Might not be a bad idea to post your own thread on the issues you raise. This one's about iPhone vs dedicated cameras.
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iPhone 15/Plus I'm a Pro Photographer and ordered a Standard 15
- Thread starter Miltz
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The best camera is the one you have with you when it is needed (my motto since I used to be a Swedish ivy league university trained professional journalist (haha)). So I use my 13 mini. Nice enough photos overall and with Camera+ I can shoot RAW if I want to). My Nikon D5200 mostly stays in the cupboard. It has too many settings anyway. 
This is a misleading statement though and shows misunderstanding on what is happening.
It is not gathering 256 times less light. The small sensor does mean that at f2.8 the bokeh effect won’t be the same as full frame and closer to the depth of field when at f22 (I’ve not actually checked whether f22 is what the equivalent is, but assuming that calculation is correct). But it is gathering the amount of light of an f2.8 lens.
I think this is very fair points and I understand your perspective but as a non pro, I can’t justify spending thousands on cameras when my real hobby is PCs and buying the new parts.
The way I view the Pro purchase is more that if I’m not gonna buy a dedicated camera, I might as well buy the iPhone with best camera instead. And besides, I also care a lot about things like the higher refresh rate and action button.
The way I view the Pro purchase is more that if I’m not gonna buy a dedicated camera, I might as well buy the iPhone with best camera instead. And besides, I also care a lot about things like the higher refresh rate and action button.
Correct. On my micro 4/3 camera I have an f4 constant aperture zoom lens. It has the light gathering capacity of an f4 but the bokeh of an f8 (2x 35mm equivalent). At 100mm I can still get nice creamy backgrounds though.
Yeah, my wife is a professional photographer, and while she always prefers the phone with the best camera, and she likes large screens, she is never convinced the iPhones or any smartphones take photos she’d ever use beyond sharing on social media or look at on small display.
Every Apple iPhone keynote event she’s always asking what Apple does to the photos post-processing because photos in real life usage never look as convincing. That’s always been my experience too.
I think it is possible to take good photos with iPhones, I have posted many in the photo of the month threads, and it is amazing what you can capture, especially in RAW with some editing. However, camera upgrades are on the bottom of my list of reasons why I’m upgrading from my 13 Pro to 15 Pro Max. I wanted larger display, better battery, dynamic island, USB-C, action button, and always on display. Those were far more important than the camera upgrades ironically.
This is an interesting discussion. I’m wondering, who gets to make the decision as to when it is appropriate, from an environmental perspective, to upgrade an iPhone? On who’s perspective do we base this decision? Do we go to the extreme or do we strive for some reasonable middle ground? Or, do we do what we want without any consideration to an envrionmnetal impact? Who’s senseibilities dictact?
I could say that one should keep their iPhone until it‘s completely unrepairable before upgrading. Is this reasonable? I don’t think so. But, that’s my perspective. Another could say that we should have never bought an iPhone in the first place if our old flip-phone was still operable. Reasonable? Another could say, I’m going to upgrade my phone every year just because I want to the new features, regardless of any environmental impact. Is this reasonable? I can certainly see how someone could make that argument. Where do we draw the line?
I say, everyone use their own judgement.
Isn't that the point really? If your a pro photographer you have a proper camera so don't need the Pro iPhone. If you're not a pro photographer you probably don't have a proper camera so make up for it by buying a Pro iPhone
I don’t think anyone is suggesting that an iPhone should replace the cameras you use for your work. However that doesn’t diminish the capabilities of an iPhone to take great shots in the right circumstances, in much the same way as a relatively low end camera in the hands of an exceptional photographer can also produce amazing results. Like many things it’s not always the equipment that delivers results it’s the skill of the user, often a balance of the two. I’ve met many people in my time who buy the latest and greatest cameras and expensive lenses who can’t take pictures for toffee but they think the best gear produces the best results but that’s not always the case.
You do you!
To me this is a very long self-justification post. You don’t need to publicly defend yourself that hard! We’re all perfectly capable of deciding what phone to buy for ourselves.
You want the 15? Great; buy it! It’s awesome that there are options for everyone.
To me this is a very long self-justification post. You don’t need to publicly defend yourself that hard! We’re all perfectly capable of deciding what phone to buy for ourselves.
You want the 15? Great; buy it! It’s awesome that there are options for everyone.
Your status as a professional photographer isn't tied to the phone you choose to purchase. However, opting for the lowest storage option on an iPhone does raise some questions about your preparedness as a photographer. Adequate storage for photos and videos is a fundamental consideration for anyone in the photography field. While it's true that you won't be using your iPhone for professional shoots, it's essential for countless other situations where you might not have your professional gear on hand. Attempting to justify such a minimal storage option, especially while identifying as a "pro photographer," does seem rather perplexing.
We don’t know, the OP might have signed up for a 6 TB iCloud account and is storing all the photos there. Or a Flickr account. Or Google Photos. Or even Amazon Photos.
They actually chose 1 rung up from the base given they’re on the 15 and not 15 Pro
But 256 is 256
Pretty much this, I have seen some best photographic works with a mid range camera or even a smart phone.
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From Apple’s support docs:
“When Optimize Storage is turned on, full-resolution photos and videos are stored in iCloud, and, when needed, space-saving copies are stored on your device. And as long as you have enough space in iCloud, you can store as many photos and videos as you want.”
It’s bigger than a 1TB phone which is the max iPhone size, and this convo was originally about why “a real photographer would never chose 256gb because you need more space for photography.”
Plus, there’s a 6TB option.
First, it sounds like the OP may not be using their phone for anything other than quick snaps anyway. But even if they are taking lots of raw shots with the phone, there are multiple workflows that could work with more limited storage space. For example, someone could shoot in raw during the day, then in the evening offload all those photos onto their computer and remove them from the phone. It would be tedious but it’s an option.
Or maybe they have the 6 TB iCloud, who knows.
That F/1.6 lens is probably the same one that was used in the 13 Pro series. It is a fast fairly sharp lens but it does have a lot of vignetting at the corners. When I use that same camera on my 13 Pro Max, shooting the night sky, and the stars, most of them were pinpoint in the center, but had, Corner edge distortion everywhere else. The F/1.78 lens is actually sharper. I am a professional photographer as well. so if the iPhone 15 has the same camera/lens assembly that the 13 pro had, it’s fast, but not a sharp in the corners.
f/1.6 13 Pro Max
f/1.78 14 Pro Max
I was on hwy 87 between Mauriceville and Newton, Texas. I got online and looked up a light pollution map to find out where the darkest skies are that were close to where I live. I drove about 45 minutes to get to this location. There’s still some light pollution to the south as you can see, but for the most part, it’s pretty dark. Just go online and look up a light pollution chart and it’ll tell you where the darkest areas are near your location. This was a 30” night mode shot in ProRAW, then edited in Lightroom
Oh yes i couldn’t agree more. I am a semi pro and very serious about my photography and frankly I really hate shooting with the iPhone. I don’t like the way it handles at all and while I enjoy the casual results there is simply no comparison with pro gear. And for me, no joy in using it. I’ve a ton of Nikoncameras and lenses (D850, 500, z8 and on) and for casual street photography I love using my leica q2. Again, there is simply the joy of fine machinery.
This is why at the end of the day I went for the 15 pro rather than the max. Why spend more for a camera feature I won’t enjoy using?
The differences are a lot smaller in good lighting and when doing video.
4K 60p ProRes that fits in your pocket is quite cool. Smaller sensors often have an advantage in good lighting as well, as you don’t need to stop them down and use neutral density filters to the same degree.
Just an enthusiast, but i had a pretty complete top end Sony system, and legacy Canon and Nikon systems, even Profoto lighting gear. I sold them all. It is just so much easier to capture the moment on the phone vs miss it not having your camera with you and ready.
4K 60p ProRes that fits in your pocket is quite cool. Smaller sensors often have an advantage in good lighting as well, as you don’t need to stop them down and use neutral density filters to the same degree.
Just an enthusiast, but i had a pretty complete top end Sony system, and legacy Canon and Nikon systems, even Profoto lighting gear. I sold them all. It is just so much easier to capture the moment on the phone vs miss it not having your camera with you and ready.
You might want to check out the Leica q series. Faster than the phone and gorgeous photos and easy enough to always have with you!
But yes the iPhone is an awesome tool!