The iPhone; An Alternate Take
Curmudgeonly thoughts with an optimistic twist
The lively discussions over the past month about traveling light, capability of the iPhone, software add-ons, hardware accessories, etc., have made me think a lot. Out of all of the thoughts generated by these discussions, one particular thing rose to the top. We all must admit we are far beyond the point of sufficiency in terms of image quality. I’d argue that we were already there before digital image capture, auto-focus, and auto-exposure but with less convenience and fewer choices based on output quality and output size targets.
Can an iPhone make pictures you like? Yes. Can it produce sufficient quality to make reasonably sized prints? Yes. Can some combination of software/iPhone computer hardware provide image aesthetics you want (DOF characteristics, film looks, etc)? Maybe, certainly arguable, but for the sake of conversation let’s fast-forward to yes, you can simulate any aesthetic you desire.
Here’s a few questions to consider:
Do you like using your iPhone as a camera?
Are all the haptics, and controls something you enjoy manipulating?
Are you comfortable with more complexity that comes with more software, more accessories, more choices, before and after the picture-making outing?
What kind of gear helps you when you are actually making pictures? I don’t mean technically, I mean seeing the world more creatively.
I’ve answered these kinds of questions many times and I have triangulated on a similar set of answers over and over again. I don’t like complexity and mental clutter, especially when making pictures. The more automatic the camera the less I pay attention to the world. I make more lousy pictures the more I let the camera think for me. Making choices before I make a picture always turns out better than after. No amount of camera automation and speed is better than paying attention and making choices before “the moment”.
What cameras do I absolutely love holding, carrying, and most of all using? There are a few but they have the same basic characteristics…
A viewfinder I love looking through
Simple direct controls that are well placed and feel good to use. I only care about aperture, shutter speed, and focus.
Less buttons and dials rather than more.
The body and lens combination together is in the range of a Nikon F3 w/50mm at the absolute largest to an Olympus OM-1 w/50mm at the smallest.
Good, small, fast, small lenses that are a pleasure to use in every way.
I don’t like using my phone as a camera, there’s no joy in it for me. I find it the most cumbersome camera I’ve ever used with the worst controls ever. They are tedious to use, either in the way, or buried somewhere, they are slow and error-prone to change. In a nutshell, phones are dreadful to use as I want to use a camera. Add in a few notifications and it’s an insufferable experience. Did I mention the battery life? Terrible.
Of course, you can overcome this with an external battery brick for your phone. You can even make it somewhat of a reasonable device to operate with a FJORDEN ULTIMATE grip bundle but does the control grip make you love the iPhone as a camera? The iPhone as a camera can be very simple, just use it as it comes and let it do its thing like the old Instamatic cameras. Add one more thing, a preset look and be done.
I don’t care much about sharing photographs immediately on the internet. I do care a lot about enjoying the photographic process in the simplest, least complex way possible that provides an aesthetic I gravitate to with the least number of moving parts. I make better pictures with cameras I enjoy using. I like manual focus. I like examining the light and deciding how to render it. I like slowing down even in the midst of chaotic environments and choosing a moment rather than trying to capture all of it.
I don’t like my iPhone. I don’t really want a new one and dread that I’ll have to buy one sooner or later. Will I have an iPhone with me? Yes, I probably will. The one thing I do like about my phone is the ability to make small prints with Fuji Instax Printers or the Canon Selphy printer and give them away when I am shooting digital. I especially like that the Instax film gives me a look, no software, no options, no messing around. I pull the JPEG off my camera and shoot it to the Instax. I’m absolutely sure 90% of those Instax prints are enjoyed and displayed for a very long time by the people I give them to as opposed to those images posted to social media which are gone in a moment never to be seen again.
I’m glad we can all have a computer in our pocket and I’m glad I can produce instant prints with that computer. I’m glad it can make pictures but the last thing I want to do is buy more apps, learn more software, complicate my workflow, and spend more time messing with my phone looking at a digital screen.
What is the camera you enjoy using the most? If the iPhone all of a sudden produced the same “image quality” as your main/favorite camera of all time but had the same touch screen haptics, controls, etc would you really want and desire to use it as a camera? Garage Band is amazing, would you want to use its keyboard instead of a real stringed instrument? Would you produce the same music? I’d venture you probably wouldn’t, you wouldn’t even approach it in the same way. I feel the same way about cameras.
“I don’t like my iPhone. I don’t really want a new one and dread that I’ll have to buy one sooner or later.”
This statement from your essay sums up why your musings on this subject are so slanted. Your additional comments about how the iPhone is the worst camera you’ve ever used and that there is no joy in it for you compounds the issue.
You also talk about not wanting additional apps and processing to get in the way of your creative flow, as if post processing using a conventional camera is not similar in effort and application.
As a “serious photographer“ for over 50 years, I can understand your bias against the iPhone as a camera. Historically, it has never been viewed as a real camera by photographers because its resolution capabilities fell well short of the most modest professional cameras. That was true for me as well.
With the advent of the iPhone 15 Pro and the 48 megapixel camera Apple raw format, this equation has been completely changed when employing the Enhance feature in Photoshop.
Not recognizing that would be unfortunate for your own personal photographic capabilities as well as how you influence your readers.
The very fact that you don’t like your iPhone and dread having to buy a new one, says it all. This device is so low in your estimation of value, that its modest price compared to most cameras, is dismissed entirely.
This explains why in your article about taking just an iPhone on a photo trip to Europe, you took an older, antiquated iPhone 13 as your test camera. You put the equipment test at a disadvantage from the very beginning by not upgrading your iPhone. Now I understand why.
With the promise of the new iPhone 16 Pro with reported major camera improvements coming this fall, this device as a camera, using Photoshop Camera Raw with the Enhance feature for processing, will be nothing short of a modern miracle.
In addition, the iPhones internal computer manipulation of each image utilizing HDR and other sophisticated adjustments, takes the quality of contrast control, tonality, and range of values to a quality level not even imagined a few years ago.
The post processing in Photoshop newest version of Camera Raw is intuitive and effortless. After having spent over 35 years in a darkroom, I am continually amazed at its ease of use, sophistication, with simple sliders and selection tools that make almost anything possible, just in that one section of Photoshop alone.
Combining these two modern marvels, the iPhone’s ease of use day to day, to using Camera Raw in creating your final image and then the print, this sequence is streamlined beyond anything I ever could’ve imagined in my dark room days with far more control.
You commented after your curmudgeon statements about the iPhone, “Yes, I would have one with me”. Good for you.
The old adage, “the best camera is the one that you have with you“, still remains true today.
I’m not sure why you dislike your iPhone so much. Possibly because it brings into your world, due to its vast capabilities, aspects of modern life you do not appreciate. Whether it be social media, or photo sharing where images come and go in an instant with no real value placed on the photograph as a piece of art, those effects are real, but only part of the story.
You asked near the end of the article, that if the iPhone could produce an image with the same quality as your other cameras, would you actually use it, and the answer for you was no, with the GarageBand app versus a real musical instrument as your analogy as justification for your opinion.
An incredibly unfair comparison.
I find using the iPhone as a camera effortless once I embraced its limitations as you would with any tool in your toolbox. The viewing screen as a viewfinder, is bright and clear and frame accurate. I don’t “mess with” the digital screen. I don’t let it think for me, I just make my photograph in the moment. It couldn’t be easier. I use Photoshop to create how the final image will be rendered.
You are right that when we are using the tool that we like the most, the results are inherently better. I am now using an iPhone as my primary camera with that same result.
I always have it with me and am ready in a moments notice to capture an image the second when the light is perfect, even if I only have a moment to work.
For example, a backlit cloud that is passing between two trees in just the right position. The wave crashing on the shore under the full moon, just when the light transitioned to an iridescent sparkle along the crest of the wave.
Coming upon a huge gunnera leaf in my garden that was illuminated in such a way as to become its own world unto itself.
All of these images. were made possible because my camera was in my pocket and could be employed in an instant.
Now that the quality is the same, and in some cases better than many conventional cameras, this capability and potential is a game changer in my estimation.
I take pleasure each and every day that my camera of choice now, the iPhone, is always with me.
It allows me to be more creative in the moment because it is the least in the way of any equipment I have ever used.
I have gone the full spectrum over my 50+ years using many different cameras and lens combinations and am thrilled that now my equipment of choice is light, compact, easy to use with remarkable quality and capability only to improve in the near future.
I can’t wait for what this technology will bring in the next few years.
To each his own.
Thank you for your time.
William Pierson
Camera wins on all levels and to repeat all your reasons is just repetition. I love seeing the images pop Lightroom. Did I get it? Working a little with sliders for light dark shadows etc. that brings to life what I saw not what AI thinks. No photoshopped prepackage sky or foreground. If it isn’t then I dump it or give a one star to save.
When I can only carry one camera it’s the Fuji gfx50s 63 mm lens or canon mark iv 5 D w 50 mm lens. But then again the dilemma sometimes it’s the 70-200. Decisions decisions but at least I get the joy of shooting. Thanks for sharing.