CNET:
The Pixel 3 camera holds its own against Apple’s iPhone XS despite having one camera tied behind its back. It all but dispenses with the camera’s flash, using new low-light shooting abilities instead. And it offers enthusiasts a radically new variety of raw image that opens up photographic flexibility and artistic freedom.
It’s all possible because of a field called computational photography, a term invented in 2004 by Google distinguished engineer Marc Levoy while he was at Stanford, before he moved full-time to Google Research. Long gone are the days when photography was all about glass lenses and film chemistry. Fast receding are first-generation digital cameras that closely mirror the analog approach.
Now our cameras rely as much on computers as optics. And what we’ve seen so far is only the beginning.
I post this less to say one camera is better than the other but to point out as advancements happen in computational photography, everyone who shoots photos with their smartphone benefit as manufacturers leapfrog each other with each release.
I think there will always be a place for DSLRs but for more and more people, not only is their smartphone “good enough”, it’s become a damn good camera in its own right.
It’s been a long time since I took lots of photos. I really don’t shoot much with my phone, either. But when I am taking a photo, I always wish I had my Canon with me. I’m not that excited about pocket cameras either: a full DSLR always feels like it’s shaped and weighted just like it should be. Fingers not cramped, not too light but also not so heavy as to be unusable. Solid.
I don’t lug around my DSLR everywhere. In fact I lug it around precious few times any more.
(I have a personal rule that applies to my Canon that I don’t apply to my phone: I’m either bringing the camera and shooting but not participating, or I’m leaving the camera home and participating but not shooting. That way I don’t try to do both and end up enjoying neither. More and more I choose to participate and not shoot.)
In fact I’m not even close to a professional. I shoot in JPG and not RAW (heavens to Betsy!) and I use the integrated Photos editing tools for touchup (and do you beat your laundry on a rock by the river?). But still I find the experience of shooting to be much more satisfying with that real camera in my hands.
Now if you’ll excuse me, there are some kids I have to chase off my lawn.