Smartphone vs …Any camera! 

Agree 100%. By the way, you’re a bloody amazing photographer

Completely agree with your thoughts on phones vs cameras, for me a phone though is a useful sketch book, taking visual notes places to revisit, dropping gps pins. First time I'd also seen the area with the finger board since the local farmer completely took away a really nice ruined farm and outbuildings that were adjacent to that tree

0:24 When I have my camera in a vulnerable position, I always put the strap round my wrist, just in case.

I agree with all your points Craig, I find I use my phone most for photography when on holiday with family or friends…it is ideal for sharing things or recording interesting places/ features etc. I certainly send no postcards any more!

Agree with the key point on ‘experience’. A paired down all my camera gear to my Leica Q3 and Ricoh GRiii. But last week said goodbye to the Ricoh as when not wearing glasses I need a camera with a viewfinder now. The Ricoh made way for a OMD EM5 mkiii with 14mm and 45mm lenses.

Poor Craig: the latest (i.e. upcoming new) iPhone will have a "dedicated" shutter button, IIRC. But my cameras still can give me a more shallow depth of field and a powerful flash (those small Godox ones for example re easily pocketable) if needed.

Yep.....got to agree with everything you said including the golf comment!

That opening song intro sounds like a sample from the Clash "Straight to Hell" all day. Anyway great video!

Always like your videos, you talk a lot of sense! Smart phone photography is great to capture snap shots, I find with a selfie stick, great when on holiday to capture the essence of where you are. Invariably it's not the time to lug cameras around and leave the loved one, twiddling their thumbs. There is a time and place for both!😀

I think you nailed it with the "disconnected/too connected" comment. But what do I know, I'm an old fart with a bunch of old Nikon film camera's.... trying to like Fujifilm camera's and a distinct aversion to computers. Bangin rocks is more fun to this Luddite 🤪.

Second hand compact digitals are seeing a resurgence of interest by mobile phone users because they want more than just taking photos. As you say, they want the experience and enjoyment they get from properly using a camera to take photos. Myself, I simply hate to have to dive into the touch screen menu to do anything I want to take a photo or adjust the settings.

The truly miraculous part of phone photography has to be the digital darkroom in your pocket and especially that one exceptional innovation - free perspective.

I was on a two week getaway in South Korea recently and I had taken my Leica Q3 camera and my iPhone 12 pro max for communications. Though 90% of my photography was with my camera, I managed to take a few convenience snaps with my iPhone and to be very upfront, the quality of the smart phone Photos were absolutely garbage. Thank God I was not one of those people that relied on capturing my holiday photos with a smart phone as they absolutely disgusting when it comes to quality, use a real camera

Wish i could give a double thumbs up for the golf comment 😂

Phones are totally overrated for taking photographs. Ergonomic disaster areas in the main and fake megapixel counts to boot. I much prefer my Canon Powershot SX 740 over my iPhone 14 pro for taking pictures.

"Bypass all the complications of shutter speed, aperture and ISO" - almost like a Holga!

Very enjoyable video with valid points. But have you seen or reviewed the Fjorden iPhone camera grip? The claims made seem valid to control many manual operations in creating an image. Thanks for your photography which always inspires my own creativity!

Phones are the one time use cameras of the 90s. Convenient, cheap, usually always keep it with you since in the 90s you could buy those plastic cameras literally in any store, even clothing stores in my country used to sell them LOL. Cause they sold, people needed a picture? They just went and bought one for 50 quid and there you go. And so easy to develop the film, just put it in the machine and out came pictures! Phones are that, its just a convenient, cheap tool but at the same time, people who get serious about photography on their phone always graduate to an actual camera, after all, you are not gonna build a house with a swiss army knife are you? Its nice to have, but to build a house you need proper tools for the job. And people get so bent up and emotional over their tools specially brand names that they forgot at the end of the day it does not matter, they all do the same thing, phones are not designed for photography its not meant to do it well, but a camera is regardless what brand it is, obviously it will be better.

I ditched my Olympus system to and see if I could make my 15 pro max work as a camera. Not a chance, as you stated for landscape yes, some street stuff (street art) yes. So here I am now looking for a new camera.

I say, if Olympus had put a phone feature into the EM1 mk3, they might still be around...

Yesterday I was taking photos of a bridge being lifted into place on the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway at Haworth. I had my micro four thirds camera with an 8-25 mm lens attached (equivalent to 16-50 mm full frame). I used the full range of focal lengths available, because it was a BIG crane, and there was really only one place available to stand. The 8 mm end allowed me to get the top of the crane in the picture, and the 25 mm end let me get in a bit closer. I couldn't have got the pictures with my phone.

I have the opposite experience... Taking out my DSLR is a worse feeling than using my phone. For many reasons

Hi Paul, In great light Smartphones can take great images, but they just don't take good photos in low light. But they have improved significantly over the last ten years. Nice photo of the Old Blue Shed reflecting in the Water, taken at Three different angles. Looked like you used a Graduated ND Filter for the Blown out Sky, giving you a more balanced photo. That was a great tip for me to use. Love your work Craig. 😊

Interesting video, thanks. I find I use my phone quite a lot and have added a simple and inexpensive hand grip. I note you don't rate them but I find that mine (clamp rather than mag) with a Bluetooth shutter button makes hand holding much easier. I've added a wrist strap for extra safety. It works well as I find just using the phone alone a bit clumsy. Thanks again.

Since the phones are getting bigger and bigger I opted for a Sony compact, which is by the way also bigger than its predecessor. The camera, and especially the lens of this phone is such an afterthought that I just never consider using it. Small Olympus/ OM System camera in a pouch on my hip is what I use where ever I go. And that is with an EVF in contrast to the Ricoh 🙂

Completely agree. But what kind of crazy madman holds their camera over a huge drop into the deep dark lake!! lol. It has a wrist strap for a reason, bro - spare my shredded nerves please! :-) And keep making these great videos.

Great points in this video... But a few weeks ago i was tempted when i Saw Xiaomi 14 pro - 1" sensor with add on.😵‍💫 They are getting very close. Thanks for your thoughts. All the best from Portugal

cant ring out on my fuji xe2, nice vid Craig

I think getting phone images on a computer and trying to edit them says all you need to know. Perfect for everyday stuff though if you are not a photographer. If I had to sell all my cameras the GR3 would be the one I would keep.

The lens and the shutter button are all in the wrong place on a smart phone. They are the most awkwardest thing to use as far as i am concerned.

just watching, like the lead in photos😊, my phone cops fair bit of abuse therefore don’t take photos other than snapshots.

I think smartphones are for people who don't think they are photographers in general and people who use cameras/lenses are for people who believe they are photographers. My kids take way more photos than I do with their phones and when I say they are photographers, they completely disagree :) I seldom use my smartphone for photography unless I'm documenting somewhere I'm visiting and might forget the name of the place or occasional snap shots of my granddaughter/family. I find using my smartphone for photography bores me where I get excited to use a camera/lens combo. Both have their uses and places though.

Very interesting thoughts - for once I agree in general but disagree in detail. All right, but getting „the job done“ with a phones camera imitations to me is an „experience“. Yes, photography with my Olympus (yes, that one) ist still the better experience. But the phone is „ok“ when the camera is too bulky or not at hand. Dedicated phone sessions are not that bad…

a fairly overcast day and woolly jumper, will there ever be good weather photography from UK? so depressing always photographers in woolly hats

Hi Craig, I think this is upside down, the phone companies don’t want you or I to drop our ricoh’s or film cameras, they don’t want the ‘yute’ to pick them up - that’s how they will dominate the market in 20years with a generation of no comparison to the camera experience and no desire for it. Take care, Toby

I am totally not bothered by the way other people take pictures, and neither should you.

I quite agree. Folk, these days, do not have a soul.....and thats what using a camera is about.

I give up on the album cover...who is the band or artist? The best I could get on Goggle was Mr. Big, or Big Star.

If family or friends ask me take a photo on a God forsaken phone I do the worst photo I can so they never ask again. It's either on a real camera with me or not at all. I'll leave photography first after 21 years before I use a phone for photography. Photography for me for getting away from my phone.