am i silly dragging a nex-5 around?

[slackerinabox]

I have both a dsl and a sony nex 5 and reach for the nex5 for kids parties and the likes, but have noticed that my samsung s7's shots are brighter and sharper. I thought we were at the point of point and shoots becoming obsolete, but have phones made sub-dslr prosumer cameras (micro 4/3, whatever sony calls nex now) unnecessary too? or am i shitty photographer?

 

[Wuzup101]

I would think that the Nex 5 (aps-c mirrorless) would be capable of taking better photos than most cell phones. With that being said, from what I've read the S7's camera is top notch (I've never used either of the above). I'd venture to guess that most current generation micro 4/3 and aps-c mirrorless cameras easily outperform the S7's camera, and lets face it, camera phones are great because you always have them. They are still a pain in the ass to take pictures with (especially moving subjects like your kids in motion) than any dedicated camera.

Edit: something I didn't know until doing some googling. The S7 now has a sensor with dual pixel autofocus which is pretty cool. Is there a chance that your S7 shots are sharper because your Nex 5 autofocus is um... less than awesome?

 

[CuriousMike]

Theoretically, your Nex-5 should produce nicer images than your S7, particularly indoors.

However, at normal "web resolution", you might not notice that great of a difference.

The difference in exposure ("S7's shots are brighter") could be a couple of things; maybe you have your Nex5 exposure compensation turned down. Or the metering mode is off. Or it just exposes darker. You can fix that easily with what I just said; dial in some exposure compensation or change the metering mode.

The difference in ("S7's shots are... and sharper") is somewhat not surprising -- particularly in good light. I found the kit Sony lens 16-50 to be ... average at best.

 

[NAC]

In good light, if you want to shoot at the standard phone focal length (28mm equivalent), then a good phone will produce excellent photos. In most ways as good as a big sensor camera. Also, the software may default to a higher level of sharpness and saturation than a camera, so the photos will "pop" more. You can of course change the settings on the phone or camera. A camera will exceed a phone in these cases:

• Zoom. You can digital zoom on a phone, but you basically are just cropping and losing resolution.
• Low light. The tiny sensor on a phone just can't compare to a huge sensor like APS-C or full frame.
• Narrow depth of field - a tiny camera sensor keeps almost everything in focus. You can, with software simulate out of focus areas of a picture. But a big sensor camera with a good lens will do it with optics instead of software.
• Focus of fast moving subjects - depending on the camera, it can capture fast subjects that a phone can't.

So, yeah - a phone can be a great photographic tool. But it can't be great in all situations.

 

[Syborg1211]

A lot of it also comes down to how you use the cameras. In cell phones, your only option is to shoot in fully automatic mode (generally) and their auto exposure modes are highly optimized. Using auto modes in real cameras with default settings can often yield worse results than cell phones. One of the key issues in most real camera auto modes is that they don't all default to have auto-ISO enabled. If the ISO isn't increased in low light situations, the camera will try to do a longer shutter speed which results in blurry photos if you can't hold the camera perfectly still for however long the exposure is. This is a shame since generally most cameras with larger sensors will handle higher ISO better than cell phones. I'd take a slightly grainier/noisier shot over a blurry photo any day, but camera manufacturers don't seem to have grasped this concept. Any time people complain about their big cameras not taking significantly better photos than their cell phone, the culprit is usually them using the cameras in full auto mode. Cameras are capable of so much more if you take more control of them. It's hard for cameras to read your mind on the photo you want, so taking control of the camera settings is the only way to more consistently get better photos than a point and shoot or cell phone.

 

[luv2liv]

in good lighting, camera phones are excellent!
in low lighting, no way can a phone beat a mirrorless nor dslr.