Do You use a real camera?

[Glort]

My son Finished school this week and had his formal on Monday and graduation today. 

On monday night there were about 50 Kids and proud parents all converged on a teachers house where they caught a Vintage Bus to go into the function in the city. 

Out of all the parents there, I saw on little P&S camera. Everyone else was snapping away madly on their phones. 

Today it was about 1500 parents and while I saw maybe 20-30 real cameras and only a few SLR's, again there were HUNDREDS of people squinting into their phones ( and a few Iplads)  Snapping away at what really were a fine Bunch of kids. 

After I gained world famous status at The school this week after my son uploaded all the pics from Monday on Facewaste in hi res for them to download. I got besieged today with kids and parents wanting to mark this occasion as well. I'm pretty sure a good number of them thought I was the Hired "Official" shooter. 
Wasn't a problem but many of the comments I heard got me thinking. 

It really seemed that many people though I must have been a pro shooter just because I had an actual SLR camera rather than taking my happy snaps on a phone. One of My son's friends SIster who was their with her entry level SLR and Kit lens told me when we were standing around after the event that she had been asked 3 times if she was a professional  because of her camera. 

I'm pretty surprised at this. I see so many of the " I got a camera for Christmas so now I'm a pro shooter" types trying to make a buck I thought everyone pretty much owned a digi SLR these days or at least a tiny pocketable  thing worth $129 that would have left my $10K Digi SLR's of 10 years ago for dead. 

I know Phone cams these days are considered so good and that mags have published covers taken on them but frankly and without being pedantic, I haven't seen an image out of a phone that has impressed me yet.  Yeah, they look great on a 2x3" phone screen but when you stuff around and put them on the 27" on the computer or lord forbid, try to print one to an 8x12, they look pretty ordinary without fixing noise, colour balance and a lot of other details. 

My kids have to have the latest and greatest from Crapple and Samflungdung and I have tested the pics from these things and I am left wondering does anyone ever take the pics off their phones and print them or view them on a screen you can actually see?  What really gets me is how people try to take pics in the dark and other terrible and wrong lighting and then look at the image and declare it a good one because "it came out!"

Light people, Use some LIGHT instead of expecting to get a picture of any worth in the bloody dark!    

I have a bunch of the Little P&S camera's I use for my business and the images off those things are awesome. I would have no problems shooting a wedding on one . I take My little GX1 canons everywhere with me and the pics I get are every bit as good as my SLR's.

Sooooo, I'm just wondering what people here use?  
Do you rely on your phone for picture taking or do you prefer a real camera?
Do you ever print out your Phone pics and how do you think they compare to pics printed from a real camera?
Also, if you are a phone pic taker, do you ever back these up on your computer or laptop or just upload them to faceache or.....??
Anyone take stills with a go-Pro?

[Rumcajs]

I only use phone camera when I don't have "normal" one on me which normally I always carry on any occasion I expect to take some snaps.

The phone pics are crappy enough to look at but I'd never print those.

I did take some shots with GoPro 2 but it is nothing spectacular.

I don't think I'd justify SLR unit costs or willingness to carry one around as they're too big and bulky for my liking. I do like the quality of shots though there is no comparison with anything the p&s cameras can muster IMHO.

 

Cheers

[twisty]

I take photos with my phone only when I don't need high definition (or I don't care that much).  Pics of fire pump id plate, tractor tyre size and the like.  For keepers I use my little digital (don't remember the brand) which I particularly like for panorama pics (one image not 3 stiched together).  I'm not keen enough to go for an SLR.  What's a p&s?  Point n shoot I'm guessing.

[Oldmate]

I have a 500d which or me takes nice enough photos. I don't use he ph for photos that mean something unless it happens to be an on the spot type senario. I do see your point mate, when ou travel around people just use ph's for all their photos. But like you say, how many actually get them off the phone or print them anymore. My wife was always big on processing a film as soon as it was full then adding it to the album, but she doesn't even do that anymore. It just gets transferred to the hard drive from the sd card.

[BigGQWesty]

Were split..

Wife loves the 550D but with 2 kids in tow can't take it everywhere. So in those 'in the moment' times Its out with the phone.

Kallen Westbrook

Owner of

Westy's Accessories

[Foo]

I use booth, just depends on what I'm at or doing.

 

Foo

[Glort]

I half caught an ad on TV the other night for a phone with some new Mega camera built in. I can't remember the MP but it seemed huge for a phone. 
Don't watch much TV ( maybe an hour a week) so I haven't seen it since but obviously the Camera thing is proving to be a big accessory on phones. 

I printed a Photo taken under ideal conditions ( bright sunlight) from my sons Iphoney4.  Did it close to it's native size of 6x8 and It wasn't bad at all I have to say.  Unfortunately it seems that most pics I see people take are in terrible lighting that no camera would do well with. 

A friend of mine is into fitness and the last couple of years has entered one magazines annual Photo comp. Before you had to send in a pic on a white Background, this year they changed it to "Selfies".
I was looking online the other day and the resulting dogs breakfast is exactly what I would have predicted. All these people starting at phones in a Mirror. It looks totally lame and I wonder how long it will be before this current trendy Fo Par is realised for what it is.  Stupid.

Out of all the entries I saw, Only one person used an actual camera. I checked the rules and no where does it say you have to use a phone, I guess that's just what people relate it to these days along with the proliferation of pics taken on phones. 

I think Picture taking is going backwards with phones. Years ago photos were bit of a hit and miss affair often resulting in poor quality. Things got better with the advent of electronics and then Digital but now they are going backwards again with the use of camera phones. People seem to take less care and don't have any sense of quality. If it looks ok on the 2' screen it must be good.  Often it's not. 

I reckon in the future there will be a lot of people without many pics of themselves or missing a lot of important moments. It seems few people actually save their images from their phones and phones have a habit of getting dropped and lost and destroyed. If all the pics of your kids are on there from the last 12 months-2 years, that's going to be a big part of their growing up gone missing. 

 

For those that have lots of pics on HDDS, DO back them up!
I have lost plenty of my own kids pics through HDD's crashing, sometimes when they were only weeks old. 
Now I make directories every month on my Machine and at the beginning of each month I Plug in another HDD, transfer that months pics and away it goes again till next month. In January, I back all the years pics to yet another drive as well.

 I'm always changing drives on my machine so I just use regular SATA drives but portable HDDS are ideal for this and are too cheap not to do it now. 

[Fathom]

Up until recently... I thought an SLR was just a Torana... I suspect a quality camera would be wasted on me... No eye at all for a good pic... But still happy to have the memory on film.. Or I should say hard drive now..

[Glort]

I mentioned an SLR to an army bloke once and he thought I was talking about a gun.  Self Loading Rifle as they are known in that trade. 

I was doing some pics of a mates girlfriend the other day and he was wandering around outside snapping pics of my junk with his phone. 
He loaded them to that instagram thing and sent me the link. I hope he doesn't take up photography, I wouldn't like to compete with his artistic skill. 
I told him I thought he had a real good eye for things but of course he just thought I was trying to be nice. 
Ya think after 20 years he'd have learnt I'm never nice about anything.    

I was ant my Nephews Birthday party last night and he brings out a Canon 650D he bought himself  and showed me the pics he had taken on his morning runs as a Garbage truck driver.  MY Grandparents always told me that I didn't want to end up driving a garbage truck but I know plenty of well qualified people that don't earn near what he does!

For a garbo, he's another one I don't want changing professions.  He was making excuses for the pics the whole time I'm thinking " Wish I had taken that!".
I sent him some links for lenses and a flash he wants to buy like mine and when he gets a bit of gear he will have some very worthwhile pics I think. 

One thing that has always amused me with people is when they say " I don't take very good pictures so I don't take them very often." I always replay, I'm pretty hopeless at things I never do or practice either.  I can take good pictures but that skill didn't come about through god given natural talent. It takes practice."

That seems to strike a chord with people basically because its 100% true.  Only way I know to improve at something is to practice. Bit of reading theroy doesn't hurt either but the hands on stuff is very important. 

My niece also reminded me of something I mentioned about phones. Her 6 month old bit of cutting edge technology had a freak out and the lithium battery had a minor meltdown, melt being the operative word.  She's stressing if she can get her data, mainly pictures and numbers off the thing because she used that almost exclusively on her OS trip she not long got back from. 

I like her Boyfriend, I think he's a smart guy and he endeared himself a bit more to me by giving her some grief about using a phone for photo taking instead of a real camera. He's not shy of a Quid and told me he has taken her into camera shops a dozen times and told her to pics something out but she says she prefers her phone.  He said from now on he'll just get the thing and download it and back it up every month for her. 

Fortunately he's blessed with a few more smarts than my very loveable and sweet although somewhat absent minded Niece.