Small digital camera may be better for some shoots

iPhone camera photo

Earlier this week I compared my D300 photo of Owen silhouetted against a cloudy sky with a similar image from my iPhone.

The purpose of the piece was to point out that content is what counts in your photos, not the technology behind the image.

The only reason to shoot with higher-res, greater dynamic range cameras is to meet a client’s needs.

Many years ago I shot an AP assignment with a Nikon CoolPix 900. The image was the same resolution, 1.3 mega-pixels, as the NC2000, a camera I used every day. The CoolPix images straight out of the camera had more accurate colors than the NC2000 which tended to shift toward magenta in artificial light.

The assignment was ordinary, talking to people using a new ATM service in convenience stores. No need for a fast motor drive or specialty lenses. The resolution would be good and the sharpness more than sufficient for newspaper reproduction.

An immediate difference was shooting technique. The CoolPix optical viewfinder had a narrower view than the lens. It was small and not easy to use. The LCD screen, although small by today’s standards, was large enough and bright enough to be used for framing. It also showed a slightly narrower view than the final image.

I left the SLRs and associated lenses in the cars, shot the assignment on the new-fangled consumer digital camera and went on my way.

The results were mixed. There was some confusion about me being a true professional because I was using a consumer digital camera. I did have to explain my shooting style to several people who looked quizzically at me peering at them on an LCD screen. Some of their confusion probably came from the fact that consumer cameras were not yet cheap enough for everyone to own one. Forget having on in a cell photo. Most cell phones were the size of bricks and barely functioned as phones much less performing photo, video, audio, and small computer functions.

Droid camera photo

More accustomed to seeing a pro news photographer with several cameras and lenses around their neck and off their shoulders made several question the reporter and me about our affiliation and the real reason for the inquiries.

One young girl’s father called the office several days later to complain for her that she didn’t understand that the interview and photos were for a newspaper or wire service. This despite the reporter identifying himself as an AP reporter and me telling her I wanted to shoot her using the ATM after her interview. She was an adult, a college student and eager to be be interviewed and photographed. I thought at the time that she probably wouldn’t have had as strong an argument about not understanding the situation, or telling her father she didn’t understand once her picture showed up in national newspapers, if I had been using the larger, more professional looking NC2000.

Today, with consumer digital cameras and some cell phones, capable of producing high-res high quality images suitable for reproduction, it has become easier for news photographers to shoot in places where the pro digital SLR and its complement of lenses draws a security officer who says photos are prohibited and warns of trespassing charges if instructions to cease are not obeyed.

I’ve shot business news photos in shopping malls with a small high-res digital consumer camera on many occasions. Security never approached, warned, suggested or threatened me.

With the release of high quality phones with digital cameras and their it will be difficult to separate pros from amateurs. That falls in the favor of pros. Unless malls decide to prevent all photography. Let’s see what happens then.

About the photos: The two photos in this post are from a personal shoot yesterday morning as a work crew finished restoring a section of a nearby cemetery after a late funeral the day before. Of course, I shot it with my D300. I also shot it with two of the cell phones I carry. Above are photos from the iPhone and the Droid. Both have been toned and edited. It’s rare  a photo comes from one of my cameras that I don’t do some editing and toning.

The original photos quality are similar with the Droid being cooler and flatter.  The Droid also has a slightly wider angle lens. The iPhone’s dynamic range is slightly higher and it performs better in darker conditions. The Droid’s processor tends to create streaks in darker images.

For this image both cameras performed admirably although I preferred the iPhone. It required less processing.