Even the zoom is pretty good nowadays.
Often the choice isn’t iPhone photo or DSLR photo it’s iPhone or no photo at all.
It’s a right faff getting the DSLR out and carrying it around. I brought mine to NYC over Xmas and ended up using my phone mostly.
Also no one I know prints photos out, they look at them on their phone, iPad or maybe TV if they care enough or have a screensaver slideshow.
I’d love to use my DSLR more and every year I tell myself I’m going to but I just… don’t.
and the 50mm f1.8 is really great considering the low price.
New technology is fun and all, but even decade old digital cameras are more than good enough for good holiday snaps that you might want to crop and print.
Sure, the DSLR is the obvious choice if you're a serious photographer, but most people aren't serious photographers. If they buy a DSLR or mirrorless camera, they're going to use the kit lens and leave the mode dial on auto. For people who just want to point and shoot, the iPhone's computational brilliance shines through.
The iPhone isn't so much a camera as a generative algorithm that happens to use image sensor data as a prompt. That's infuriating if you're a photographer who just wants full control over a big sensor, but it's tantamount to magic if you don't know what an f-stop is and have no inclination to learn.
I'd bet that if you gave my mother an iPhone and a DSLR, she'd get consistently better images from the iPhone, even if we gave her a one-day crash course on photography first. Sure, she might fluke the odd decent photo with the DSLR, but 90% of the time, the iPhone's algorithmic guesswork is going to beat better imaging hardware with dumber software.
And yeah u have to learn how to properly use a dedicated camera which is why i only shoot with manual settings, for casuals phones are enough.
And yes, it is better than any phonecamera.