the best camera

iPhone 4 (no filter)
That moment when you're walking down a quiet alley in east London and you suddenly spot a very moody cat sitting gracefully in front of a scarlet-red door, and you left your fancy camera at home. Oh wait!, you do have a camera on you - your smartphone.  Result!

To be fair,  these days, many people now rely on their smartphones entirely for their photography needs.  With their ability to instantly share photos on social media, and great editing apps such as VSCO and Snapseed, sometimes smartphones are even more suited to some people's needs than dedicated cameras.

iPhone 4 + VSCO cam


iPhone 4 + VSCO cam
Personally I use a 5 year old iPhone 4 (I know, I know).  The camera on my iPhone is now considered mediocre at best, but I still manage to get satisfactory photos with them.  Satisfactory to me anyway. My favourite app right now is VSCO cam. Unfortunately after updating my iPhone to the latest firmware permitted on it, I've lost most of my VSCO presets, so I usually don't use filters anymore.  I aim to get the 'perfect' light in the first place.  If you ask me, it doesn't matter which smartphone you have, you can still get great photos. You just have to learn how to use the camera on the smartphone - that's all.

I also find my iPhone very handy as a backup for my analog cameras.  Sometimes I'd run out of film and something awesome would happen. Those are the moments when I'm most grateful for the camera on my smartphone.  Since analog cameras have really changed my style of shooting, I often yearn for manual controls on my iPhone. There are some apps like Camera+ that give me a level of control - way more than using the default camera app.

iPhone 4 (no filter)

iPhone 4 (no filter)
Smartphones particularly lend themselves perfectly to street photography in my opinion. Not only because they are small and unobtrusive, but also because people usually don't take you seriously when you shoot with one. Also, because virtually everyone is pointing their smartphones and shooting snapshots all day. They are super silent and have wide angle lenses that can focus really close. Seriously, some of my best street shots have been with my iPhone. Again though, I think one must take the time to learn the skills of shooting with a smartphone to get the best out of them. Learning the skills makes you quicker on the draw. For instance in the above photo of the lady in the stripped dress, I turned around and saw this view which only lasted for about then seconds, after which she got up and left.


As usual, I may get some commission if you do take the class because I'm an affiliate of Craftsy, but I honestly think it's one of the best smartphone photography classes you'll ever find. Ever.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

boots 500AF - part 1

Image
Much displeased am I to report that my nostalgia project isn’t going as smoothly as I expected. Why is it that in a mostly plastic camera, one of the only metallic parts turned out to be the least durable? The source of my said displeasure is a thin little strip of metal. Thus the story goes. Camera number 3 finally. I was excited about this one, as it was my first ‘good’ camera. Branded ‘Boots 500AF’, it has a 34mm f4.3 autofocus (hence the ‘AF’) lens. Come to think of it, both the 34mm (as opposed to 35mm) and f4.3 (rather than f4) are quite obscure values for a film point and shoot. I have no way of telling, but I assume the ‘500’ in the name denotes the maximum shutter speed of 1/500 the camera can achieve, but that’s pure speculation on my part. It has an auto flash, and the lens does a faux zoom action when turned on. Very cool indeed. I read somewhere that it was a rebranding of some Japanese camera, but again, I have found no evidence of this. Oh how...
Read more

praktica bx20

Image
Up until the camera showed up in my life, I had only been using rangefinders and point-and-shoot cameras.  I had gotten used to the parallax error compensation ‘slightly to the left, slightly up’ movement during composition.   I had also given up on all on-camera metering and usually shoot full manual mode, relying most of the time on Sunny-16.  That’s great of course, if all you’re doing is street or travel photography outdoors when you are mostly shooting at distances at which parallax errors don’t matter much, or the minimum focal distance don’t ever come in to play, and you have predictable good light. Like anyone else, I occasionally get the unexplainable urge to take a photo of my feet, or my coffee.  This urge is impossible to resist.  There’s nothing more photographed than own feet and cups of coffee.  If you ever wondered why this is, there is your answer, once and for all – it is a natural urge like thirst or hunger. Ba...
Read more

10 christmas gift ideas for film photographers

Image
The holidays are around the corner. This means peace on earth, joy in heaven, and of course, presents! For that ( analog ) photographer in your life, what do you get them for Christmas that they would appreciate a great deal?  Here are some ideas; [This blog post, as usual, contains affiliate links to Amazon.  I may be compensated if you make a purchase via a link I've provided.] 1. Film This is the obvious one. If your loved one is an analog photographer, or enthusiast, one thing they're constantly buying is film . Find out what camera he/she uses and figure out what film format it takes. The most likely formats are 35mm or 120 (medium format) . You can probably find film at any local camera store - if you're in the UK, at Boots , Snappy Snaps or at a supermarket like Asda . Otherwise you can buy them online like on Amazon or eBay. 2. Polaroid Camera Unless your loved one develops their own film at home, they would usually have to wait for ...
Read more