iPhone 15 Plus sample gallery: Does resolution compensate for fewer photo options?

Well, to be fair, people don't usually track their cars but that doesn't stop them from buying Ferraris and Porsches. Sometimes it's not a matter of needing it. People just want it.

"those ultra wide pics"

Their badness achieves singularity now that disc cameras are barely a geezer's memory.

I think you can do panos on the ultra wide of my iPhone 12

I just cut and pasted this from a reply I typed above

“ I use to doubt the wide camera on my iPhone. The other day my sister asked me for the file for a landscape I took this summer. So I sent it over warning of the low quality. Well she printed it any way. It’s not huge but bigger than A4 and it looks great. She it’s going to frame it and put it on the wall of a holiday cottage she is renting out”

I am using an LG7 for panoramas now, BECAUSE they implemented their 16mm f1.9 lens so that it works as does their standard lens on the camera, and although the sensor is a tiny 16MP one, it is a genuine 16Mp. When I bought my first 16MP phone sensor it was because I noticed there is just so much more detail in a 16MP image than anyone at any price (think Nikon D3s) can actually resolve at the same magnifications using any 12MP sensor.

There are phones that already do quad bayer at a genuine 24MP from the old 108MP samsung sensor, with results that must surely better the iPhone 15 Pro's new standard resolution mode, but the reason I want to know if the panoramas from new iPhones are any good, is because all these new quad-bayer sensored phones appear UNABLE to do a panorama with their 16mm, 15mm, 14,13,12mm equivalent ultrawide lenses AT ALL, probably due to the computational difficulties involved : there are no recent panorama samples here or on GSM Arena, so who can do UWpans now?

Clarksonned refers to being shot in front of your relatives, a quip from an old Top Gear show. You must understand that everyone on set when he assaulted the shows producer and got fired had been working all day with no meals at all to speak of and people were just exasperated by the fact that when in lousy weather they finished late in the evening nobody had thought to provide anyone with a meal at all!
I would not have done it myself, or used such a phrase, but that was long ago when real-world conflicts were not as close to home as they now are.
As entertainment the old BBC Top Gear programme was irreplaceable in its day, and one of the few things my daughters and I could get equal enjoyment from, even granted the 40+ years age difference, so.....fire the shows producer instead next time, OK?!

An iPhone 12 can do a pano from either camera. I just checked

An iPhone 12 can do a pano from either camera. I just checked

Can you fit your Oly3030 in your pocket?
Didn't think so.

The downside to the Nokia Lumina was that it used Microsoft as the OS.

w.r.t the iPhone, I had a zoom call and I could wirelessly use my iPhone as Camera. In fact I could switch between my main camera and iPhone by just selecting it from zoom's call screen.

Again the point was that you could use them in images up to 8x10.
In fact I have an 8x10 that was made from a cropped portion of a photo.

Maybe the “fly by night” photographers get $500. The real professionals get much more. I guess you missed the point....

Really? OK if your camera bag had a bunch of prime lenses in it I can maybe understand the reluctance to dig them out of the bag in the conditions but it seems to me your trip was not dedicated to photography. Therefore you didn’t need the bag full of gear in the first place.

What you needed was a camera equivalent to my A7 IV fitted with a standard zoom or a lens similar to the Tamron 28-200 (or with Nikon a z6 and 24-200) and I don’t see how that is an inconvenient carry. It’s one camera with no lens changing that can be carried in a single small dedicated bag.

I did just this last weekend on a trip to London with the family where I knew I would not be looked on kindly messing about with my primes and there was nothing inconvenient about using the camera v my Pixel Pro 8 phone. The phone got used occasionally but I am certain you could have managed a similar camera set up on your trip. So if you haven’t got a standard zoom or travel zoom, ask Santa for one for Christmas.

@JF69 Oh yes, he had a mobile allright. I was talking about the camera gear in his bag. If you don't care to use the gear you bought and brought with you and instead use your mobile, you might not have the right camera. You might have a professional camera or a camera that does some things very well (lets say action sports from 100 yards away under dim lights), but If it is too cumbersome to use... voila.

@FZ750 My X-H1 has been around my neck on a water pouring off of it level of rainy ride. More than once. I've run it under the sink before, because I've spilled things on it. Same deal with the WR lenses-notably my poor, long suffering 16-80mm f4 which, despite actually hitting concrete from chest level when my strap broke, still works and is optically centered.

I've had them CLA'd periodically or they've had other problems, but never once has Fuji mentioned water intrusion. And they will mention it because if the electronics have been wet then there's no way to guarantee any repairs.

So other than that exposed USB port which I just don't believe is as immune to corrosion as Apple tells you it is, the phone is technically more water proof. But I can sure tell you which one I'd be able to actually operate reliably when the water is coming out of the sky!

And which would take better pics inside an underwater housing!

Cheap phone, good camera. Then it doesn't matter much how good the phone's camera is or is not, because you just pair the real camera to the phone. I say that understanding the caveats of various camera makers' apps and the widely variable quality thereof, but I can say that at least my Fuji's camera app (the old one-new app won't work with older Fuji cams) is at least somewhat OK once you get used to its quirks.

Spending $1100 on a quality lens means your grandkids will be learning photography with it, years down the road. That money spent on a phone is down the drain in two years.

Hmm, I really dunno if my grandkids will care one bit about my $1K lenses, I'm not chomping at the bit for any vintage lenses that might've cost that much and the only one I've cared to adapt (FD 135/3.5) ran me all of $60... A phone will depreciate faster sure, but I wouldn't count on any of these as investments, let alone heirlooms.

You will get a longer useful life out of good lenses of course, I've got 10 year old mirrorless lenses that still hold up quite well, but I don't really expect them to be relevant in 30+ years, so grandkids seems like a stretch. Kids, maybe, if they have any interest in photography.

@Impulses my point is that in 30 years those lenses will still work just fine. Will still be worth money to someone. Of course, who's to say that some collector won't pay a fortune for a MIB iPhone or Galaxy Fold, years from now :-D but that's kinda an outlier. Very few phones stay MIB for more than a minute. 30 years from now, today's phones probably won't even be able to get onto the cellular network.

I guess you never inherited Grandpa's SLR or Grandma's Polaroid SX-70. I did, and used the SLR all the time til someone stole it. I still have the SX-70 tho, and it still works perfectly.