Shoshi Qingshui, President and CEO of Sony semiconductor, said he believed that in 2024, two years later at the latest, when taking still photos, the image quality of smart phones will exceed that of SLRs * The debate on this topic has never stopped . No matter how advanced the mobile phone is, for SLR users, they always firmly believe in the theory of "the bottom level kills people " and that the mobile phone can never surpass the SLR *.
Would you like to take photos by mobile phone or SLR
But on the other hand, we have to admit that with the improvement of mobile imaging quality, the card machine market has almost disappeared, and the SLR and micro single market are no longer for ordinary consumers, but more for professional users* From this point of view, mobile phones have surpassed SLR * in taking photos.
Does the mobile phone surpass the SLR? My personal point of view is that from the perspective of picture quality theory, it is really difficult for mobile phones to surpass SLRs. After all, lens quality and CMOS size are all hard injuries that mobile phones cannot solve. For the vast majority of users, the demand for taking photos is to record and share with them, especially when viewing on mobile devices. In this case, the portability and ease of use of mobile phones are better than those of SLRs.
Therefore, mobile camera and SLR camera have their own advantages , but compared with the progress of SLR in the past 10 years, mobile camera is rapidly narrowing the difference with SLR camera through CMOS, lens components, AI algorithm and other methods. I also found some sample photos of mobile phone evaluation in recent years. You can feel them.
2012 Sony Xperia s
2015 Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
2018 vivo x23
Sony Xperia 1 IV in 2022
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2015 5D Mark III (Comparative Reference)**
Since the pictures are all compressed photos, many details can no longer be distinguished, but it is not difficult to see that after 2018, the daytime landscape photos taken by mobile phones are not very different from those taken by SLRs when viewed on the Internet Of course, if you like to enjoy the original image on the computer alone and enjoy the pleasure of 100% magnification, the advantage of SLR is greater than that of mobile phone.
What technologies have mobile phones improved the shooting level in recent years? We might as well make a simple inventory to see if these technologies have advantages over SLRs.
The mobile phone takes pictures automatically, adds professional manual mode, and provides raw format files
First of all, the biggest difference between mobile phones and SLRs is that mobile phones take pictures automatically. SLRs can set the shutter, aperture and sensitivity according to their own needs.
Mobile phone professional mode is more controllable than card machine
Because some special photography scenes need the support of shutter speed, many scenes could not be taken because the shutter speed of early mobile phones could not be set manually. With the increase of user demand, many mobile phones now have professional mode options, and the shutter speed, ISO and aperture can be adjusted as easily as SLRs.
In addition, some professional camera phones also provide the same raw format as cameras, which can keep more details of photos and facilitate later adjustment.
More and more mobile phone lenses are equipped, including standard lens, telephoto lens, ultra wide angle lens and macro lens
In the early days, mobile phones were designed with a single camera, which obviously could not meet the needs of users for taking photos. It can be seen from the SLR that different shots for different purposes will appear in different shooting scenes, and the mobile phone obviously achieves this. Now the three shot and four shot designs are basically standard.
Macro photos taken by iPhone
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Moon shot by Samsung S21**
Cooperation between Leica and Hasu image manufacturers AI photo optimization algorithm saves the trouble of late PS
Anyone who has used an SLR camera knows that although the photos taken by the SLR are clear, you still can't achieve a good visual effect if you don't use the later software to color and decorate.
So using SLR is basically equivalent to needing the later stage, which is very unfriendly for novice photographers. It is not only difficult to start, but also time-consuming.
But for today's mobile phones, users don't seem to have to worry too much about the problems in the later stage. Many mobile phone brands will use some color matching algorithms in the later stage and cooperate with image manufacturers to automatically generate a later stage photo after the mobile phone takes photos, which greatly reduces the user's time and energy in the later stage and makes it easier to use.
In addition, there are some noise reduction optimization and anti shake optimization for the night scene. In short, the previous SLR photography requires various methods to achieve functions, and the mobile phone can basically automatically help you do optimization.
Improve the quality of the mobile phone camera, and constantly refresh the CMOS size
The advantage of mobile phones lies in the software, but for the mobile camera itself, the upgrading of mobile phone hardware technology is also constantly improving.
Mobile phones have appeared with 1-inch bottoms
It is said that the size of the CMOS of the mobile phone can not compete with the size of the CMOS of the micro single and SLR, but the size of the CMOS of the camera configured on the flagship mobile phone is also very large.
Therefore, even in terms of image quality, regardless of algorithms, the performance of mobile phones in hardware has been greatly improved in recent years.
Summary: the demand is different, regardless of who is good or bad, but the progress of mobile phone photography is obvious to all
I think that although mobile phone shooting can not really crush SLRs at present, it is approaching SLRs infinitely from the perspective of updated functions. For example, the image quality is improved, the night scene ability is improved, and even the effect of external focus is blurred, as well as the ability of long, light and micro. The mobile phone looks more comprehensive, and the key is more convenient. You can take pictures when you hold it.
As for the SLR, the portability is a failure. Any combination of full frame and professional lens must be at least 1kg, and the weight is 5-10 times that of the mobile phone, so many people don't have the courage to take it out.
However, the resolution, powerful image quality and controllability of SLR Lens are unmatched by mobile phones. For professional photographers, mobile phones can not fully replace SLRs.
I think we should take what we need. If you use it for daily use and social sharing, I think the mobile phone is enough. If you are a professional photographer and pursue image quality, the SLR is naturally a better choice.