Camera rental/Buy or iPhone for Aus/NZ?

[Flyfish1]

Off for our first major trip in retirement in March. Headed to Australia and New Zealand and wondering if it is worth renting a decent camera, or buying a point and shoot kind of thing or just using our iPhones? A few years ago we went to Antarctica and rented high end stuff. Nice pics. I don't want to drag big cameras around on this trip , but a small point and shoot would be fine. I guess the question for the photography people out there - is there a big difference from my iPhone 11 to a decent point and shoot model?

 

[frayne]

My answer to your question is no and from a strictly convenience standpoint, I'd opt for the iPhone camera.

 

[Romer]

I bought an expensive compact high quality camera in 2015 I took to Australia, The Med, etc. I started taking the same photo with my phone and found the quality similar and haven't taken my camera in years. One less thing to carry

 

[Midpack]

You're the only one who can decide if the pics from your iPhone 11 are satisfactory. Depends on whether you intend to print/enlarge - then your iPhone probably won't be adequate?

If not, I guess you could rent a point and shoot if anyone offers same (I'd think rentals would be better quality cameras, and they are not cheap). Most people are (more than) satisfied with the pics from a quality smartphone. We sold our DSLRs and mirrorless cameras years ago, and never looked back. Our vacation iPhone pics fully serve our needs.

 

[folivier]

I'll kindly disagree. There is a huge difference in quality with a nice compact camera. Note I said a nice camera. One that has a glass lens and adjustable settings. Even better would be a small mirrorless camera that takes different lenses, close-up, normal, telephoto, or a nice zoom to cover these distances.
IMO the only advantage to a phone camera is it's small and is usually always with you.
One of the biggest problems with a phone is the lack of focal length, this means it will have lots of distortion on close-up shots. Look at pictures taken of a person up to 5 feet away and see the distortion, their hands if held out towards you will look larger. This may not be an issue for you but just pointing this out.
Personally I'd take a camera and plan for my phone to be a backup and for those times when I don't carry my camera.
BTW I cringe when I see some pictures posted on FB that are taken with phones.

 

[Ronstar]

Depends. Depends on what you want to shoot. If wildlife, the iPhone won't do. If you want to print anything bigger than 8x10, the iPhone won't do. If you want to only shoot landscapes, cityscapes, and yourselves and keep the photos digitally, then the iPhones would work.

But I would upgrade your iPhone 11 to a 15 before your trip. The 15 camera is far better than the 11.

 

[Midpack]

I'll kindly disagree. There is a huge difference in quality with a nice compact camera. Note I said a nice camera. One that has a glass lens and adjustable settings. Even better would be a small mirrorless camera that takes different lenses, close-up, normal, telephoto, or a nice zoom to cover these distances.
IMO the only advantage to a phone camera is it's small and is usually always with you.
One of the biggest problems with a phone is the lack of focal length, this means it will have lots of distortion on close-up shots. Look at pictures taken of a person up to 5 feet away and see the distortion, their hands if held out towards you will look larger. This may not be an issue for you but just pointing this out.
Personally I'd take a camera and plan for my phone to be a backup and for those times when I don't carry my camera.
BTW I cringe when I see some pictures posted on FB that are taken with phones.

No disagreement. But the OP said a "small point and shoot" and he/she doesn't have one, have to rent. He/she specifically excluded this so not apples vs oranges?

 

[Qs Laptop]

Depends. Depends on what you want to shoot. If wildlife, the iPhone won't do. If you want to print anything bigger than 8x10, the iPhone won't do. If you want to only shoot landscapes, cityscapes, and yourselves and keep the photos digitally, then the iPhones would work.

But I would upgrade your iPhone 11 to a 15 before your trip. The 15 camera is far better than the 11.

^^ Here's your answer. ^^

I would add that anyone with a phone that is more than 3-4 years old and rely on the camera a lot, you ought to get a new phone. The difference in camera quality is tangible.

I'm talking about the cameras in iPhone, Google Pixels (regular or A), or Samsung Galaxy "S" phones. They are very good cameras.

If you've got a budget Motorola, or Samsung Galaxy "A", you will be astonished at how much better your photos will be with a new iPhone, Pixel, or Galaxy S phone. This is true even if your Moto or Galaxy A phone is only a year or two old.

 

[easysurfer]

I don't have an iPhone, so can't comment on how well a point and shoot would compare except perhaps a good point and shoot would offer more zoom.

Also, how important is the quality of pictures? Are you a pixel peeper where results have to be crystal clear or else that would bug you? Or if mostly you'd be taking snaps and just sharing on social media?

If you go for a non-phone camera, I'd suggest getting sooner to get familiar with rather than later so you don't lose a good shot by not having a correct setting or two. Even on dummy (auto) mode, good to know where the buttons are ahead of time.

I went to the zoo a few months back. I had both my phone (cheap android) and a small 30x optical zoom point and shoot. Having both I didn't find inconvenient. At the zoo, I couldn't go right up to a tiger with my phone's camera but could zoom in with the point and shoot. To do a group selfie, was easy enough to use the phone in selfie mode.

 

[Romer]

Some very good points here. If you want to utilize features of a stand alone Camera for improved Zoom/wide angle, Focal point or other features, then a stand alone is better. However, if you are looking for more point and shoot, then a newer phone camera will do the job.

I figured some examples might be good. These had to be scaled down pixel wise so I could post them. However, I had no issues printing nice clear 13x19s with my Cannon Pro 100 color printer. Likely a photo expert could tell the difference in print quality, but I couldn't. All 3 taken with a Samsung S21. These are the kind of pictures I take. My wife will use the macro features for flowers which come out pretty nice as well

I think it comes down to what you want to do and how critical your eye is relative to Photography. I spend a lot of time out doors in Canyons of Utah, Colorado Mountains and traveling the world with my wife. I now just use the phone as that works for me and I have no issues making larger prints with no pixel issues that MY EYE can see. I am sure others would find something

 

[Romer]

one more. This was taken in 2016 with a phone camera. They are much better now. I made a 24x20 inch poster out of it. I can see here where a stand alone camera might have been a bit better for clarity, but this captured the moment if that is the goal. Like I said, the cameras are much better today for the phones. This was 7 years ago.

This is the Top of Black Bear Pass looking down on Telluride Colorado. My daughter's vehicle

 

[folivier]

Also to mention that most camera phones utilize a digital zoom rather than a physical zoom like cameras. The same as zooming into a digital picture. If that doesn't make sense to you or not important to you then a phone camera will probably work well enough for you. It just depends on what you want.

 

[easysurfer]

^^

Romer, your pictures from your phone are beautiful.

 

[Qs Laptop]

Also to mention that most camera phones utilize a digital zoom rather than a physical zoom like cameras. The same as zooming into a digital picture. If that doesn't make sense to you or not important to you then a phone camera will probably work well enough for you. It just depends on what you want.

Personally, I never use the digital zoom feature on a phone camera. All it does is crop the picture. It's better to take the shot, then use photo editing software to crop and zoom in on the area you want.

That said, there are cameras with true optical zoom lenses and probably would be OK to use.

 

[Romer]

^^

Romer, your pictures from your phone are beautiful.

thank you. Last one. This picture shows the improvement in Camera capability from the 2016 wide scene to this one taken a couple months ago in the San Rafael Swell Utah

The Black Bear Pass photo does capture the moment, but isn't as a crisp as we all would like even for a Novice. The Swell photo below shows incredible clarity for a phone camera in my opinion. I am sure a stand alone camera would have been better, just not sure I would notice.

It is better before I scale it down to be posted here

 

[Flyfish1]

Ha ! Surprisingly my wife is opting for a new iPhone 15...

 

[braumeister]

Also to mention that most camera phones utilize a digital zoom rather than a physical zoom like cameras.

But there are exceptions. My iPhone 14 Pro Max has a 3X optical zoom. The newer 15 Pro Max has a 5X optical zoom. They are surprisingly good.

 

[Flyfish1]

We took the AT&T promo offer. 2 new iPhone 15 Pro's , with trade in of our 11 Pro's. Got $830 off of each 15 Pro. Bit of a splurge but I think we will be happy, we use the phones all the time for photos as it is. Thx

 

[Drake3287]

I stopped taking my higher-end Cannon camera on vacation years ago and simply rely on my iPhone for beautiful pictures. I've been to countless international spots around the world and photo's these camera's now take are indeed high-end. Especially the newer iPhones. I could post photos I've taken and you'd never know the difference between my iPhone and Cannon.

I also like the ability of texting or posting my photo's immediately if I wish. Traveling light is another plus not to mention safer then carrying around what appears to be an expensive high-end camera jut waiting to be stolen.

 

[Sunset]

Long ago I had 35mm camera's and lens, and a big heavy bag to lug around.
Thankfully I got smarter.

We have a pocket Nikon coolpix A900, it has a built in telephoto does 45x , plus it takes 4K movies. About 4 years ago it was ~$400

It fits on my belt in a small pouch for traveling.

I have noticed though I'm taking more vacation photos with my phone as I always have it handy.

 

[Ronstar]

We took the AT&T promo offer. 2 new iPhone 15 Pro's , with trade in of our 11 Pro's. Got $830 off of each 15 Pro. Bit of a splurge but I think we will be happy, we use the phones all the time for photos as it is. Thx

Excellent! You're all set. Take a lot of pics before your trip to fine tune your skills with the new camera.

You can get even sharper cell phone photos with a small tripod and cell phone holder. Set the phone to take the photo at a 10 second timer setting to eliminate user camera shake. Or get a cheap remote shutter.

 

[frayne]

We took the AT&T promo offer. 2 new iPhone 15 Pro's , with trade in of our 11 Pro's. Got $830 off of each 15 Pro. Bit of a splurge but I think we will be happy, we use the phones all the time for photos as it is. Thx

Smart move!

 

[Qs Laptop]

Excellent! You're all set. Take a lot of pics before your trip to fine tune your skills with the new camera.

You can get even sharper cell phone photos with a small tripod and cell phone holder. Set the phone to take the photo at a 10 second timer setting to eliminate user camera shake. Or get a cheap remote shutter.

Yes. I already had a Velbon tripod I bought in the 80's for use with my Pentax ME Super so I purchased a cell phone holder for it. The cell phone holder came with a remote Bluetooth shutter button. Very handy, just have to remember to place hands naturally and hide the small handheld button if I'm going to be in the shot.

I then purchased one of those small tripods with flexible positionable legs and it also came with a remote shutter button.

 

[Ronstar]

Wow I didn’t know that the remote shutters were now bundled with tripods/ cell phone holders.

I bought my remote shutter separately. Most times it works, but sometimes it gets finicky

 

[OldShooter]

Personally, I never use the digital zoom feature on a phone camera. All it does is crop the picture. ...

There's the difference! Cell phone cameras work well for shots that suit their fixed focal length; landscapes for example. On this trip you will undoubtedly be shooting wildlife where the compositions will cry out for good zooming capability.

My wife's criterion is similar to yours: small is beautiful. Both she and I have been very happy with the Panasonic "ZS" series. ZS50, ZS70, ZS100. They are great pocket cameras. The newer models will shoot RAW, too.

When we get back from a trip I dump all of our photos into legacy Lightroom and I go through them More than once I have been very proud of a shot only to realize it is hers! (I am shooting Panasonic GX7 & GX8 most recently, with zooms from 12mm to 400mm.)