What a Difference the Camera Makes: iPhone vs. Analogue

Most of the photographs on this blog come from one of my analogue cameras, usually my 35mm Pentax.

But there’s one digital camera in my arsenal. It’s my iPhone 5s, and I love it as much as my “real” cameras. The iPhone is just a different tool than my Pentax—each does certain things better, or worse, than the other camera.

I’ve done series in the past to demonstrate the differences between separate films, or the difference various times of daylight can make. But the images I have doubles of are more often those shot on my phone and my camera, and the results differ greatly.

This image was shot with my iPhone 5s in Brookline, MA and edited lightly with the VSCOcam app. I posted the picture on my Instagram weeks ago.

This image was shot with my Pentax camera and a 50mm 1:2 lens on Fujifilm Superia X-TRA 400 film.

Bad habits die hard. I still sometimes take the same picture with different cameras, just to see how they will look comparatively. As you can see, these two cameras capture this particular scene of New England autumn quite differently. In the iPhone image, everything is sharp and in focus, and therefore a bit flatter; the contrast between the organic shapes of the leaves and the straight lines of the wires is more apparent. In the analogue image, my lens captures a shallow depth-of-field, which means that less of the picture is in focus—everything behind the foremost orange leaves is intentionally blurry.

I think the film picture is dreamier and has more depth, and I prefer it for this blog—those are the sort of images I like to use here to compliment my words. But the iPhone image is worlds better for Instagram. In fact, I never post film pictures to Instagram; I have a distinct style there that comes from shooting with the iPhone, just as the style here is weighted towards film.

The iPhone is an amazing camera, and I love shooting with it. I do a little post-processing with my iPhone shots, which I don’t do with my film photographs. I find it easier to be subtle with the phone, which allows me to capture different scenes in different ways. And I enjoy the sharpness of the iPhone images. I don’t think anyone should scoff at iPhone photographers—it is simply a different tool, with different capabilities and limitations. As ever, when shooting, you have to choose what works best for YOU, and what makes you happy.

I’m curious– what do YOU like to shoot with? How do you feel about iPhone vs. analogue?