how important is the phone's camera quality to you?

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

I care more about the camera on my phone as a utility. Scanning barcodes, or taking a quick picture of something for future reference. I have a dirt cheap point and shoot I keep in my car's glovebox in case needing to document any accident. I find nothing beats that for speed and reliability. Concept's already proven itself to me twice: Someone rear-ended me at a light. By the time the other guy got out and was fumbling with his stupid phone, I had snapped all the pics I needed of his plate, both cars, the scene, etc. Second time, I had a pic of the guy's plate so fast that I practically dared him to speed off like I'm sure he was fixing to. Fumbling with a phone- any phone- when you need a real camera and about two seconds time doesn't cut it for me.

Occasionally I'll snap a quick pic or video of my kid or something with the phone. The real benefit there isn't that anyone cares if its a masterpiece or not, it's that I can share with my family instantly.

i could just as easily fumble with my S95 because it was set on MANUAL mode on July 4th and I was taking fireworks with a 5 second shutter. If I'm fast yeah I can flip to Auto and snap a few shots off, but I have a camera on my lockscreen and it's not slow either. You took an example of an idiot who fumbled with his phone. That same idiot would fumble if you gave him a P&S.

Plus, by the time we're done sorting out insurance all those photos already uploaded to Google+ so if my phone ever fails or memory card dies before I can get the photos off... well they're already uploaded on the cloud. I can email them to my insurance agent before you can drive to your office and upload those camera photos.

Not saying a P&S is useless, it's just that a good enough cameraphone can do things like this for me.

/facepalm

I want to say he was being sarcastic, but who knows? There are strange people in this world....

 

[Zaap]

until you realized you forgot to charge the battery of that cheap point and shoot camera (or you realized the battery is dead due to extreme weather while sitting inside your car). Sorry mate, but that solution does not work. The most useful camera is the one on your phone.

This is silly. My car doesn't sit in extreme weather. Generally it's in my garage, I'm driving it, or it's in another garage. I live in Southern California, not freakin' Antartica. With little use, the battery lasts practically forever. I check it periodically and keep a spare. Heh. And of course I've never heard anyone here bitch about the battery life of their cell phone. It'll ALWAYS be charged, just when you need it. Because of course, accidents happen whenever you're expecting them.

The lens is primarily what really makes a point and shoot better suited for the task in my case. Even the cheapest P&S by a decent brand (not talking a total POS camera here, but a decent one) will have a better lens, and take better pictures on the fly, in any lighting condition, and capture more of what's actually relevant to an accident.

I'm sure there are better smartphones that have decent enough cameras that can accomplish the same task but until I have one myself, that doesn't do me much good.

 

[Zaap]

i could just as easily fumble with my S95 because it was set on MANUAL mode on July 4th and I was taking fireworks with a 5 second shutter.

You guys are kind of missing your own point. The best camera is the one you have.

Hint: I don't have YOURS. And the one in my car would never be set for something else because it's not used for anything else.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

You guys are kind of missing your own point. The best camera is the one you have.

Hint: I don't have YOURS. And the one in my car would never be set for something else because it's not used for anything else.

Certainly. But you seemed to point to your advantage with your P&S while the other user fumbled around. What I'm saying is the fumbling around has nothing to do with the fact that he has a phone, but the fact that he was probably

a) nervous after the crash
b) not very good with technology
c) had a lagfest phone
d) smoked by a windows phone
e) b & c
f) all of the above

 

[Cattykit]

Every time photographic issue is brought up, somebody must feel the pressure to bring up "The best camera is the one you have!!!" mantra.

No, it ain't.