Are smartphones eating the mainline cameras?
By: Mithun Sekar
Tags: Photography, Smartphone, Camera, Dslr, Photos

Are smartphones eating the mainline cameras?

Of course they can’t, they are fragile-hand held devices not metal-plastic eating robots.Okay, lets skip the lame jokes and start with what every one has,

Common sense:

P.C:Google image search

Lets apply some common sense to this matter. Camera is called a camera because its main purpose is to capture images and record videos. So it is obvious that cameras are the better shooters than smartphone cameras. But, our human mind is not easily convinced,so lets get some technical justification to it.

The Mega-Pixel era and Sensors:

People are stuck in a megapixel mentality now-a-days. Phone cameras come with 16,32,48 or even 64 megapixel sensors. But, the budget model DSLR camera Canon 1300D comes with a 24 megapixel sensor.

The photos captured in a camera solely depends on the size of the sensor. The bigger the sensor, the more light gets in, the more details the sensor captures and more real the image becomes. So, If you take the best smartphone camera(maybe a pixel 4xl), the sensor size is a 5.1 x 4.1 mm. Whereas, canon 1300d comes with a 22.3 x 14.9 mm sensor which is approximately 24 times larger than the best smartphone camera available. So, the thing not to forget is that megapixels can’t be compared to cameras with same sensor availability and not different sensors.

P.C:Google image search

If you ask this question, “The pixel has only 12 megapixel sensor, but the canon has a 24 mega pixel sensor.”, the answer is,”You ain’t got the point yet.”. ‘Google Pixel 4 or I phone 11 pro or Samsung note 10 plus or Huawei mate 30 pro is/are the best cameras smartphone available’, which means they have beaten all the other phones with 12,16,32,48 and even 64 megapixel cameras. If we take a straight 64 megapixel Relame Xt and compare it with the same camera(canon 1300d), the results will be the same(DSLR wins).

The Unnoticed difference-Image processor:

Sensors capture lights and colors. But, the image processor is the brain of the camera. It collects all the light from the sensor and creates your beautiful picture. It fills the image with color and contrast. If you see ‘noise’ in your picture it because of misplaced pixel and the image processor is the responsible one. If less light is captured by the sensor, the image processor tries to fill the empty spaces and ends up with noise in the picture. Lets not get technical here. What does it add to the difference of the cameras?

P.C:Google image search

Okay, this requires some sense. Here, in a DSLR camera, the sole work of the image processor(CPU of a camera, to be simple) is to process images for its life time.But, in a smartphone, the image processor is a part of the main processor(CPU) and it lacks the power a main line image processor used in a DSLR or mirror less camera.

Other aspects of a Camera-Shutter speed, Aperture, etc.:

Smartphones cameras have not caught up with other aspects of a camera such as lenses, optical stabilisation, etc.,.The lenses used in smartphones are still basic when compared to mainline cameras. The best part is that you can change lenses to your mainline camera(DSLR or mirror less) to capture more beautiful images. You can add lenses to your smartphone camera, but ofcourse you cannot add a 200mm lens to your smartphone.

Smartphones have been good with shutter speed and aperture. The latest i phones and google Pixels manages f/1.8 aperture which can be compared to mirrorless and dslr cameras.

But why do smartphone images look and feel better?:

P.C:Google image search

Smartphone images are post processed and pre processed unlike Main line cameras. You should not compare a raw(No photoshop or editing) photo of a dslr or a mirror less camera with a smartphone image. Even if the images look good in smartphone camera, you won’t get the detail you get on a mainline camera. Post processing can be manually done with images from DSLR and other mainline cameras and I assure you that the images will be far better than the smartphone cameras(If the image is edited properly).

P.C:Google image search

According to me, Cameras cannot be replaced with smartphone cameras(atleast not for a few decades).

So what do you guys think, Can smartphones beat mainline cameras in the future? Please share your comments and the most important thing ‘Thank you for reading’.

-Mithun Sekar