What is the Difference Between a Professional Camera and a Cell Phone
I am going to be posting bi-weekly updates here about the industry, the experience, and why everyone should get a professional photo shoot done. We are going to start with what is the difference in image quality between the two.
For this post, I will be using my cell phone (pixel 4 xl) and my professional canon camera, for the comparison. The phone came out almost a year after the camera.
The biggest difference between the two is the quality of images. In general, the professional camera will catch more detail from the images themselves. These tend to be really fine details and on small 4x6 or even 8x10 they may not be noticeable, as the prints get larger the more noticeable it becomes.
The second biggest difference is the way zoom works. Some cell phones now have multiple lenses while this does improve with the following they still suffer from the same problems. On a cell phone camera, the way zoom works is it crops in on the image (digital zoom). This in turn hurts the image quality. once it gets to a point where it can use a further reach lens the quality will improve, then as you zoom in more it will degrade the more you zoom in. With professional cameras and some entry-level removable lens cameras, it's mechanical. When you zoom in with the lens the Elements (Glass lenses) inside the camera move. Which causes the lens to magnify the subject in the distance doing the opposite. It enhances fine details and makes these more visible.
The third biggest difference that can ruin a lot of pictures in cell phones is the blur they can apply. A professional uses the lens to apply the blur they are looking for. This is done mechanically based on physics and bending light. In a cell phone, you don’t have access to this setting while you can still apply blur it is done after you take the picture and it is done through software. While this can work great at times, if you get the wrong texture or pattern, you could end up with your subject being blurred.
The below pictures will show a comparison of two similar images. They are unedited, they will be taken from the same distance with similar focal lengths. The pictures can be clicked on to enlarge. The bottom picture was exported at a smaller resolution for loading purposes, you can still see the difference in detail.
