Point and Shoot Camera in the age of Smartphones - does it make sense?

Basar

Hi all,

I'll be traveling internationally a lot this year and in fact I am coming to Vegas next week! Anyways, I have an iPhone 6 that has treated me well for most day to day photos but I am wondering if I should spend $200 or so on a P&S camera and just take it with me when I travel this year. I checked Amazon and there are cameras for $100, $200 and even $600... for a P&S camera. No idea how to justify that. Anyway, does anyone use a P&S camera when they travel and is happy with that decision? Or should I just use that $200 to upgrade to an iPhone X or 8 ?

Any ideas? Thanks!

McFodder

It really depends on the type of photos you'll be taking - I'm far from an expert, but most phone camera sensors are quite small compared to even a basic camera, and while the software can do a good job to mitigate that I think you'd find an actual camera would do a lot better in low light, or in any situation where you want to use a zoom - optical zoom vs digital zoom is night and day.

Eat it You Nasty Pig.

iphone cameras are about as good as anything you can buy for <$500 USD, and have a bunch of features aimed at amateurs that aren't necessarily obvious on an actual camera (lowlight compensation in particular.) You can get better shots with a nice-ish DSLR but 1) those are a decent expense and 2) you need to know a lot more about how to use a camera

imo the only reason to bring another camera (as an amateur taking vacation remembrance photos) is if you're going to a place you wouldn't necessarily want to be waving around an expensive phone, and if that's the case just spend fifty bucks on a cheapo digital camera

djmitchella

Zoom is the big deal here; if you're happy with a pretty wide angle of view, then phone cameras are as good as any of the low-to-medium-end point and shoot cameras out there. If you want to zoom in on wildlife / bits of buildings / distant scenery / people / etc, then you want a real zoom lens where bits of glass move around.

As usual, dpreview has a bunch of guides; here's their overview, but in their 'travel' section, even the 'budget' pick is >$500. Around $200 or so, though, you're looking at finding a used camera if you want anything decent -- there's an awful lot of options out there used, of course, but used camera shopping is always going to be a pain unless you know a fair bit about what you're after.

AspectVoid

So, I'm going to Japan this year (there's a thread on that) and for Xmas my mom gav me a camera. My initial response was "Why, my phone camera is pretty damn good for what I want and the pictures are pretty" and she told me it was about the zoom. When I finally tested it I realized how true that was. My camera zoom is really only good to get a close up of something three or four yards away. When I tested the camera, its zoom was good for a close up of something 40 or 50 yards away. Having real glass makes a huge difference when taking distance shots.

see317

Agreeing with the general sentiment here. Unless you're a professional photographer or interested in photography as a serious hobby you're not going to get much out of a mid range camera that your phone doesn't already do.

And if you are interested in pursuing photography as a hobbyist, be prepared for the cost. It can a cheap hobby to start with a fair low to mid range camera, but once you start adding on lenses, carrying gear (if it gets too big to be considered carry-on), then that new camera that has the additional features your starter camera doesn't, a photo quality printer (and consumables)... It can get a little spendy.

You might be missing out on some zoom with the cell phone, but there are some clip on zoom lenses for cell phone cameras that might mitigate that. I don't know how well they work though.

dispatch.o

Point and shoot is for things like boats, cliffsides, horse riding, skydiving, swimming, skiing, mountain biking, etc.

Things where there's a chance of damage to the thing taking pictures, or in countries on vacation where your everyday cell phone won't get signal/carrier access anyway and you are better off with a rent-a-phone that may have no camera at all.

Cheapo camera is still good to have in your car for any accidents too.

Basar

Thank you all, you all kinda confirmed my gut feeling. I am not going to be using lots of zoom, I just want to take photos of valleys and canyons in Nevada, beaches in California, and some of the craziness in Tokyo and perhaps the beauty of Kyoto. I think I'll just upgrade to an iPhone X as I won't be using the camera anytime other than when I am traveling abroad but I can take advantage of the upgraded phone in my daily routine as well. Many thanks for all the good info!