I have an Iphone 5s I think its about 2-3 years old and just been looking at some photos I have taken with it and they are all right plenty good enough for what I want, so my question is there any thing better out there and if so how hard is it to go from an iPhone which I find easy to use to something else

Also interested!

Only thing I can suggest that improves a phone camera is a physical shutter button on the top where you’d find it on a normal camera. Really helps take photos, and I miss it now I don’t have one.

Otherwise, actual compacts can be much better to use in your hand and also they make tough ones which are great because you can strap it outside your bag on your rucksack strap and you don’t have to worry about it getting wet or muddy. Don’t even have to stop to take a photo.

My mrs noticed the difference from her 5s to my hand-me-down 6 .. I noticed from my 6 to my 6s plus .. neither of us are interested in photography as such so there must be something going on thats making stuff better without any effort on our part.
(I also have a works SE and it seems roughly comparable with the 6)

im not in to photography at all, and I just put some pics on fb which I never do but they look not to bad for me any way, im due an upgrade and was only thinking is there anything else I might look at

Only thing I can suggest that improves a phone camera is a physical shutter button on the top where you’d find it on a normal camera. Really helps take photos, and I miss it now I don’t have one.

Volume down button does this job on every android I’ve tried it on, and AFAIK on iPhones too.

Yep volume button works as shutter on iPhone too.

Thing I miss on a phone is having proper control over the camera settings. I use the ProCam app on the iPhone which gives some manual control (over shutter speed, aperture, ISO, White balance, manual focus etc) but it can be pretty fiddly compared to having dedicated physical controls on a real camera.

looking at some photos I have taken with it and they are all right plenty good enough for what I want, so my question is there any thing better out there

Does not compute’

Only thing I can suggest that improves a phone camera is a physical shutter button on the top where you’d find it on a normal camera

As others suggest, volume button (or buttons, plural, on my iPhone 5) may function as shutter buttons. With the 5 (can’t speak for more recent models) my picture-taking procedure is generally:

1.Wake from standby into camera app by swiping right.

2. Rotate phone 90 degrees clockwise for landscape mode

3. Steady to shoot, relaxed/firm grip with both thumbs underneath about an inch inboard. Middle finger of right and left hands support top edge.

4. Left index finger touches subject on screen and holds to activate focus exposure lock

5. Same finger then slides the sun/light symbol up or down to adjust exposure to desired level

6. Right index finger gently squeezes volume button to take shot

Thing I miss on a phone is having proper control over the camera settings. I use the ProCam app on the iPhone which gives some manual control (over shutter speed, aperture, ISO, White balance, manual focus etc) but it can be pretty fiddly compared to having dedicated physical controls on a real camera.

But often those settings are buried in among other settings, it’s really only aperture and shutter speed, and most people will use auto settings even when such are available.
Let’s face it, phone cameras are the ideal point-and-shoot camera because of their simplicity, but by using dedicated apps there are levels of control that allow quite a lot of fiddling, pretty much like a compact camera.
It’s really only zoom that’s lacking, and the ability to get good depth-of-field.

😳 Erratum (dysleftxia)

1.Wake from standby into camera app by swiping left

Depth of Field?

Well the camera on a newer phone will be noticeably better, but it sounds link a phone camera is fine for your needs.

Depth of Field?

Cool how you also got select random stuff in the foreground (parts of hair, fingertips, and wine glass etc) also out of focus, just like in the background. That’s some ‘lens’!

Amusingly enough, my kids have been raising caterpillars at home and I decided to try and get some nice photos of the chrysalides and the emerging butterflies.

Spent ages faffing about with my SLR, tripod, and +2 and +4 close-up adaptors on my 50mm lens and manual focus, but I really struggled to get a good shot through the fine mesh netting.

Tried the iPad instead and got nice clear shots straight away 😳

Sometimes a small lens and a deep depth-of-field is good thing 😀

Cool how you also got select random stuff in the foreground (parts of hair, fingertips, and wine glass etc) also out of focus, just like in the background. That’s some ‘lens’!

Majic! As that’s an app but the 7+ does a portrait mode.

Just been looking at some photos I took yesterday with the phone a 6+, and it’s surprising how much DoF you do get:

There’s no fancy apps used just the standard camera app.

im due an upgrade and was only thinking is there anything else I might look at

Well, if you’re ‘not into photography at all’ it could be iPhone 5s is already ‘too much’ camera for you. I use photography in a professional capacity and use an iPhone 5 for snaps/reference when it’s all I have on me. Am happy for what it is. So much so that it takes away the ‘no camera jitters’ as I always have it on me and it is quite capable. I use a number of other cameras of course but was always suprised at the IQ of the iPhone 5 compared to the awful blown-out highlights and auto WB on the 4

OP look here

If had no interest in photography I’d be looking at entirely other phone-features than a camera if you are deciding an upgrade. Pretty sure any half-decent phone-cam would do the job.

I think most phones use software to approximate depth of field so you end with what you see above – a slight gaussian blur on the background. Even on the Huwawei (sp?) P9 with its two lenses it’s still obviously just an effect. I find it a bit jarring tbh.

it’s surprising how much DoF you do get:

Assuming you mean a shallow DoF (i.e. how much DoF you don’t get) then yeah.

As I understand it a smaller physical lens/aperture means light rays are more parallel so getting a nice blurred background is harder. But shooting something really close to the camera with background much further away (as in those pics) will still give you a reasonable blur and separation of the subject.

Mrs gnusmas went from the iphone 5s after 3 of them (2 warranty) failed all within 4 months of the first one. She decided to look for alternatives, like the op she liked the ease of use of the iphone.

She wanted a decent camera above all else. She opted for a Huawei P9 as it has a dual leica lens camera on it, amazing out of the box and stunning true black and white shots too. It took her 2 days maximum to get used to android fully and wishes she hadn’t bothered with the iphone. According to her it is much more straightforward than the iphone and is a lot better in every way, especially the camera.

Not the best picture I’ve ever taken, but you can see that the DoF is shallow enough that the netting (between camera and the front butterfly) is blurred enough that you can see through it easily and the second butterfly at the back (probably ~18cm or so from the front) is also blurred.

That was taken with an iPad from about 10cm from the front butterfly.