"Why do I need a camera when my smartphone has a camera?"

Why do you need a dedicated camera? To answer that question, I took a walk in my neighborhood with my iphone and a small mirrorless camera, but the following camera photos also show what you could expect from a smaller camera with 20X zoom.

All photos shown are from the original jpegs with no editing. The iphone lens' field of view is the equivalent of a 34mm lens on a full frame 35mm camera.



The first shot is a front yard with some healthy looking rhododendron blossoms. I would have liked to get closer with the iphone, but as you can see, that would have been destructive to the property.
With the zoom lens on my camera, I was able to "get closer" to the blossoms.

 iphone image

 camera image (90mm equivalent)

I noticed some people on top of the hill on my next photo and liked the silhouette effect. On this photo the iphone camera is useless for the image that I had in mind.

iphone

camera (264mm equivalent)

Smartphones do a pretty good job with closeups. You can officially put your Minox to rest if you are a spy. Here is an example of a yellow lupine taken with each camera. I have not altered the jpegs, but the zoom camera shot is a little dark, and I would lighten it if it were printed or displayed on flickr.

iphone

camera image (136mm equivalent)

To be fair to the iphone, here is the same image, but cropped and darkened to match the zoom camera photo. It is close to a dedicated camera image, but lacks the out of focus background.

iphone - cropped and darkened

Let's say you are in the real estate business, want to impress your girlfriend who thinks you only watch sports programs all day, and you need to email a photo of the house that you just sold. The smartphone camera has a semi wide lens, but on a narrow street you cannot stand back far enough to get the entire house. The zoom camera has a much wider lens and shows an improved photo of the property.

iphone

camera image (22mm equivalent)

Conclusion. Ansel Adams started his picture taking on a Kodak Box Brownie. The Kodak Instamatic might have been the first camera for many successful photographers. The smartphone users of today could become the famous photographers of the future. Also, the smartphone camera is a huge improvement compared to the mass market film cameras of the past. However, it has limitations.

For the person who does not want to carry an extra camera, but understands the advantages of having one, there are a number of small, lightweight cameras with zoom ranges from 12X to 30X which fit easily into a pocket or purse.

Please visit your local specialty camera store.