I don't even try to take good pictures with my phone, because the lack of manual controls is frustrating. Auto mode is pretty hopeless. I don't even like the result fully auto gives me on mega expensive DSLRs, so a phone has no hope at all. Auto is fine at getting a technically sound photo, but (obviously) it has no artistic or creative judgement.

I discovered the other day that you can manually set the focus and shutter speed on the M8. Combined with the excellent low light performance I can take some fairly nifty photos with it when I can be arsed.

Edit: You can also manually set ISO and a few other things

 

[Oreo]

I discovered the other day that you can manually set the focus and shutter speed on the M8. Combined with the excellent low light performance I can take some fairly nifty photos with it when I can be arsed.

Edit: You can also manually set ISO and a few other things

Android is better than iOS w/r to manual control. But it is still rather basic.

No histograms, no zebra, no manual focus, no aperture control, no bulb, no exposure bracketing etc.

 

[PP Mguire]

He said he had manual focus.

 

[Yami]

Android is better than iOS w/r to manual control. But it is still rather basic.

No histograms, no zebra, no manual focus, no aperture control, no bulb, no exposure bracketing etc.

Except for focus and aperture, I don't know what those mean

 

[Oreo]

He said he had manual focus.

My bad. But no focus peaking or focus assist so would be hard to obtain tack sharp focus.

Except for focus and aperture, I don't know what those mean

Hah. You should see all the options on my A7...

Focus peaking, puts red edges around in focus parts of the picture when in manual focus mode. Not perfect, as it tends to include stuff slightly either side of tack sharp, but it's a good aid for getting fairly accurate manual focus fast:

Histogram is the white chart at the bottom. Helps with exposure.

Zebra is the white and black stripes. In this instance i've got it on Zebra 75. So it's showing pixels at 75% saturation.

 

[PP Mguire]

Yea and that goes along with my other comment. If you really need all that for a picture, use a better camera. Phone cameras make great on the fly shooters because you always have it.

 

[Oreo]

Yea and that goes along with my other comment. If you really need all that for a picture, use a better camera. Phone cameras make great on the fly shooters because you always have it.

This is true. I do tend to keep my camera in my car though. So while it's not right on me, if something truly pic worthy is near bye I can go and grab it.