When You Need a DSLR Instead of a Phone

Cameras on current generation smartphones are exceptionally high quality. The iPhone 14 Pro features a 48-megapixel main camera sensor, four lenses, and software that’s so complex it might seem like magic. This camera is more than enough for a quick selfie, but is this camera all you need? It depends. As good as phone cameras are, there are still situations where a dedicated DSLR is the best digital photography option.

When is it better to use a DSLR instead of a smartphone?

For most everyday needs, a phone is the right choice for most people. It’s comfortable, it’s always with you, and it can take good photos even if you don’t know what you’re doing. But if you’re more serious about photography, the limitations of phone cameras start to show.

Use a DSLR if you want to see how photography works

Real cameras are great for control lovers. Smartphone cameras take amazing pictures, but they take pictures; you are basically together for the trip. Most people are content to let the auto settings and software in their phones make the big decisions, but if you want to go deeper – if you want to know why the photo you take is so good – there’s no better teacher than a real camera with real lenses and automatics disabled. Getting the exact shot you want because you understand composition, ISO, depth of field, shutter speed, aperture, and any other photographic detail, both technical and artistic, is educational and satisfying in the way that a “point-and-shoot” image shoot” will never be.

DSLR has better handling

As this video from PetaPixel shows , using your phone as a camera can be frustrating. Smartphones are flat plates of glass and metal designed to be lightweight and versatile, but anyone who’s ever tried to change a phone’s camera setup on the fly understands the design’s limitations when it comes to taking photos. And when it comes to stability, a lightweight device is the worst option, even if it has digital stability features. In a well-designed camera, all the controls you need are right at your fingertips, so you don’t even have to look at them. Also, the weight and grip of a traditional camera cannot be replicated with a phone. Sure, you can buy a camera grip for your iPhone, but then it won’t work as a phone.

You can do more with DSLR flashes

Mobile phone flashes are not very good. They usually have one relatively weak built-in light – it’s actually a flashlight. If you’re shooting with a DSLR (or even a traditional film camera), you can do a lot more with your flash, including using color flash; multiple synchronized flashes to create dramatic lighting in photos; or a very bright flash that can capture fast moving objects at night. You can use a ring flash, connect the flash to a cable and place it anywhere, etc. This is another way that a DSLR gives you more control.

DSLR gives you true optical zoom

Fortunately, the days of “zooming” smartphones, consisting of zooming in, are coming to an end. Lower-end phone cameras still refer to zooming and cropping as “zoom”, but more expensive phones use different techniques such as switching between multiple lenses with software “filling in” the expected information to get closer to “real” zooming. That’s good, but in the end it’s just an imitation of the real article. Purely optical zoom, achieved by physically moving mechanical parts in the lens to change focal length, offers far more control and power than even the most sophisticated phone camera.

You need a DSLR if you’re serious about lenses

Photography is all about lenses, and while higher-end phones offer three or four different options, you don’t get close to the variety of lenses you get by physically switching equipment to the camera. A DSLR lets you put on a fisheye, 300mm+ super telephoto, macro or tilt-shift lens and take any photo you can imagine.

If you’re going professional, you definitely need a DSLR.

If you’re being paid to take photos, you’re usually expected to show up with a real camera rather than pulling out your phone, if only to keep up appearances. But beyond that, most “serious” digital photographers don’t shoot with phones because they usually don’t shoot images for Instagram. Professional (and semi-professional) cameras have a larger image sensor than phone cameras, so overall photo resolution is higher, and if you’re hanging your work in a gallery or filming someone’s wedding, a phone camera won’t give you the best possible quality. At least not yet.