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Phone camera for backup during travel?

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jw10

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I have read, and agree completely that if you are traveling you should bring along a backup camera in case your primary camera becomes unuseable.

Has anyone considered just using their phone camera with its *awesome* DOF for the backup camera. Almost seems like a no-brainer for the very small chance that the primary camera bites the dust. Of course the quality of the phone camera must be good enough. Not sure mine is that good, but my daughter has a pretty new camera (samsung S5 I believe), and in our near future travels maybe we could use that. Would be one less thing to pack.
 
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Absolutely, yes, if your phone has a good camera (e.g. recent iPhone) you should use it as a backup. You'll be carrying it anyway, so why lug around another "real" camera in the unlikely event that you'll ever use it?

Phones can produce a surprising number of keepers:

On a recent trip to Europe, before I got my RX1Rii, I brought a decent Panasonic Micro 4/3 camera with a couple of fast primes as my main camera and shot RAW+JPG. I also had my iPhone 5S with me for navigation, connectivity, etc. I took shots of everything with the Panasonic. For some shots that I knew I would want to share on Instagram or Facebook I immediately took a second shot with my iPhone 5S for easier sharing (since resolution doesn't matter much on those...
I'd never do that, but I'll bet you'll get some positive answers. Even the best phone cameras are limited to short focal lengths, have very limited dynamic range, and tend toward oversharpened images with heavy noise reduction at ISOs above base ISO. Add to that the highly saturated colors of almost all phone cameras, and you have what I consider to be a poor substitute for an actual camera.

I do use my phone camera, occasionally, for spur-or-the-moment shots when I don't have an actual camera with me. But I would never rely on it as a backup on a trip, unless I just didn't care much about the quality of the images I'd shoot while traveling.

For travel, I want a range of focal lengths, at least from about 24-28mm to 250mm in 35mm equivalents. I also want a lot more control over exposure, ISO, and focus than I could get from a phone camera. That means, for me, a fixed lens zoom camera. In the past it meant a DSLR with an array of lenses, but I'm done with all that.
 
I'm impressed with the quality that the iPhone can capture.



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Harvey
Write with light
 
No way,

I would hate to return home with a batch of photos I knew would be far superior using a pants pocketable rx100. Especially a place I am unlikely to return to, and a trip that cost a decent amount, but even to the shore, an hour away, I would hate to be limited by a cellphone.

I forget my cell phone takes photos, even though I chose it because of it's camera lens.

Harvey's shot is impressive, as are many cell phone pics, but: One shot, magic opportunity, magic light, with a cell phone, NFW.
 
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elliottnewcomb said:
No way,

I would hate to return home with a batch of photos I knew would be far superior using a pants pocketable rx100. Especially a place I am unlikely to return to, and a trip that cost a decent amount, but even to the shore, an hour away, I would hate to be limited by a cellphone.

I forget my cell phone takes photos, even though I chose it because of it's camera lens.

Harvey's shot is impressive, as are many cell phone pics, but: One shot, magic opportunity, magic light, with a cell phone, NFW.
Click to expand...
 
For me, the answer is yes. My main cameras are an Olympus E-M1 and an RX100. When I travel, I almost always have the RX100 with me. I say almost because there have been a few occasions when I did not, usually because I forgot to put it in my pocket. I always have my iPhone with me. It is not the best camera, but if it a choice of not getting a picture or getting one with not the best camera in the world, I'd take the latter. I have sold pictures taken with an iPhone. No one who bought the picture asked what camera I used or complained that the picture was not taken with a good enough camera. If I have a camera with me, I'll use it, if not, I don't have anything to lose by using my phone and I often get nice pictures with it.
 
jw10 said:
elliottnewcomb said:
No way,

I would hate to return home with a batch of photos I knew would be far superior using a pants pocketable rx100. Especially a place I am unlikely to return to, and a trip that cost a decent amount, but even to the shore, an hour away, I would hate to be limited by a cellphone.

I forget my cell phone takes photos, even though I chose it because of it's camera lens.

Harvey's shot is impressive, as are many cell phone pics, but: One shot, magic opportunity, magic light, with a cell phone, NFW.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
elliottnewcomb said:
jw10 said:
elliottnewcomb said:
No way,

I would hate to return home with a batch of photos I knew would be far superior using a pants pocketable rx100. Especially a place I am unlikely to return to, and a trip that cost a decent amount, but even to the shore, an hour away, I would hate to be limited by a cellphone.

I forget my cell phone takes photos, even though I chose it because of it's camera lens.

Harvey's shot is impressive, as are many cell phone pics, but: One shot, magic opportunity, magic light, with a cell phone, NFW.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
You could buy the latest and greatest cell phone just before the trip. You usually have 30 days to return it, you may have to pay 10% return fee, that gives you the best potential just in case.
 
Absolutely, yes, if your phone has a good camera (e.g. recent iPhone) you should use it as a backup. You'll be carrying it anyway, so why lug around another "real" camera in the unlikely event that you'll ever use it?

Phones can produce a surprising number of keepers:

On a recent trip to Europe, before I got my RX1Rii, I brought a decent Panasonic Micro 4/3 camera with a couple of fast primes as my main camera and shot RAW+JPG. I also had my iPhone 5S with me for navigation, connectivity, etc. I took shots of everything with the Panasonic. For some shots that I knew I would want to share on Instagram or Facebook I immediately took a second shot with my iPhone 5S for easier sharing (since resolution doesn't matter much on those sites).

When I returned home I culled my ~4,300 m4/3 photos and ~200 iPhone photos into a final collection of about 100 keepers. I didn't look at the EXIF or file names, I just browsed and cherrypicked the best-looking shots before processing.

Later I came across a Lightroom plugin that shows stats on what cameras and focal lengths I used most. I was shocked to see that 45% of my keepers were taken with the iPhone. Keep in mind that every single one of those shots had an equivalent photo taken with the m4/3 and a fast prime (i.e. standing in the same place, pointing in the same angle, taking the photos within 30 seconds of each other). The iPhone just handles colors fantastically well and, in side-by-side comparisons, seems to produce photos that match my memory of the scene and/or capture what I wanted the scene to look like.

To put this into perspective: the "success" rate of iPhone photos was 22% while the Micro 4/3 resulted in only 1%. And many shots simply did not exist on the iPhone because I never took them.

Of course, some of it depends on what you're shooting. My next trip was in the winter when the sun set at 4PM and I was focused on taking nighttime shots of the brightly-decorated Christmas markets in Europe. I brought my RX1Rii and an iPhone 6S (much better than the 5S overall, particularly OIS). Again, I shot everything in RAW+JPG with the Sony and, mindful of the previous iPhone's success rate, I took even more "backup" shots, plus a fair number of videos (gotta love that stabilized 4K video).

This time around, because I focused heavily on night shots, the RXRii easily won in the "keeper" category because smartphones just can't do low light that well with their tiny sensors. However, I made heavy use of the panorama mode (much better-looking results than the RX1Rii's), its stabilized 4K video, and its wider field of view (~28mm compared to the Sony's 35mm).

I would absolutely consider an iPhone to be a solid backup camera. In fact, I recommend snapping the occasional shot with your phone even when your main camera is still working. Personally, on the off chance that my main camera breaks during a trip—in 15 years it simply hasn't—I'd rather buy a new camera on the road than to spend money to lug around a "just in case" camera that I'll never use.
 
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Solution
That is quite an endorsement of modern phone/camera.

I am due for a phone upgrade, I deplore Apple's greed and proprietary and ever changing ports, lack of usb, lack of mini sd, ....

Any suggestions for a non-apple Verizon phone/camera?
 
Not to turn this into an iPhone-vs-Android thread, but considering you are looking for a phone with a nice camera you should really reconsider the iPhone. Many of your grievances are relatively moot (they changed ports once in 15 years; there's enough memory that SD isn't a factor; what do you need USB for? And Android phones are just as proprietary) and the iPhone cameras have always been top notch. If you can wait, it's likely that this September the newest model will have a dual-sensor, dual-lens setup that combine to create one photo, making up for the tiny sensors.

If not, look into something like the Panasonic CM1 which is essentially a micro 4/3 sensor with a phone attached to it.
 
For all those reasons, I'm not taking a backup camera. Four cell phones ought to be enough. One is a samsung s5, a samsung s4.
 
elliottnewcomb said:
That is quite an endorsement of modern phone/camera.

I am due for a phone upgrade, I deplore Apple's greed and proprietary and ever changing ports, lack of usb, lack of mini sd, ....

Any suggestions for a non-apple Verizon phone/camera?
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Ellsass said:
Not to turn this into an iPhone-vs-Android thread, but considering you are looking for a phone with a nice camera you should really reconsider the iPhone. Many of your grievances are relatively moot (they changed ports once in 15 years; there's enough memory that SD isn't a factor; what do you need USB for? And Android phones are just as proprietary) and the iPhone cameras have always been top notch. If you can wait, it's likely that this September the newest model will have a dual-sensor, dual-lens setup that combine to create one photo, making up for the tiny sensors.

If not, look into something like the Panasonic CM1 which is essentially a micro 4/3 sensor with a phone attached to it.
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you are right about no real need for mini cards or ports in phones since wifi, and no need for argument or to hijack Jeff's thread, but seeking advice:

best non apple phone/camera, large on screen keyboard, fast lens?

It is also lack of ports on apple tablets, and being forced to go thru iTunes. And, I bought apple stock when the cube was introduced, got burned, mad, sold it (damn), apple high cost is greedy. When my corporate clients, who hated apple, started using apple, I should have bought lots of their stock then.

I shoot mini sd cards in sd adapters in my cameras, move large batches to tablet with mini sd slot or computer in a flash, and I miss my phone that had a mini sd card. I used to simply move the card from camera into the phone, send a full rez photo of Ava to Grandma instantly. I had sporadic trouble with wifi from camera to phone, both rx100m3 and Oly, so I stopped trying. If I learn it, I forget it, menus are different, frustrates me.

tablet, computer: no more apple. I started with apple II, MacIntosh, Power Computing with dual cards, pc and apple, but AutoCad stopped supporting Apple, and Windows stole half of apple, won in court, stole the other half, so it finally had WYSIWYG which designers and artists need.

Vectorworks (former MiniCad) is apple/pc, and exports to AutoCad. I changed to PC's, primarily so my engineers could use my drawings on their computers. Later, AutoCad came back to Apple.

What absolutely astounds me, is the total failure, since 1984, of the windows world to get close to apples terrific designs. Sony tried, made some nice stuff which I owned, but ....

My droid mini has larger screen and larger keyboard than apples phones, I have large fingers, and a damaged index finger on my prime hand from car accident, so I need bigger. I lost steadiness after that accident, and the nerves in my feet are damaged, lack of input gives no feedback for balance, so I wobble quite a bit, so I need a phone camera that is fast, and I shoot both low light and motion kids.

so, best non apple phone/camera, large on screen keyboard, fast lens? I don't do any advanced features on any phone anymore, just email, text, sync with gmail, link to gps in car.

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Elliott
 
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I agree totally
 
Ellsass said:
Later I came across a Lightroom plugin that shows stats on what cameras and focal lengths I used most.
Click to expand...
I could use that plugin, what is it?
 
It's a totally different company now than in 1984; the Plus models have optical image stabilization which you may want; and there's a camera adapter to read from SD cards... But it sounds like you had already made up your mind so I'm dropping out of this line of discussion.
 
Ellsass said:
It's a totally different company now than in 1984; the Plus models have optical image stabilization which you may want; and there's a camera adapter to read from SD cards...
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Thanks for reminding me, I have one that fits Donna's and my Mother's old ipads.
Ellsass said:
But it sounds like you had already made up your mind so I'm dropping out of this line of discussion.
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Pretty much, but one never knows, and I appreciate learning from you. OIS sounds good for me.

I was hoping to get a few non-apple ideas, then hit the store for some prelim Verizon info, then hard research.

For cost, I like to stay a generation back, and then keep them for several years before changing.

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Elliott
 
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