If the best camera is the one with you what if you have two?
Part of the fun of photography for me is playing around with different cameras so I often have more than one with me. A side benefit of this is that I regularly have similar images from two different devices to compare. Sometimes the difference can be striking and you think maybe I’ll just make this one disappear other times it leaves me with the quandary “Just what is good enough?” If an image will never be printed and it contains all that you want to convey then is say, a cell phone camera good enough? I think the answer is yes but how do you know that at the time?
What if you come across something that you want to print and you are restricted by the camera. Let me be clear, cell phone cameras have some serious limitations at this time. One they don’t have an optical zoom or any way of altering the focal length other than expanding the image digitally which looks like crap to put it mildly. Another is they have limited dynamic range, you are just not going to get any detail in shadow areas without over exposing the highlights. Also a major frustration for me is the shutter lag, or the time from when I actually tell my camera to take a picture and it does. It’s horrible with my HTC Evo 3D I’ve had to develop a one second anticipation plan. See the motion, feel the motion be the motion press the shutter, crap I missed it.
I see it this way, cell phone cameras are ideal for social media and online sharing. They do not replace a dedicated camera for all things but compliment them. Why not when you see something really cool take a picture with a “camera” and then share your experience with a cell phone. Maybe I’m taking this too seriously but I know I won’t feel that way when I really want to take a picture and I have the right tool to do it.
Here is where for me good is good enough. One is shot with my Nikon P7000 and one is with my HTC Evo 3D, not necessarily in that order.
