Photography- Technology vs Old School - Answer in first post.

bsshog40

So I had a little debate ats that phone cameras cannot compete against a regular camera. I have two pics below. One was taken a few yrs ago using my Canon EOS Rebel T4i. The other was taken with my samsung s22+. Note: both pics were taken thru slab. So which one was taken with the Samsung Phone?

1 Canon Rebel

2 Samsung S22+

telephoto1

#1 Taken with phone

Lighting looks different so not a fair comparison IMO... but I'll guess #1 because the colors look juiced a little and the focus seems a bit softer...a common issue using a phone with slabs,

ctf_error_coins

I thought you were going with film vs electrons.

Walkerfan

#1 Taken with phone

I don't know BUT....

I'm GUESSING that #1 was done with the phone.

Both are good.

Interesting...the color variation of the two different styles. Number 1 looks more YELLOW.

Number 2 is definitely sharper.

lilolme

Not sure this comparison will answer the debate. When discussing phone versus regular camera a couple things come to mind. One is what level of phone camera and regular camera. Is it the best phone camera versus an average regular camera or top of line versus top of line or other? Then there is who is taking the pictures? If it is me or someone like me that is not a photographer and can not take advantage of the ability of the camera (and lighting and...), then that is one thing. But then a professional photographer could get much more out of a regular camera than I could and especially with a top of the line regular camera.

PeakRarities

#2 Taken with phone

Im gonna go against the herd and say #2 was taken with the phone. Below is a slab shot I took with an iPhone 14 pro max and a basic copy stand and a couple gooseneck lamps. Phone cameras are pretty good these days

jtlee321

I would guess that #1 was taken on the DSLR with a kit lens. #2 was taken with the camera phone. The second image shows a lot of tell tale signs of computational photography in terms of JPEG compression and sharpening. It has a "Camera Phone" look. The first one has had very little done in terms of post processing with the exception of cropping. It has a soft and flat look that a cropped image taken with a lower MP Image sensor and kit lens would exhibit.

edited to add: I don't want you to take this as a negative critique, I'm pointing out what my eye sees as typical tell tale signs of different camera technologies. Both cameras can do a great job of imaging, they just do them differently.

TurtleCat

It all depends, of course. The best lens on a large sensor will out perform a phone camera every single time. That said, good lighting and careful practice will make the camera phone quite good at a coin picture for a screen. The problem with most phone cameras is that they need to be very close to the coin to fill the frame which reduces lighting options. The alternative is to crop a lot. For a screen that works just fine but quality would be compromised vs a larger sensor camera and sharp lens.

Jimnight

#2 Taken with phone

In this case I'm with technology.

bsshog40

#2 Taken with phone

So I updated first post with answer. I have to say that my Canon was able to capture the color much better, but the phone was much more detailed. I can live with both tho'.

yosclimber

Canon T4i: 18 megapixels, June 2012
Samsung S22+: 50 megapixels, February 2022

With a macro lens, the Canon T4i could do much better in terms of details / image size, and still get the color right.
But you may not need it if you like the results from your phone camera.

Here are some photos I took with my Canon T2i with a 100mm macro lens. (right click on a photo and then again to see the full size version).

bsshog40

#2 Taken with phone

@yosclimber said:
Canon T4i: 18 megapixels, June 2012
Samsung S22+: 50 megapixels, February 2022

With a macro lens, the Canon T4i could do much better in terms of details / image size, and still get the color right.
But you may not need it if you like the results from your phone camera.

I love my Canon, but a 100mm macro lens is just to high priced for my budget. I still use my canon with a 200mm zoom lens. It's a little outdated but I still enjoy it. We don't have a spare room for my hobbies like we did in our last house so me and the wife share the one spare room for both our hobbies and crafts. No room to setup my copystand anymore.

yosclimber

Yeah, there is no need to spend the $300 for a used macro lens if you already get photos you like.
For myself, the ($200 a few years ago) was good because I needed to take hundreds of photos, in full resolution.

johnny9434

#1 Taken with phone

1 is clearer then 2 but I see more detail on the second 1,jmo

BryceM

Cool thread. Great topic.

Old school = film. I'm quite impressed that people could accomplish what they did without the instant feedback that digital photography provides.

As for DSLR vs cell phone, it's a constant evolution. The sensors in cell phones are becoming quite impressive and ever-smaller. At the same time, full-body cameras also continue to improve. Of necessity, cell phone cameras use quite a bit of digital processing to compensate for the limitations of the hardware. All other things being equal, the DSLR is capable of much better photography, but the gap is narrowing. The limitations of physics do catch up with very small lenses eventually.

All of that said, when it comes to photography, experience and knowledge trump equipment every day of the week. Many a novice has dropped a ton of money on great equipment only to realize mediocre results. A true pro who understands composition, focal planes, stability, lenses, and lighting can make just about any equipment sing.

As for the photos above, the OP's comments that "...my Canon was able to capture the color much better, but the phone was much more detailed." This deserves some commentary.

The first photo is poorly focused. Likely, the autofocus used the slab front as a reference point. Motion blur could also cause some of this. Color is a function of lighting and white balance. Both devices can be adjusted to compensate, but it's usually easier with a DSLR. I don't think you can fairly compare the hardware from these two photos.

Of course, phones may improve to the point that the practical difference between the two is minimal. They're already good enough for many applications. I have a dealer friend that sends me his opinion along with a few quick cell-phone photos, and that's often good enough to make a go/no-go decision.

I took this photo 6 years ago with a used DSLR camera I bought for $200.

keyman64

I missed this post earlier in the day but both photos in the OP are out of focus and both could use improved lighting. Based on that, I would not have been able to guess. If you want just a representative image and are trying to flip things quick either will likely work for most material. If your goal is to have a great image for coins you plan to keep, I would suggest you change your approach, regardless of the tool being used. I have an iPhone 14 Pro Max Super Duper, or whatever it's called, but I would not recommend it be used for coin photography. It's okay for a quick Instagram video if you have the phone on a stand and supplemental lighting. People just need to use the tools they have. I use Nikon.

bsshog40

#2 Taken with phone

@keyman64 said:
I missed this post earlier in the day but both photos in the OP are out of focus and both could use improved lighting. Based on that, I would not have been able to guess. If you want just a representative image and are trying to flip things quick either will likely work for most material. If your goal is to have a great image for coins you plan to keep, I would suggest you change your approach, regardless of the tool being used. I have an iPhone 14 Pro Max Super Duper, or whatever it's called, but I would not recommend it be used for coin photography. It's okay for a quick Instagram video if you have the phone on a stand and supplemental lighting. People just need to use the tools they have. I use Nikon.

The reason for the post was to show an example of how far phone cameras have advanced over the years. The post wasn’t to interpret that everyone throw their dslr's away and replace them with a phone. Can you take your nikon out, point it at a coin without touching ANY options or enhancements, take one picture and have it come out as good as this phone pic! I would be impressed if so. I know how many adjustments I need to make before getting a decent picture on my Canon. Also, I don't plan on putting in my application to pcgs as a TrueView photographer with credentials of being able to use a phone camera. Some people cannot afford $1000's to pay for photography equipment.

ricko

#2 Taken with phone

The detail is better in #2... A little more light would make it ideal. Cheers, RickO

jesbroken

#2 Taken with phone

The addition of the zoom is evident in your new 22+. I like it. Disregarding lighting, which photo depicts better what the coin looks like inhand, Bobby?
Jim

bsshog40

#2 Taken with phone

So the Canon pic shows the coin color better than the smartphone. But someone else got me to thinking. I may be short siding my Canon a little. We moved in 2021, sold our house and just bought a house about 3 months ago. All my coin pics were on my computer which has been packed in storage for over a year. We lived in a 5th wheel for that period. I had no coin pics on my phone, so the pic of my indian was copied to my phone from some other thread somewhere and then I cropped it and now reposted it. We still don't have wifi out here where we're at so still working off phone. My Canon takes nice pics but this pic I'm using, not sure if maybe degraded a little shuffling it around to get to my phone. Lol Anyway, the only thing I was emphasizing was how far smartphone cameras have come.

messydesk

@ErrorsOnCoins said:
I thought you were going with film vs electrons.

Yeah, I was wanting to hear about processing chemistry.

messydesk

The biggest difference between the two is that the second picture looks to have been taken with the camera closer to the coin. The first had enough working distance to get the lighting right. The second, not so much.

bsshog40

#2 Taken with phone

@messydesk said:
The biggest difference between the two is that the second picture looks to have been taken with the camera closer to the coin. The first had enough working distance to get the lighting right. The second, not so much.

The second pic was taken about 12" away with 3x zoom. The other was taken on my copy stand with different lighting.

ctf_error_coins

Old School = Film and Chemical Processing

As a professional photographer of 44 years, I could not even imagine doing the coins photos the I do now with film. The workload increase would be 10 fold.

The time increase would be huge. Back in the day, showing your film images without the internet, would be by the US Mail.