Stupid question about which "camera" to use

[xizar]

Normally I snapshot things with my iphone. The whole "best camera is the one you have with you" and all that, right? And by snapshot, I'm totally talking old-school polaroid fire-and-forget. No processing, I just take pictures and stuff.

I took my son to the botanical gardens today and figured I'd take my "real" pocket camera (lumix dmczs7) because that's what it's there for. It's not the greatest, but then it's just snapshots and junk to show family.

When we got there, I realized that I didn't know which to use... I argued with myself for awhile, trying to decide which one...

I think I was trying to decide based on "ease of importing into iphoto/aperture/imovie/fcpx" kinds of things...

The iPhone is stupid easy with importing into all of those.

The Lumix will import photos directly into iphoto and aperture, but the movie importing (avchd) is a pain in the ass (except with FCPX... there it's *quite* nice; everything is recognized.) If there's a way to import the videos smoothly into Aperture or iPhoto, I haven't found it.

Learning to how to (effectively) use Aperture is also frustrating (projects/folders/etc).

So I'm flustered!

I do like using the camera more, as it has real zoom and feels like it handles better.

I ended up using the camera until its battery died, and then moved to using my phone.

So... srsly... which one should I use? My camera or my phone?

 

[fitshaced]

So the issue is video import? Does your camera allow recording in different formats?

You have a point and shoot because your iphone aint that great.

You have an iphone becasue you can consolidate devices.

But, the iphone camera becomes a bit redundant when you are out and about with the intention of taking pictures. Your Lumix will surely fit into a different pocket.

 

[stevendphoto]

some people read the instructions and familurize themselves with their equipment, do some test shots and that sort of stuff beforehand...

So let's just say: "best camera is the one you know how to use"

as a photographer I am very unhappy with the iphone (3GS) performance...

 

[Doylem]

For "snapshots" and "junk to show the family", you really don't need a sophisticated piece of software like Aperture. And if you really don't care about quality, then it probably doesn't matter which gadget you use...

 

[xizar]

Aperture (fcpx not so much) kind of fell into my lap. I figure I should use it, since I have it. (I am attracted to the "save only the changes" vs iPhoto's "save a new copy every single frickin' time"... just doing that reduced my photo library by almost a fifth!).

The Lumix will save movies in avchd and motion jpeg. A lot of the silly things I record do fit into a 30s window, but I've also used the camera for some skool projects that needed cuts longer than 8 minutes the camera allows (the manual says files have to be 2gig or smaller).

I won't claim anything more than "I've rtfm" with it... I can use it, and I'm trying to figure out things beyond "if the reciprocal is big, the picture is smeared". It has an idiot mode which is meh and a "program" mode whose default works surprisingly well.

Like I said... I'm very confused by all this. I feel like I *should* use the camera when I have it (we went to the aquarium and used only the camera)... I guess I just like the consolidation of the iPhone. It's just made more complex by the built-in GPS the camera has. I think that, if it didn't have that, the iPhone would easily win.

My head 'splode...