Even though having a good camera on your phone is very convenient, upgrading to a nice stand alone might be worth it. There is many stand alone camera options like the infamous DSLR with that beautiful background blur and the simple point and shoot models that do everything on it’s own. With so many other camera options we’ll explore if your phone camera is good enough for your needs. Here is some basic benefits to getting a stand alone camera and why they might help.
Better image quality
Smartphone cameras are getting great and adding cool effects to feel like a fancier camera. The reality is that the real estate on your phone will never be good enough to match most high end stand alone cameras. The phones just don’t have enough lens space to compete. That’s why you see some filters and blur effects trying to simulate a DSLR. A smartphone camera will always have a smaller lens and smaller sensor. The sensor is what interprets the image data coming from the lens. Full cameras also have better image stabilization, faster focus, and better continuous tracking options.
Optical zoom and lens options
Smartphones use some really smart technology to try and simulate zooming in, but nothing still can compare and look as natural as an optical zoom. As phones zoom in more, it creates pixels to try and look how it thinks the image would be. This has gotten much better over the years but still not natural looking or as clear as a full camera. If zooming in is needed often, than you’ll need a stand alone for sure. Also when you add the ability to change the lens size you can open up another world of possibilities with high quality zooming and lens blur effects.
Strength and battery life
Some smartphones are very strong and even waterproof, but again a stand alone cameras like Go Pro have many additional action options like full waterproof cases, better image stabilizing when moving around, and stronger cases when dropped or banged around. Some of the action cameras even have freeze proof options for snow boarding and iced water. Using your stand alone camera has longer battery life and saves power on your phone in case you need it for more important things like a taxi or map while traveling.
More storage for media
If you are also are going to take video, stand alone cameras can swap out memory cards for unlimited space. This is really nice for organizing and not worrying about video quality taking up your phone space.
Conclusion
All in all if you need good pictures for your Instagram or family album a good phone will be fine. If you need professional pictures or video to empress, a good action cam or DSLR will make a big difference. For websites, the images are normally compressed to less than 200kb, so super high def ability is not as important. Focus more on good lighting and angles for website images.