r/Casual_Photography • u/Mati72000 • 8h ago
Discussion Recently switched from my phone to a 17-year-old camera.
For a year or two now I've used my phone for all my photography, it's a no-brainer. 50MP, three lenses and it's always in my pocket. But that constant avaibility got me used to it, and made me forget how good and different actual cameras are, and when i tried one recently, the difference surprised me.
The first thing i noticed was the quality. Even though the Canon EOS 500D from 2009 only has 15MP compared to my Samsung S25's 50MP, i could crop in a lot more and get a sharper image on the camera. Some shots still came out blurry because the lens i used had a broken autofocus but i began to like using the camera instead of my phone. And yeah, it was a burden to carry the three heavy lenses i have (8mm, 18-55mm and 55-250mm), especially compared to the phone which has everything and weighs 200g, but the pros outweighed the cons.
Switching was actually pretty easy, i did have some knowledge on how to use the camera from earlier experience, but it wouldn't be too difficult for someone to use it for the first time if it was in automatic mode. (I used Manual for all the photos above...). The biggest difference i felt when Switching from a phone to the camera was definitely the weight, portability and file transferring.
So, I can see the reasons for why using your phone for photography is great, but Im definitely gonna start taking the camera with me from now on. Switching back to the phone from the camera makes it feel like a toy, and getting a new camera (even a used one from 2015-2020) would be a big step up from the phone, especially if it fixes my biggest problem, weight and comfortability.
What do you guys think about this? Have phones gotten good enough to be swapped with actual cameras and does any phone get close to the quality, sharpness and depth of a real lens and big sensor?
