this post was submitted on 04 Dec 2025
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Dont spend money on fancy new cameras, chances are the camera in your phone is already better than 90% of all cameras in history. Don't drop a dime on equipment until you've hit the limits of the hardware you already have.
The picture above isn't a picture of what an expensive camera can do - it's a picture of what a good photographer can do, enhanced by specialty equipment. In the hands of a novice the equipment cannot produce pictures like this.
I did the math for another post and if I remember right the best telephoto lens built into a very recent phone camera has equivalency to around 120mm (anything else is just digital zoom and sometimes AI enhance).
It's a relatively new gimmick, and it can do wildlife photography from afar (I got some good full body shots of deer recently), but it's not quite as good as 600mm or the 1000mm from the other post.
Yes, but there's so much more to compositing a good shot than just focal length. I'm recommending to a new hobbyist to walk before they run. Framing, lighting, perspective - a cheap phone from 2019 off eBay is still better than what your grandparents had, and is better than cameras from 99% of human history.
a cheap phone today is better than a digital camera from 15-20 years ago. but neither can stand up to analogue cameras that use film. we can extract 4k video from footage shot on film in the 80's (any film footage really, but i mention 80's because the music video for Last Christmas available on youtube in 4k is a wonderful example)
dammit i just got whammed