The phone camera in your pocket is an incredible piece of kit. If you’re anything like me, you probably reach for it every time you want to preserve a memory. But phone cameras have limitations, both in terms of their technical ability and what they’re like to use.

That’s why I find myself increasingly turning to my “real” camera.

1 In low light conditions

Because of their form factor, smartphone cameras are cursed with very small sensors. The smaller a camera’s sensor, the less light is able to make it into the shot. The less light that makes it into a photo, the worse the low-light performance. Smartphone manufacturers know this, and they’ve developed a few ways of combating it.

Computational photography has changed the game for smartphone photography. When I shoot a photo with my iPhone, I can literally watch the photo improve right in front of my eyes if I tap on the Camera Roll immediately after shooting.

Low-light smartphone photography is heavily reliant on post-processing. Dark Mode commonly requires that you stand as still as possible while your phone gathers as much information about the scene as possible. This is then stitched back together, and a single image is generated. It works well, but it can have some undesirable effects.

Credit: Tim Brookes / How-To Geek

Too many of my Dark Mode pictures come out looking like daylight, with overblown mid-tones and grainy shadow detail. My mirrorless camera gives me way more control, even without such advanced computational features. I can shoot proper long exposures rather than emulating the effect with my iPhone, or jack the ISO up manually to a level I’m happy with.

2 When I want beautiful bokeh

Modern smartphones now include portrait features that simulate beautiful bokeh, creating a division between the subject of an image and the background. By capturing depth information within the image, smartphones are getting better at pulling off this trick. Unfortunately, it’s still a trick.

If you want creamy bokeh and an almost impossibly shallow depth of field, you can’t beat using a real camera with a fast lens. Ideally, you’re looking for anything higher than f/2.8 (which actually refers to a “lower” f-stop number) at a focal length that’s suitable for whatever you’re shooting. Most lenses have a sweet spot for this, so you should look this up online before you spend too much money.

Credit: Tim Brookes / How-To Geek

I’ve got a wonderful 24mm Zeiss lens that goes all the way up to f/1.8 on my Sony mirrorless, and it basically never leaves the camera. Getting used to shooting at such a shallow depth of field is a skill you develop, and a fun one to learn. You’ll also get tons of light into your camera when shooting “wide open” in this manner, which helps in challenging lighting conditions.

Anyone with a digital SLR or mirrorless should pick up a cheap and fast lens, something like a “nifty fifty” 50mm f/1.8 will do the trick.

3 For proper aperture control

While we’re on the subject of depth of field, did you know that smartphone cameras use a fixed aperture? You’ll find these listed on the manufacturer’s technical specifications sheet. For example, the iPhone 17 Pro’s main 24mm lens has a fixed aperture of f/1.78. Variable aperture is rumored to be coming in the iPhone 18.

In essence, this gives you the worst of both worlds when it comes to aperture control. Such a small camera assembly fails at creating the shallow depth of field bokeh effect we mentioned previously, but it also means that you can’t shoot at extremely low apertures (read: high f-stop numbers) in order to get everything in the shot in focus at once.

Credit: Tim Brookes / How-To Geek

This is why, even with an abundance of light available, you won’t be able to take a “flat” photo that has a subject in focus in the foreground and preserves crisp details in the background. A good example here would be a landscape shot, where you’ve got a tree or a fence post up close and a beautiful vista behind.

Pick up a “real” camera, and you can turn the f-stop number to whatever you like. If you have enough light available, you can shoot at f/22 and capture everything.

4 When I’m looking forward to “developing” my photos

Most smartphones can shoot RAW photos, including the iPhone with Apple’s ProRAW format, which is the best way to preserve image detail. This format blends the appeal of the RAW format—which traditionally refers to “raw” sensor data that is then turned into an image—with Apple’s own processing.

Unfortunately, whether it’s a limitation of the sensor or just Apple’s meddling, I don’t find that I’ve got as much leeway in terms of how far I can push an image when I’m editing a ProRAW compared with an ARW file that’s come straight off my Sony camera.

Credit: Tim Brookes / How-To Geek

I can extract way more information from the shadows and highlights on my nine-year-old mirrorless than I can on the iPhone 17 Pro that I bought less than two months ago. I’d also say that processing RAWs is a very deliberate part of the hobby. I sit down at my computer with the expectation of flexing a creative muscle, click the SD card into the reader, and get lost in the possibilities.

Sure, I can AirDrop the images from my iPhone and do the same, but I don’t ever find myself doing that. And then those massive files sit in my iCloud Library, eating up space, rather than tucked away on a drive somewhere with the rest of my camera photos. A single iPhone ProRAW at 48MP is over 100MB in size!

5 When I’m in the mood for photography as a hobby

Last but certainly not least, you just can’t beat picking up a real camera when you want to take photos. Cameras have physical buttons, switches, and dials. Modern cameras let you map these as you see fit, so you can change aperture or shutter speed without looking at an interface. I’ve set up my Sony so that I can quickly jump between manual and auto focus with the flick of a switch, complete with focus peaking to highlight the parts of the frame that will appear crisp.

Phones are big touchscreens, and they’re just not quite as satisfying to use for this hobby. Occasionally, I’ll rekindle a creative spark and head out with the sole purpose of taking photos. I’ve tried this with just an iPhone, but it doesn’t hit the same notes for me.

Credit: Tim Brookes / How-To Geek

You could say this about digital photography in general, and that being able to see the photos you shot 30 seconds ago isn’t quite the same as making your spare room smell like fixer or sending your prints away and waiting seven to ten business days. I’d say digital photography on a dedicated camera is a fine middle-ground.

But even when I resort to picking up a horribly outdated camera, like the Nikon D50 that I learned to take photos on, it’s hard not to want to start snapping photos and swapping out lenses. This speaks to the level of control you get from even an “outdated” camera, before smartphone manufacturers started relying too heavily on algorithms to boost perceived image quality.

For example, you have to turn to apps like Project Indigo if you want more “natural” looking smartphone photos on a modern iPhone, because Apple’s stock app tries desperately to “improve” your image whether you want it to or not. It can be a real fight to keep the dark areas of an image dark, which can drastically change the perceived contrast in your image right out of the camera.

Pick up an old digital camera and you won’t have this problem.

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If there’s a takeaway to be had, it’s that everyone with a passing interest in photography should still have an old digital camera. If your smartphone photos look bad to you, now might be the perfect time to invest. Better still, you can buy a flagship camera for half the price you’d have paid a few years ago and it will still take incredible photos.