As both a parent and a blogger/social influencer I need to be able to upload my content there and then most of the time. This means that I don’t have time to use a DSLR camera and transfer images across; sure I could get a DSLR that has upload straight to social media capability, but I like the ease of using my smart phone and having everything at my fingertips. Doesn’t everyone?
I’ll be honest, before I started this blog post and received the phones from three to take for a test drive, I was a loyal Samsung advocate. I wasn’t one of those people who slammed Apple though, I have an IPad and a MacBook, but for my smart phone I just prefer Samsung and Android. My views have very much changed now, and I have to say that I was sad when the IPhone X departed from my life.
Smart phone cameras have come a long long way, or should I say smart phones in general. If someone asked me 10 years ago if I would replace my camera with a smart phone I would have laughed straight in their face.
It’s probably easier if I list the specs of each phone first! I’ve not gone too in depth with these!
IPhone X Camera
The iPhone X has 12mp wide-angle and telephoto cameras. The wide angle is a f/1.8 aperture whilst the telephoto is a f/2.4 aperture. Modes such as portrait mode, panorama and Live Photo’s. Delve into the settings to find auto image stabilisation, auto HDR, body and face detection, auto focus and tap to focus, dual optical image stabilisation, optical zoom and so much more.
lets not also forget the video element with 720p, 1080p and 4K recording. We’ve also got options such as; slo-mo, time lapse and video geotagging. Optical image stabilisation and optical zoom; continuous autofocus, body and face detection and the option to take 8mp still photos while recording a 4K video.
Finally, the front facing camera is 7mp and can record at 1080p; it has a f/2.2 aperture and like on the rear camera it has portrait mode, auto HDR and auto image stabilisation. Timer and burst mode is present (which helps massively when you have children!). And last but not least, we have the Animoji!
Samsung Galaxy S9+ Camera
Modes such as food, hyperlapse, super slow-mo, auto/pro and panorama. 12MP telephoto and wide angle camera with an aperture of either f/1.5 or f/2.4. Optical zoom and optical image stabilisation, dual pixel, auto HDR, panorama; just like the iPhone X. Samsung have also thrown in a super slo-mo option and a hyper lapse mode.
The front facing 8MP camera has a f/1.7 aperture with selfie focus, selfie and wide selfie modes. Dual video calls and the auto HDR are also thrown in for good measure! The front AND rear cameras have Samsung’s AR emoji, floating camera button, quick launch, location tags, motion photos, timer, grid lines; the list goes on.
Lets have a look at some photos that I took on each phone camera, first up we have the iPhone X:
And here’s a few taken on the Samsung galaxy S9 plus:
And here are some taken on a high end camera by Dale Loynes:
And just for good measure, here’s a photo taken from a DJI Mavic Pro:
Photos are just getting better and better, and being able to store them is getting easier. You don’t have to worry about having photo albums in the house and the risk of them getting destroyed without having copies. I know some people still like to have albums but we don’t, we store everything in our Google accounts. The only way that I have photos printed is if we are putting them into frames.
My personal opinion is that I’m quite content with my smartphone, I don’t need a big bulky camera with a huge lense to boot for taking nice photos. Obviously I’m not a photographer, but my brother is; he has all the gear that ends up weighing a tonne, but he needs it, it’s for his career. He definitely won’t agree with me on this but I think that I can rival his photos with the iPhone X and the Samsung Galaxy S9 plus cameras. I may not be able to blow the pictures up to the size of a wall but I can get really good photos for personal use and for use on my Instagram and blog.
What do you think?
Do we need a camera in addition to our smartphones?
Are you happy with just your smartphone, like I am?
Do you go for Samsung or Apple?
We worked in collaboration with three to receive the Samsung Galaxy S9 plus and IPhone X in order to provide this blog post.
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