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Comment by canbus | Hacker News Reader

I think that opens up a discussion about sensor size not being the biggest factor in image quality and whether it's worth it or not in practical terms to have a large sensor. Personally I have found that my full-frame DSLR gets a lot less use than my phone with a sensor size that is a fraction of the DSLRs! Yes, artsy bokeh shots/low light photos (although this is subjective due to recent developments with smartphones) are easier to take with a larger sensor, but I almost feel like they're going obselete now at least for every-day use.

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Your phone camera's images look 'great' because they're been very heavily processed (now with all sorts of "AI" nonsense that is leading to us not being able to trust photos from cell phones) and are taken with a wide angle, small aperture lens that yields very wide depth of field.

Compare images side by side, especially at indoor lighting levels, and you'll see just how much more detail even a 10 year old micro four thirds or digital SLR captures compared to the cell phone camera. Capture some images around 6400 ISO, too, and you'll really see what a mess cell phone cameras are.

There's no getting around physics - the larger the sensor well, the more light it can collect and convert to electrical impulses. Top end cameras from Canon, Nikon, and Sony have been bumping up against the limits of physics for a while now - efficiency, noise, etc.

My m4/3 camera which is now 10 years old still takes better pictures than any current cell phone camera on the market.

I've done some work on barcode scanning, so I've spent quite a bit of time taking images of reference patterns and comparing them in minute detail.

In my experience, the current iPhone SE produces very slightly more detail than a m4/3 Lumix DMC-GX80. Which is crazy, because the iPhone's lens and sensor are tiny compared to the m4/3 camera.

We still have some ways to go in low light. My room is lit by 2 40W incandescent light bulbs. This is more light than a typical urban sidewalk or restaurant at night. This is low enough light that the difference in video quality of my iphone 13 pro (2021) and nikon D750 (2014) full frame camera is night and day.

However I agree that there are times now where I can confidently use my phone where 10 years ago I would have had a dedicated camera. Phones are only going to keep getting better!

I still use my old Nikon D700 for some things, like as a timelapse camera or for simple product shots.

The 12 megapixel sensor in the 35mm format is still much better at gathering light (without any fancy AI manipulation) than any modern small sensor camera, and the few Nikon lenses I still have around—one manufactured in the 70s—are extremely sharp and still great for many situations (though lens coatings, even on tiny sensors and smartphones, are vastly improved nowadays).

I agree - I have a D600 myself and still use mine occasionally, Nikon's backwards compatibility is great! I am equally impressed by the AI manipulation by modern smartphones and their ability to take handheld shots that say a 10 year old APSC camera (with a huge sensor comparitively) might produce a blurry mess with. That being said I don't really know what modern APSC cameras can do nowadays!

There's an old photographer's adage, one my of my teachers shared with me a long time ago. "The best camera is the one you have on you."

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