Why not buy an iPhone 15 Pro Max instead of a camera system costing more than 1500?

Just got back from a trip to Scotland. It was the first trip abroad that I have made without a camera. After using my iPhone 14 last summer, I decided it was fine for what I was going to photograph; family snapshots and some local snaps of the place. I knew I would not have time for dedicated, let's call it "serious" photography.

I am quite amazed at the output I get with the camera in my phone. It seems it does a lot of PP of its own choosing, as the pictures I took out of the plane window over London were very different to what I have achieved with my old phone or even camera.

I think my phone has probably replaced my LX100 for casual things, although you can get a lot more image quality out of the LX100 if you need it.

This is terrific. I have never ever got such good photos from a plane, though most of my flying has been in the USA and not in the UK. I can identify all the places and streets in this one, but unfortunately my old school is just off the left side of the photo!

David

Can you see it now?

Thanks!

Almost. It was built about 100 years ago. Then the war came, and a lot of the buildings around it were bombed. On the extreme left of this picture you can see the brick tower of Westminster Cathedral. Just above that and to the right is a big white „sky scraper“. My school is opposite it, on this side of the road, obscured by another building. The whole of that area of Victoria St, down to Westminster Abbey, was being rebuilt during my school days. Apart from the consequent pollution, it was a great place to grow up!

David

24mm-77mm equivalent is the issue for me, even for family shots on a trip.

Phone shot:

Camera shot:

I have similar examples where my full-frame fisheye was wide enough but a camera phone, even with a wide angle option, was not.

For the type of photography I’m referring to when I say the iPhone is well suited I’m most likely not going to be carrying a fisheye lens (though I do have a Moment Superfish for the phone) or a long telephoto. The only lens it needs to replace is a “35 Summicron”… or, in modern terms, the lens on my X100V.

The 35 Summicron took me across Europe, South and Central America, and was daily carry in NYC. I never found it wanting. If you can’t get a particular shot, look for another. ¯\(ツ)/¯

That attitude has never, ever worked for me since I picked up my first camera when I was 5 or bought my first SLR when I was 9. I don't want my gear to control my photography, I want my gear to serve the photography I want to do.

When I got my first SLR with 50mm, I got sick of it after a few days, and started saving for more lenses. I ended up buying a 28mm and a 70-210. Later, when I got a new camera, I got a 24-85 and a 75-300. That has expanded over the years to 8mm fisheye through 600mm, plus my telescope.

I simply don't tolerate inability to get the shot I want to get because the gear can't do it.