Fremantle
· photography ·
Interesting post this morning on r/photography about the demoralising effect of smartphone photo-processing:
To make a long story short, I'm feeling a little frustrated with my experience with my DSLR camera. It is just an entry-level Nikon D3200, an older camera (though from what I understand quite capable for an amateur) with the original kit lens. Thing is, I have taken a lot of time over the last year to get to know the camera and how to make use of the F stops, ISO settings and exposure times, I got myself a tripod and learned about a lot of fundamentals of taking photos and yet.. its still usually outclassed by a google Pixel 2 smartphone with HDR+ enabled. The phone can generally eek out more detail and clarity and does better with avoiding over and under exposing. I don't get it - it's a basic camera but the APS-C sensor is much larger, the optics (even though entry level) should be better than whats on an old smartphone, I'm making sure not to over or underexpose, I'm dialing in my focus as much as I can. Is this an optics thing, a user skill problem, or just.. how good modern image processing has become and is it making cameras a bad deal for beginners? Kinda sad that I've invested time and energy and interest into learning how to use these functions only to be easily out-shot by myself using auto / photo on an old smartphone :(
The comments seem to boil down to: shoot in raw, process stuff yourself, buy a prime lens, and (sometimes) give up and just use a phone.