Down the Road

Photographs and stories by Jim Grey

single frame: Mr. and Mrs. Mount

Jim Grey
9 comments on single frame: Mr. and Mrs. Mount
1 minute
, ,
Mr. and Mrs. Mount

Mr. and Mrs. Mount
iPhone 6s
2018

At church, all the stained-glass windows have names of original church members painted on them. Our congregation dates to around the turn of the 20th century, and the main part of our building was completed in 1909.

Two blocks east of our church is a street that bears this family name.

I’ve written lately of wishing for good in-camera JPEGs from my digital cameras. This photo is straight from my iPhone 6s, no editing. That happens more than I care to admit with my iPhone. I only wish the phone were easier to hold and use as a camera.

Comments

9 responses to “single frame: Mr. and Mrs. Mount”

  1. Dan James Avatar
    Dan James

    Ah, the curse of the iPhone! We’ve talked about this a lot lately, I too have made very pleasing images with my iPhone (5C) and in the final image it really doesn’t lack anything for a compact digital.

    But oh yes the handling is pretty rubbish compared with a digital compact camera.

    I’ve been looking at some of the first photos I made with phone cameras – around 2007 with a Sony Ericsson K800i with its mighty 3.2MP camera. The images today surprisingly stand up pretty well, especially considering most modern day consumers would probably turn their nose up at any camera with less than a 12 or 16MP sensor, compact or otherwise.

    That little Sony, plus the one I had after, the K850i, were far better ergonomically as cameras than the iPhone (and other super smooth, impossibly thin smartphones) today.

    The K800i was chunky enough to handle well, and with proper buttons to press (no touchscreen), including being able to use the volume buttons as a shutter button when in landscape mode, so it felt much more like a digital compact. It also had a neat sliding cover for the camera lens.

    The K850i was even better, 5MP, and used in landscape orientation, with the screen on the left and buttons on the right, not that different to how digital compacts are. It felt like a genuine alternative to a digital compact, and the Sony lenses and sensors have always been excellent (it’s no secret that Sony provide the sensors for the majority of other cameras these days – including our Pentax K10Ds!).

    I’m half tempted to pick up an old K850i purely to use as a camera, but then unless I use it as a phone as well, I may as well carry a proper digital compact like my Ricoh GRD III or Pentax Q which are little bigger. The Sony would struggle to perform as a phone too, and I use my iPhone for so many other things (email, browser, iPod, calendar, fitness tracker, satnav, notepad, watch…) I wouldn’t want to give up those other features that the Sony couldn’t offer.

    Maybe next time I’m due to change my phone I’ll see if Sony have done anything more recent that is better ergonomically as a camera than an iPhone or Samsung et al…

    Reply
    1. Jim Grey Avatar
      Jim Grey

      I’ve only had three phones with usable cameras: my Palm Pre, my iPhone 5, and this iPhone 6s. The Pre camera was decent. Here’s a favorite photo I made with it:

      https://blog.jimgrey.net/2015/01/08/16007/

      But the 5 is where I realized that cameras in phones are more than a nice toy, they can be used for Real Photography.

      https://blog.jimgrey.net/2016/03/04/iphone-5-camera/

      I liked my 5 more than I like my 6s. It was easier to handle.

      Reply
    2. Jim Grey Avatar
      Jim Grey

      Ooh! Ooh! I just discovered a scene I shot with my iPhone 5 and the Canon S95 moments apart.

      https://www.flickr.com/photos/mobilene/8637568778/in/album-72157633212549686/

      https://www.flickr.com/photos/mobilene/24820505346/

      iPhone 5 shot is on the bottom.

      Reply
      1. Dan James Avatar
        Dan James

        Useful comparison Jim, to my eyes the Canon one at the top is obviously superior… Possibly looks like the Canon used a faster shutter speed though, just because the lights seem more crisp. I wonder if the iPhone had to use max aperture and even then a slower shutter speed, because the lights seem a bit fuzzy. Or it might just be the lens isn’t as sharp.

        Would be interesting to see a few side by side comparisons on a sunny day – your iPhone 6 vs the Canon with those new in-camera JPEG settings you’ve been using very recently…

        Reply
        1. Jim Grey Avatar
          Jim Grey

          I think you’re right – it was in that nether-time between dusk and dark. The S95’s low-light capabilities really shone through here.

          Reply
    3. Jim Grey Avatar
      Jim Grey

      Another comparison. S95 shot first. This time I think the iPhone 5 wins.

      https://www.flickr.com/photos/mobilene/8645967380/in/album-72157633212549686/

      https://www.flickr.com/photos/mobilene/8644864537/in/album-72157633212549686/

      Reply
      1. Dan James Avatar
        Dan James

        Both perfectly usable, the Canon here maybe looks a touch overexposed so you lose a bit of fine detail in the brick road. What’s that in the air in the far distance in the iPhone shot?

        Reply
  2. Heide Avatar
    Heide

    That is indeed a winning image, Jim! I have to join you in (rather grudgingly) admitting that the new iPhones take some pretty great photos, yet I still find myself carrying a full camera kit most of the time because I like to have a bit more control over the images. Maybe in the next OS update they’ll add some virtual aperture and shutter-speed knobs and I’ll finally be happy. :) As for your side-by-side experiments: very interesting. Goes to show you that (like the financial products I write about all day) “No single tool performs best in all situations.” Great post!

    Reply
    1. Jim Grey Avatar
      Jim Grey

      My wife carries her Nikon D3200 with her most places. I don’t do something similar because frankly I hate carrying things. If it doesn’t fit into a pocket, I don’t want to deal with it. If I’m on an Official Photography Excursion I’ll carry five cameras, no problem. But not day to day. So I’m thrilled, frankly, that my iPhone does good work most of the time, and passable work the rest of the time, when I just need to make a photograph!

      Reply

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

%d bloggers like this: