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Author Topic: Smartphone for stock?  (Read 7201 times)

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« on: October 17, 2013, 04:01 »
+2
More and more agencies are accepting images taken with mobile phones. Since I am thinking about buying a smartphone anyway, I might as well buy one with a decent camera suitable for stock. Any experiences or recommendations? 




« Reply #1 on: October 17, 2013, 04:24 »
0
I think smartphones are expensive for what I want, just a phone really.  I might get one of these, if they are good enough for microstock as well.
http://www.dpreview.com/products/sony/compacts/sony_dscqx10

« Reply #2 on: October 17, 2013, 06:03 »
+1
Latest iPhone (the 5S) looks like the business. Details about the camera at: http://www.apple.com/iphone-5s/camera/

But don't buy on technical specs - also consider what apps are available. I still have the 4S and like it very much too. If money is short I would recommend a used 4S. Check that the lens is not scratched.

And talking about phone camera pictures -- have a look at the wonderful work on VSCO grid: http://vsco.co/grid

« Reply #3 on: October 17, 2013, 11:42 »
+2
The 4s and higher iphones take really acceptable images for stock and the new 5s has some rather nice features if you feel like forking over the cash for it.  Slow-mo is fun to play with, taking stills while shooting a video is very useful, and the rapid shot is also a great ad-on.  I can't say I've done any mobile stock, even though I have a phone.. it is simply too much work for the pay.  If microstock is going to pay it has to be done in 'bulk' .. do a shoot, take 100 images, keywords and edit all at once and upload.  Taking an image here and there and uploading through the phone is quite laboursom and inefficient.  It could certainly be a hobby and fun... profitable not so much.

Like bhr says - make sure you look at the apps as well when choosing a phone.  Android and iPhone are certainly going to have the best to offer there.

« Reply #4 on: October 17, 2013, 11:45 »
0
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« Last Edit: May 12, 2014, 09:05 by Audi 5000 »

EmberMike

« Reply #5 on: October 18, 2013, 09:01 »
0

Here's a little secret (probably not that secret really) about smartphones: You really only ever pay for the first one you get. Resale value on these things is incredibly high. I just upgraded to an iPhone 5c and I sold my iPhone 4 for $150. The 5C only cost $99 as part of my upgrade eligibility with AT&T. I actually profited from upgrading.

And my phone was in good shape despite being about 3 years old. I saw some with a lot of scratches and even some cracks still selling on eBay for over $100.

Really after a few upgrades where you profit on the resale of the old phone, you essentially got that first one for free too. So really all iPhones are "free" as long as you keep them in decent condition and take the time to do a factory reset on them and sell them.

Go get a good phone and don't worry about the cost. These things hold value.

U11


« Reply #6 on: October 18, 2013, 12:30 »
0
How can you keyword a picture taken with the smartphone? If you download to you computer first then why dont you just fake your DSLR pictures to be bad enough  and skip smartphone part?

EmberMike

« Reply #7 on: October 18, 2013, 16:28 »
+2
How can you keyword a picture taken with the smartphone? If you download to you computer first then why dont you just fake your DSLR pictures to be bad enough  and skip smartphone part?

Not everyone has a DSLR with them everywhere they go.

I guess if given the choice and with a DSLR in your hand, obviously you'll shoot with the DSLR. But what's the saying, "The best camera is the one you have with you," or something like that...

« Reply #8 on: October 19, 2013, 07:07 »
+1
Not everyone has a DSLR with them everywhere they go.

I guess if given the choice and with a DSLR in your hand, obviously you'll shoot with the DSLR. But what's the saying, "The best camera is the one you have with you," or something like that...

I believe that it is analogous to the introduction of the original 35mm miniature format in the 1920s - and also its adoption by the world of fashion in the 1960s (which was a youthful reaction against the formality and gloss of the 1950s). iPhone and handheld natural light smaller camera photography in general very much suits the informal sort of look and feel which so clearly chimes in the current economy and the uncertain political and global environment. People are capturing reassuringly informal and off-beat images with small cameras which they would never get walking around with giant zoom like a tourist.

If you look at the history of photographs and how they are used, the sort of pictures which are current always reflect the times.

Uncle Pete

« Reply #9 on: October 23, 2013, 05:50 »
-2
You mean like the invention of the 110 camera and later the disc film camera. Which were both total crap and worse than an Instamatic? Sometimes it just reflects lower standards and marketing.  ;)

35mm held it's own with quality for a long time, but never reached the levels of a 2 1/4 square format. In fact that's still in film use.

What a camera phone represents is, not a camera but a phone that happens to have a camera. The cameras have a tiny sensor and some cheap plastic lens in most cases. It's there because it's a nice toy and as you have pointed out, people always have their phone, so now they always have a camera.

It's basically the Polaroid of the 21st Century. Not to be compared to anything serious for photography. (at least not unless they make a DSLR with a built in phone. That would be a true Camera / Phone!)  :)

When's this citizen journalist market, and stock photos from a phone going to take off? Right now it's just a marginal fad. Weak one at that.



Not everyone has a DSLR with them everywhere they go.

I guess if given the choice and with a DSLR in your hand, obviously you'll shoot with the DSLR. But what's the saying, "The best camera is the one you have with you," or something like that...

I believe that it is analogous to the introduction of the original 35mm miniature format in the 1920s - and also its adoption by the world of fashion in the 1960s (which was a youthful reaction against the formality and gloss of the 1950s). iPhone and handheld natural light smaller camera photography in general very much suits the informal sort of look and feel which so clearly chimes in the current economy and the uncertain political and global environment. People are capturing reassuringly informal and off-beat images with small cameras which they would never get walking around with giant zoom like a tourist.

If you look at the history of photographs and how they are used, the sort of pictures which are current always reflect the times.

« Reply #10 on: October 23, 2013, 08:21 »
+1
No Pete.

The 110 and disc were not formats which were ever significantly used in publishing. And Polaroid really only retrospectively for the most part and to be cute.

I can think of no memorable 110 or disc images which are defined by having been taken with those formats. Compare that with 35mm. The introduction of 35mm heralded a different sort of reportage which was also to do with publishing. It changed the way in which people worked. And then think about what happened in the 60s when the world of fashion fell in love with 35mm - and how fashion pictures suddenly looked completely different (much more like reportage). And how that also seemed to perfectly mirror the cultural shift. Photography is at least as much about the culture in which it emerges as it is about the technology.

Today publishing means the internet. That is the main medium for publishing. The majority of images published everyday are iPhone images. Commerce and business is lead by curation and for the most part the curators are using iPhones. What their pictures look like is shaping what is current in how photographs look at the moment. Like it or not this is a huge and significant shift in the history of pictures.

And FWIW, at this point the iPhone really is the only camera phone which is significant at all. So you need not worry about those crappy phones with plastic lenses since they have no traction (Nokia might have produced a 41MB camera but nobody wants a Nokia). And it isn't just the iPhones themselves. It's the apps. A few years ago it was Instagram and Hipstamatic. Today it's VSCO. Obviously these apps really just represent different ways of processing how a picture looks. It's no different from when a new film used to be developed in order to create a particular look. So Instagram was the look of, say, 2010 just as much as 1950s America looked like 1950s Kodachrome.

(Incidentally - the different styles of processing are dismissed by many as being about trying to make crappy pictures look better. But actually that is also more or less why many of the 'traditional' darkroom techniques such as toning were developed in the mid-late 19th century. That was about trying to make up for the fact that the positive-negative process, though much more practical and useful, did not produce images which were as good as the Daguerreotype or as 'artistic' as paintings).
« Last Edit: October 23, 2013, 08:25 by bhr »

« Reply #11 on: January 06, 2014, 04:24 »
+2
No way. Smartphones are far a away from what a dslr can do.

« Reply #12 on: January 06, 2014, 07:06 »
0
No way. Smartphones are far a away from what a dslr can do.
I agree, I just got a LG smartphone and compared the pictures to DLSR pics. They are full of noise and artefacts and the dynamic range of the sensor is worse than that of my nikon d 50 from back in 2005.

« Reply #13 on: January 06, 2014, 07:34 »
0
Brand new Samsung Galaxy NOTE 3 with 13 mio pixel.
Day and night compared with "normal" lens cameras.
With normal I mean that lens diameter is bigger than smartphones 1,5 or 2 mm.
This smartphone lenses are simply too small.



« Reply #14 on: January 06, 2014, 13:32 »
0
But I can't take a good photo to save my life on my Galaxy Note.  Yeah... I could prop my elbows on something solid etc. but the darn thing is so light it moves every time I press the trigger push the screen.

« Reply #15 on: January 06, 2014, 13:55 »
0
But I can't take a good photo to save my life on my Galaxy Note.  Yeah... I could prop my elbows on something solid etc. but the darn thing is so light it moves every time I press the trigger push the screen.

It has IS. Do You use it?
But for videos is IS useless. "Shakin` Stevens"  :D  ...


 

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