Would you choose any camera over your phone?

I still have and use my two old Canon Ixus, one of which is the 140. I've also got a current gen Google Pixel. I prefer the Canon Ixus down to the lens and not draining my phone's battery, which I need for maps.

The Canon Ixus seems to close focus/macro better and the auto focus in all situations in better.

When doing normal prints, the type you put in photo albums, the Canon colours look better, as phones do a ton of processing (which can be turned off).

The only thing I prefer my phone for is night photography.
 
Phone cameras nowadays are really very capable. Though a dedicated camera is probably going to handle better, I don't think the advantages of your IXUS would really provide a substantial difference.

I'd recommend taking a few test shots with both and comparing them on a computer though. Many a time I've got an "amazing" image on my phone and then when I upload it and look at it on a bigger screen you notice all the limitations of a camera phone (again, not sure this is going to be any better on the IXUS but worth checking!).
 
MarkTrent said:
I still have and use my two old Canon Ixus, one of which is the 140. I've also got a current gen Google Pixel. I prefer the Canon Ixus down to the lens and not draining my phone's battery, which I need for maps.

The Canon Ixus seems to close focus/macro better and the auto focus in all situations in better.

When doing normal prints, the type you put in photo albums, the Canon colours look better, as phones do a ton of processing (which can be turned off).

The only thing I prefer my phone for is night photography.
Click to expand...
I;ve seen some increadable macor shots off the Ixus 70, really stunned me to find out the shooter was using a compact. I was expecting a macro lens and tubes.
 
Image quality wise there's probably little to choose between your compact & the phone, infact the phone's probably a little better at comparable focal lengths. The one advantage the camera does have is optical zoom which is preferable to digital zoom quality wise so I'd take both, the camera isn't that bulky that's it's an inconvenience anyway. To be honest the scenery in Norway is awesome so if it was an option I'd be taking a decent quality camera with a lens or two and just using the phone occasionally.

Simon
 
MarkTrent said:
I still have and use my two old Canon Ixus, one of which is the 140. I've also got a current gen Google Pixel. I prefer the Canon Ixus down to the lens and not draining my phone's battery, which I need for maps.

The Canon Ixus seems to close focus/macro better and the auto focus in all situations in better.

When doing normal prints, the type you put in photo albums, the Canon colours look better, as phones do a ton of processing (which can be turned off).

The only thing I prefer my phone for is night photography.
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Really? Looking at friends' photos - night photography seems to be where phones struggle a lot. They seem best with bright light and not too far away.
 
davholla said:
Really? Looking at friends' photos - night photography seems to be where phones struggle a lot. They seem best with bright light and not too far away.
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The Pixel which the person has mentioned they're using is very good at low light photography and better than any compact using a similar sized sensor as the Pixel has a lot of software tricks to improve the quality including taking a burst set of shots then merging them together.
 
A few years back I compared the video output of my Canon IXUS 870IS with my Sony MiniDV camcorder.
It was sobering to realise that the compact did at least as good a job as the camcorder so I never took the Sony out again.

I recently went to a music festival and the rules about cameras and lenses suggested I might have a problem getting my usual kit in.
As we were going by public transport I would either have to abandon the day or the camera - neither was an option - so I broke out the 870IS again.
I also took my iPhone 7.
I was pleasantly surprised by the camera after all these years - starting with it having a good charge on the battery.
Optical zoom and a higher power flash with low light prefocus beat the iPhone pictures my friends took.
The overall image quality wasn't that great compared to what I'm used to from my larger kit but it was still pretty good.
Having as much storage as I wanted and not worrying about zapping my phone battery were also a plus.

I use a Toshiba FlashAir SD card so I can WiFi share images from it if I choose, though the data at the festival was so weak there was no uploading to FB there anyway!

So to answer the question - I'm sure you're taking your phone anyway :) but I would also take your phone and charger so you have that as an option too.
May be take it out and about before hand to get the hand of how to use it first.
 
davholla said:
Really? Looking at friends' photos - night photography seems to be where phones struggle a lot. They seem best with bright light and not too far away.
Click to expand...


Yeah the Pixel line of phones have a night sight mode, or whatever they call it. Its basically image stacking with a load of voodoo magic on top to get a workable image. My 140 was replaced with a Canon ixy220f I got in Japan from a junk bin in Hard Off. They both use the same battery/charger but you got a slightly faster start up, faster lens, 1080p video with okay image stabilization and only lost a little length in the zoom and minimum focus distance went from 1cm to 3cm. The images look the same in most cases and I still use the 140 as a back up.

As 2012/2013 cameras they still produce great images and I think they are better all round cameras then the current crop of smart phones.

https://www.digicamdb.com/compare/canon_ixus-140-vs-canon_ixy-220f/
 
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JohnMcL7 said:
The Pixel which the person has mentioned they're using is very good at low light photography and better than any compact using a similar sized sensor as the Pixel has a lot of software tricks to improve the quality including taking a burst set of shots then merging them together.
Click to expand...
MarkTrent said:
Yeah the Pixel line of phones have a night sight mode, or whatever they call it. Its basically image stacking with a load of voodoo magic on top to get a workable image. My 140 was replaced with a Canon ixy220f I got in Japan from a junk bin in Hard Off. They both use the same battery/charger but you got a slightly faster start up, faster lens, 1080p video with okay image stabilization and only lost a little length in the zoom and minimum focus distance went from 1cm to 3cm. The images look the same in most cases and I still use the 140 as a back up.

As 2012/2013 cameras they still produce great images and I think they are better all round cameras then the current crop of smart phones.

https://www.digicamdb.com/compare/canon_ixus-140-vs-canon_ixy-220f/
Click to expand...


Thank you both next time my wife needs a new phone I know what to get her.
 
You’re going to have the phone with you anyway so try out the camera in the next few weeks and see how you get on. You could also try taking some shots with your phone in similar conditions to those you expect and see how you like them, sunsets may be close, never seen the northern lights so I’m just guessing.
 
A mate of mine got a new phone contract along with a very high end smartphone that has the usual xxxmp camera, gps, etc etc.

When he goes out anywhere he still packs his Satnav, MP3 player, radio, camera and portable dvd player :banghead:
 
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