It´s the camera you bring that matters! iPhone, anyone?

It seems than whenever I bring my DSLR along, somebody always asks which model it is or how many megapixels it has. Like that matters. Don´t get me wrong, it really CAN matter, but you can have the most advanced camera ever made, with a zillion megapixels, and still take crappy photos. Sorry, but most people do. Flash in bright daylight? Colored gel over the flash? Huh? Hmmm, why are those eyes black blobs in this picture...?

The camera that matters is the one you actually have in your hands when something interesting happens. If you shoot for a living (who does, really?) you´ll most likely have "the best" already, with you at all times, and this post isn´t about you anyway.  But many people nowadays have a smartphone with a built in camera. And thats what they have in their hands when stuff happens, and thats what took the pictures and video footage you see in the news and on TV. Or that lovely picture of your children, or that vacation picture, or that funny thing you saw while driving, or... well you get it.


I used to haul my DSLR along wherever I went, but that is a heavy lump to carry along and it is attractive for thief's. I always felt a little nervous leaving it in the car. My iPhone 4S (UPDATE January 2015: now its an iPhone 5s) fits in my pocket, does 8MP pictures and does videos too and actually quite nice ones at that. I do miss my VR DX 18-200 sometimes for the zooming ability, but shooting people and my family the iPhone wins thanks to the greater angle of view. I always bring my iPhone along at work, wrapped in a clear plastic bag.


That´s a tip for you guys with real jobs with dust, sparks and metal filings flying everywhere. Put the iPhone in a 2 or 3 litre plastic bag, wrap in around the phone making a little "roll" and change it every week or so and you won´t have to pick metal and dust from the speaker vents again. That magnet sure attracts stuff, doesn´t it?


Back to cameras. In good light the iPhone takes better pictures anyway than the compact digital camera I bought before I went iPhone. This picture would never be if I didn´t have the iPhone in my pocket:

Gecko Lizard, iPhone 4S, built in flash

It would not be the end of the world if I missed that picture, but it´s a nice memory to have. This little guy climbed up a wall as I walked by, so I took it in my hands, walked over to my wife and had her take the picture. Imaging holding the lizard in my hands, handing over the DSLR, trying to avoid being strangled in the camera strap, then worrying about the settings, never mind explaining them, while still holding the lizard, and..... and now it was as simple as her pointing the iPhone and tapping the button.

Remember, the only camera that matters when it happens, is the camera you have in your hands!