Quite possibly this is because I'm not very good at using the camera on my iPhone, but I get much better results from my 15-year-old Fuji camera (which still uses xD cards- fortunately I also have an old computer (running Windows Vista
- thanks.
Indeed, something viewed at 6x4 resolution can be fine, view it as 12x8, and it is a different story. There is also the issue of colour calibration.
Apple create this aura that they can fix all the issues that real world mechanical and elctronic shortcomings can be fixed with their software. It's a myth of course but because much of the company's following is almost cult like, there are many who never question their word from on high. That is until one of their mistakes is so obvious like an aerial that didn't work (iPhone 4 ISTR) that the engineering world just laughed at it. The fanboys (and girls) were easily bought of by a free trendy bumper case.
The thing is, for 99% of people 99% of the time, that is absolutely fine and is as much as what they need.
Tbh at that point if that is all that is being offered I'd be tempted to do that myself!
I disagree. Although many may never print their 'more successful' pictures*, with an increasingly greater number of people having UHD TVs at home, that has become a convenient viewer for photo collections, usually by plugging in a USB pen drive.
Apple create this aura that they can fix all the issues that real world mechanical and elctronic shortcomings can be fixed with their software. It's a myth of course but because much of the company's following is almost cult like, there are many who never question their word from on high. That is until one of their mistakes is so obvious like an aerial that didn't work (iPhone 4 ISTR) that the engineering world just laughed at it. The fanboys (and girls) were easily bought of by a free trendy bumper case.
But that is another use case that simply is not relevant for 99% of people. Hardly anyone views photo collections on a 4K TV via a USB stick. That just is not something the vast majority of people do. At most they may be used as a screenaver from Google Photos on a Chromecast or similar device. As for most photos being ditched with the phone, I doubt that is true these days given most people now will use some kind of cloud solution (the already mentioned Google photos, or Apple iCloud etc etc).
How is that achieved? Is it just cropping the image or actually moving the focal length?
I lived in a parallel universe when I got married. Record player, vinyl, decent speakers and lights, and asked the congregation to ask the DJ for their favourites to be added to a vinyl stack playlist.
As far as I can tell, the term 'optical zoom' on iPhones is a bit of a fudge. They have multiple cameras, each with a fixed zoom (focal length). Rather like an SLR user with several fixed focal length lenses, but no zoom lens.
Several of the lens manufacturers have been partnering with the major purpose-built camera makers, e.g. Leica with Panasonic for Lumix models, Zeiss with Sony for all sorts of camcorders and consumer models (until Sony purchased Minolta).
Each time Apple makes a mistake, yes it learns from it. But as @JohnMcL7 says above, even a 10 year old SLR still easily beats phone cameras every time (to a critical eye of course).
Apart from on cameras sold to uninformed buyers attracted by the highest pixel count sensor, 12MP is almost a defacto standard for UHD/4K video, especially when the sensor is a 4:3 aspect ratio type. UHD requires approx. 4000 x 2000 pixels which is achieved on a 4:3 sensor which has a 4000 x 3000, by masking the incoming image onto the sensor. Higher count sensors require rescaling, and real-time Lanczos3 filters have been achieving that for over 10 years now in reasonbly priced cameras.
The zoom on my Pixel is a bit meh, that's supposed to be one of the best smartphones on the market atm.
I suspect the use of USB drives to transfer picture to another device for viewing is very much reduced these days. Most people will just use the primary device to view them, or where devices can be linked cast via WiFi to other devices. And although many pictures will never leave the host devices, there are plenty of storage solutions from social media to cloud backup services that allow pictures to move with accounts rather than devices.
Digital image files when compared to film negatives are far better for longevity (in theory) as they can be easily copied and backed up to external storage. A film negative is just that, a single negative. However in practice I’d guess that most users of phone cameras never back up their images, either to an external drive or cloud storage. Come the day when their phone packs up or is lost, so are all their photo memories. At least with film negatives they may hopefully be in a box in the back of a cupboard.
I have a Pixel 4A and have to agree about the zoom quality. I tend to take my Canon DSLR out with me if I think I'm going to need to zoom into something. I have bought a software program called Affinity Photo which comes with a one-off payment for the license and occasionally does a sale. Much better than the subscription for Photoshop.
Yup, bought that at the annual photographic show at the the NEC about 8-10 years ago. A perpetual licence for £25.
But you can copy a negative (or print) just like you can copy a digital file.
There's no reason why future generation won't be able to access digital versions of your current collection, unless you are as negligent as those who stuffed their negatives in the loft which with it's increasing high temperature excursions or in a box at the back of a damp garage, have slowly decayed.
But as was my question earlier on in the thread, how many people actually need the better camera now? Phones have got good enough for the vast majority of people's use cases.
I'd argue it is a lot easier to be negligent in the way you describe. At least with negatives / prints the physical thing is a reminder of what it is. Whereas with digital versions, a box of optical discs or a hard drive or whatever doesn't give clues of what it contains so is much more likely to be left in storage (I'd also say especially with cloud storage, the ownership of accounts especially when people pass away etc is going to be a bit issue in coming years).
