My wife's favorite camera is a crappy smartphone

So over the past few years as I have gotten farther into this hobby, I have tried to bring my wife along. She doesn't really like the DSLR, although I've taught her enough to take decent pictures with it. I bought high end PnS like the LX5 and S90 that she found ugly and cumbersome. I bought superzooms like the ZS3, which she never used. She does use the little ELPH cameras occasionally, just because she kept one in her purse. But honestly, maybe 100 photos a year.

But this fall she finally got a smartphone with a data plan. It's not even a very nice one. Camera is pretty subpar, honestly. But I have never seen her take so many pictures! And not just taking them, she is instantly uploading them to share with her friends. We were out sledding yesterday and I had a good PnS in the car, but she opted for her phone. At Disneyland last month, she used her phone. Even at home where the DSLR is just upstairs, she uses her phone.

Just crazy that after over $1000 in point and shoots, her favorite is a free 3MP smartphone.

You should buy her that Chase Jarvis book.

My favorite camera recently is my cell phone as well. It's always with me and ready to go.

Yeah... my wife is the same way. A few months ago, I gave her my old Droid 2... she started taking shots with it about once a week... then, a month or so ago, while she was on maternity leave, I got her a Galaxy S3... now, it's pictures several times a day... and she snaps them and just saves them on her phone, or sends them to Facebook. .. Meanwhile, a Canon SX230HS and S100 sit unused.

She has no illusion that the pictures from her phone are good in any way... when ever she wants a good picture taken, she sweet talks me into bringing out the "big camera" and the flashes and umbrellas... but she has fun with her phone..

The best camera is the one you can bring with you. Maybe instead of trying to tame habits, get her an iPhone 4s/5 or HTC One or something, so that you at least don't cringe as much when you see her snapping away.

If you don't mind a slightly outdated phone in terms of the actual phone aspect, look into the Nokia 808, that thing has a 41mp sensor with 32/38mp switchable aspect ratio (16:9 and 4:3), and has about the same resolving power as a 5D2 at base ISO.

Here's a link to a photo shot with the 808: http://press.nokia.com …th-nokia-808-pureview.jpg

Well she just got that other phone 3 months ago. But if she keeps it up, I will probably upgrade it before too long.

Funny, the same thing happened with my sister. She has a DSLR from her work she can take home anytime, but most of her pictures are from her blackberry and now iphone. I can see why the compact market is tanking big time. If you don't care enough to pack a ILC or DSLR, you probably just want to use your phone.

It's all about convenience. My wife barely uses the iPhone camera let alone the P&S I bought her. (The kids have taken that!)
But I find myself taking tons of pics with my iPhone just cause its there. The 1Dx is a bit much for some occasions!

I was really interested in the Canon eos M as its tiny and had a decent sensor. May still go that way with a pancake for walk around. Then put it on my 500mm f4 to use its crop factor! Ha ha!

tkbslc wrote in post #15377180
So over the past few years as I have gotten farther into this hobby, I have tried to bring my wife along. She doesn't really like the DSLR, although I've taught her enough to take decent pictures with it. I bought high end PnS like the LX5 and S90 that she found ugly and cumbersome. I bought superzooms like the ZS3, which she never used. She does use the little ELPH cameras occasionally, just because she kept one in her purse. But honestly, maybe 100 photos a year.

But this fall she finally got a smartphone with a data plan. It's not even a very nice one. Camera is pretty subpar, honestly. But I have never seen her take so many pictures! And not just taking them, she is instantly uploading them to share with her friends. We were out sledding yesterday and I had a good PnS in the car, but she opted for her phone. At Disneyland last month, she used her phone. Even at home where the DSLR is just upstairs, she uses her phone.

Just crazy that after over $1000 in point and shoots, her favorite is a free 3MP smartphone.

Thats the whole point. Thats why Instagram is so popular. Its not so much about IQ or about getting the shot, its sharing with others what you are doing. Even when I am on a shoot with my full DSLR gear I still use my phone to grab a snap shot to upload to FB or Instagram to share what I am doing at that particular moment.

My wife takes thousands of pics with her iPhone. Some of us, myself included get too wrapped up into composition, lighting, IQ ect that we forget the basics, just catching the essence of the moment. I would bet if I grabbed her phone there would be at least 1000 pics on it of just my daughter doing something cute or funny, most of those times I miss while Im fumbling to grab my DSLR. An out of focus, dimly lit poor IQ picture is better than no picture at all IMO.

reminds me of this post!

http://zarias.tumblr.c​om …twitter-that-each-shoot-i

I would have loved to have had a MF camera sooner. There are a number of images in my book that I wish was shot MF just based on the higher quality of print that it gives. But I didn’t so I’m not going to lose sleep over it.

And get this… Get this one right here. OMG. I shot for a band alongside a video crew recently. I was basically there just to get some shots in between takes the video crew was shooting. I had all guns blazing that day. Phase. Polaroid land cameras. Fuji. Canon…. and…. my iPhone. There was this one point where the light was unreal gorgeous. I fired off Phase shots. I fired off some Polaroid. The video crew had to get their shot rolling and as I was getting out of the way I fired off a shot with my iPhone to put on instagr.am.

Take one guess which camera shot the picture chosen for the CD cover. Take a guess.

OMG. The iPhone.

It ain’t about the camera right? Really? The iPhone? Why do I have all these other cameras?

Cheers,
Zack

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Cesium wrote in post #15377219
My favorite camera recently is my cell phone as well. It's always with me and ready to go.

if my cell phone had full frame it would be my favorite

Pictures have always been social and for sharing. But with film you had to wait to share them.
With iPhone's its instant, and you can get gratification in an instant with "likes" on facebook.
Nikon caught on and has a camera that uploads instantly, I saw Ashton on a commercial....LOL

See if you find her one of those adapters that adopts DSLR lenses to a cell phone...then you can start getting the lenses you want.

I am sure we all have gone through this, trying to get our family members to be into photography. I have failed in my mission. My father used to be into photography, very, very causally in the film days. Well, I got him a 30D, 70-200L f4, and Tamron 17-50. Well, he didn't use much. I mean, he shot with it for a couple of months but then he never touched the camera after that. I tired to explain to him about the finer point of exposures but that didn't go anywhere. And he wondered why his photos would look certain ways. It has been over a year now and haven't shot a thing. Same thing with my mother and sister, although I bought my mother a point and shoot. I can understand why with my mother. With my sister supposedly the artistic type who took photography classes when she was in college.....that never really translated into anything bigger. Out of all things in the world, I am the artistic type who never had a formal artistic education, let alone some art classes. Somehow, I understood what art is and what is photography.

Tony_Stark wrote in post #15377770
Thats the whole point. Thats why Instagram is so popular. Its not so much about IQ or about getting the shot, its sharing with others what you are doing. Even when I am on a shoot with my full DSLR gear I still use my phone to grab a snap shot to upload to FB or Instagram to share what I am doing at that particular moment.

This is it.

Last year for Christmas I got her an EasyShare. A shiny red one, even! But even that isn't good enough - first, it's an additional device to lug around (and lawd knows there's enough stuff in that purse already); second, even though it's designed for sharing photos, you still have to plug it in to upload 'em. So the EasyShare stays at home - heck, it's probably lost by now - and she takes pictures with her iPhone to upload to Facebook.

It still takes good photos when the light is good. Its low-light capability is lousy and the flash just makes it worse.