Disclaimer: The following reflects my personal views only. Any misinformation is unintentional. Please feel free to provide feedback.

Introduction

My photography journey started just over a year ago, when I decided to get a [Sony HX90V]. Before that, I was using a [OnePlus One] for taking pictures. My main use of photography back then was documenting events in life, and the occasional travel photography.

I decided to get that camera when I started to find the quality of my travel photos a bit lacking. So I took the first step in understanding the tools needed to take nice photos.

About half a year ago, I decided that I liked photography enough to invest in a more serious camera, and I got a [Sony a6000] and have been enjoying taking photos and editing them more frequently every since. I still keep my HX90V because it has a 30x optical zoom (covered below) but I bring out the a6000 more often now.

In the remaining of this post, I shall present different ways of comparing cameras. In each way, I will try to compare with a phone camera and provide personal anecdotes and opinions. The target audience is someone who has been taking photos mainly with their phone camera and don’t really understand why dedicated cameras take “better” photos. No prior knowledge is assumed.

Ingredients of a camera

There are always trade-offs and the “best camera” would depend on your use case. To understand which is the “best” for you, first understand how cameras differ from one another.

The following are some aspects to consider:

• Sensor size
• Lens aperature
• Optical zoom
• Quality and file format
• Features
  • GPS
  • Wifi
  • Viewfinder
  • Rotatable screen

Sensor size

The sensor is typically one of the most important parts of a camera, and the general rule of thumb is the larger the sensor the better the image quality, but also the larger the camera. The logic behind it is the larger the sensor the more light it can capture, more light means more data, and more data means possibly nicer photos.

The standards for comparison is with a full-frame sensor. These are usually found in the typical bulky DSLR cameras that professional photographers carry.

The common sizes you’ll see in the market and their relative order is: full-frame > APS-C¹ > 1" > 1/3.

But size isn’t everything. Technology has help offset small sensors. It is important to compare sensor type and image processor as well when comparing sizes. Modern compact cameras such as [Sony RX] series have a 1" sensor and compensates by having 3 of those stacked and having special image processor.

In comparison, camera phone sensors are typically 1/2.5 or 1/3 inches. However, because the images are usually viewed on small screens such as phones or tablets, the bottle neck is not the amount of data captured but the camera software that applies a filter that affects how the photos appear.

In general, larger sensors are better but the cameras are more inconvenient to carry around. Smaller sensors can compensate by using a more advanced sensor type.

Lens aperture

Aperture refers to part of the lens that affects how much light to let in. Aperture sizes are prefixed with f/ and its value is usually found on the lens ring. e.g. f/3.3-6.5. The iPhone for example, has two cameras with aperture sizes f/1.8 and f/2.8. Note that the smaller the number, the larger the aperture, and the more light it can let in. More light means better performance in low-light settings.

A small aperture, will cause most things to be in focus, just like a pin-hole camera. Another technical way to say it is it has deep depth of field and is able to have more of the picture in focus. But as mentioned before, a small aperture means less light gets in, so it can only perform well under bright light.

A large aperture means more light will enter the lens. But unlike the pin hole camera, the focus area is smaller. This can produce the bokeh effect and allow for more creative shots. Typically used when taking portraits: the background is blur but the subject is sharp and clear. This is also a result of a shallow depth of field.

Recent camera phones supports “portrait mode”, that is an artificial way of creating this bokeh effect.²

Another thing to point out is a non-zoom lens (such as camera phone lens or prime lens) has one aperture size. A zoom lens will have a range. e.g. f/3.3-6.5.

Typically lenses capable of larger aperture sizes are more expensive because it is difficult to keep the image quality high at that focal length. If you need good low light performance or want to play around with the bokeh effect, pay attention to the aperture size.

Optical zoom and focal length

This number is also usually found on the lens ring. e.g. f/3.3-6.5 24mm-70mm

Every lens has a focal length property. Practically, it affects how wide the camera can capture and how small things appear. The smaller the number, the wider the field of view, and the further things appear to be. The value is usually quoted with respect to a 35mm sensor size³, if it is not, look up what the equivalent value is for comparison.

The iPhone has a focal length of about 30mm. A zoom lens with 24mm-70mm means that when it’s zoomed out, it has a wide angle view equivalent to a 24mm lens, and when zoomed all the way in, it has a view produced by a 70mm lens. A 24mm lens would be able to capture a wider view than an iPhone.

Typically for landscape and architecture you’ll want a wide angle, and therefore a smaller focal length. For portraits, 50mm seems to be the gold standard.⁴ Higher zoom is typically used for nature photography or just taking photos of things that are just too far away. E.g. To take a clear photo of the moon, a 300mm lens will produce the best result.

Optical zoom refers to how much can you zoom in without the quality suffering. The zoom factor is based on the largest and smallest focal lengths⁵. This is in contrast with digital zoom where the software enlarges the photo without additional information. This causes a lower quality photo that appears pixelated.

Here is a footage (warning: there is background music) when I used the 30x zoom feature on a holiday trip.

File format and image quality

Some camera can capture photos in RAW images, along with the JPEG. RAW files captures and saves all the sensor data at the cost of a larger file size.⁶ Typically the camera software would apply a filter to an imaage and compresses it to JPEG and that would be fine if you don’t plan to edit it much. If you want to do extensive editing, the RAW file would provide greater flexibility.

RAW image typically looks… raw, and require some form of post processing in order for it to look nice. If you just want to take photos for memory and don’t want to spend hours tuning your photos, you may not need this feature. However, if you want to dabble your toes into post editing, then getting a camera that supports RAW is a good place to start.⁷

The term megapixel measures how much details the image produced has. It is only meaningful if the details are meaningful⁸. Phone cameras typically produce 12MP, and a dedicated consumer camera today around 20MP. This is something to think about if you are planning to blow up the image to print, for instance.

Features

The above are some qualitative dimensions to compare cameras with, but there are other ways manufacturers distinguish themselves.

GPS

If I use the camera for travel photography, I personally like to know where my photo was taken so that I can relive that moment, as well as being able to point someone at a map and say that’s where I was. So if you are like me, getting a camera without GPS for travel photography might mean going through the effort of making sure you also capture the GPS data via some other means⁹.

Granted the cameras have a companion phone app that tries to leverage on the phone’s GPS cability, the setup required is often cumbersome and not worth the effort.

Wifi

If you use social media or travel with companions who do, chances are you’d want to share the photos you’ve taken at your next break point (or almost instantly if you/they are hardcore). The ability to just extract the particular image from the camera without a computer is almost a godsend [and a rather cool feature].

This also usually means the ability to use the phone as a remote shutter, which has it’s use cases, taking group photos for instance.

Viewfinder

This is not that common, but has its own enthusiasts. Whether you agree with the arguments presented below depends on your usage style.

• It allows you to take photo without squinting your eyes when the background is too bright.
• Holding it close to your face/body means less shaky shots.
• If it is an electronic view finder (EVF for short), in contrast with an analogue one, it may display to you how the image would look like with the current settings applied.

Rotating screens

The ability for the screen to rotate 180 is great for taking selfies, or do vlogging. Besides that, it allows you to frame low angle and ceiling shots easily.

Conclusion

Modern phones are surprisingly good at taking decent photos and the convenience is unmatched. Dedicated cameras can be expensive and matchmaking the feature set of one with your use cases is key to saving money by not paying for features that you will never use. If you find yourself interested in learning more about the theory of photography or find that the camera phone just doesn’t take “good” enough photos anymore, then perhaps it’s time to upgrade.

I did not cover typical features expected from a dedicated camera when compared to a phone camera but they are worth considering when deciding whether to make a switch: continuous shooting rate, shutter speed range, ISO range, better control of aperture size, slow motion recording, movie recording.

But remember, the photographer’s gear is one thing, but knowing how to use the gear to take good photos is a different ball game altogether. Most importantly, the best camera is one that you bring around and use.

Additional reading

Here are some links that I have bookmarked for the enthusiastic readers.

• Smartphoens vs DLSR vs film
• Full frame: do you need one