I Can Do That With My Phone
Before digital cameras I used 35mm and 60x70mm film cameras extensively.
The 35mm Nikon or Canon was the goto work tool of every professional photographer.
An extensive range of lenses, autofocus, auto exposure and super fast shutters made them much more versatile and lighter in the hand than the bigger medium format cameras which tended to live on tripods.
I once joked to a client that one day we would all be shooting using our phones. It is not a joke any more.
The modern top range phones have better resolving power than the old 35mm film cameras. They are better in low light and their computational algorithms will create a usable image that would have been impossible with a straight out of the camera colour transparency.
I actually can do most easy shoots on my iPhone 15 Pro Max rather than modern 35mm (Full Frame) digital cameras but choose not to. Here's why…
The shutter lag makes an action shot very hard to time. You press the button on the phone and the subject has already left the frame before the shot is taken.
Anything that requires a telephoto lens, portraits, action, sports, nature etc is pretty hard to take on a phone that excels at shorter lens ranges 24 - 50mm. But using a longer focal length means the phone crops severely after that, and that causes degradation of the image quality.
Phone pictures can look overly sharpened and processed.
Client confidence. You just do not look like you know what you are doing if you just use a phone on a shoot. The analogy is, anyone can buy a performance car but not all of us can drive like a Formula 1 driver. You are unlikely to continue to get work if you just use a phone.
Phones are just really hard to hold. Cameras feel nice in the hand, which helps composition, and you are less likely to drop them.
The header photo of Amsterdam was taken on an iPhone Pro Max. No filters used - just point and shoot. Yes it’s not the greatest night shot but for many commercial uses it would be good enough and it took seconds to do.
The shot of the girl with the board was shot with a 300mm lens on a Canon R6 mirrorless full frame.
I wanted to blur the background and make the subject distinct, I wanted the shutter to record exactly what was in the viewfinder with no shutter lag. I wanted the subject pin sharp with no blurring. All would have been hard or just not possible on a phone.
At Peter Cade Photography we have the tools, the experience and the creativity to satisfy every client's wishes.