Why I Switched my DSLR Camera to an iPhone for Travel Photography
I recently went on vacation in October 2022 with my fiance to Barcelona and Paris and was very excited to be using my Canon DSLR with a nice Sigma f2.8 zoom lens that’s perfect for travel photography. However, after just a couple of days walking around Barcelona taking in the sights and food with my DSLR on a comfortable Peak Design shoulder strap, I felt tired and decided to ditch the DSLR on the fourth day and began exclusively using my iPhone for all the photos. It was an amazing decision and definitely made the rest of my travels in Barcelona and Paris a more enjoyable one. Here’s why…
When Traveling, Convenience & Comfort is King
While the idea of having an objectively much superior camera in a DSLR with an excellent and versatile zoom lens sounds excellent on paper, in practice, it is definitely not for most travelers. The DSLR is a heavy and bulky camera; there is no other way to describe it or sweeten it. While you can lessen the load a bit by pairing it with a more compact and lighter prime lens, the lack of zoom will be too inconvenient and force you to do even more walking to find the ideal shots. On a typical travel day, I would be walking 20k to 30k steps on average a day, and the bulk of the DSLR camera does add up. After a few days, I felt tired of carrying around the bulky DSLR everywhere. I decided to leave it at the hotel the next day and ventured out with just a sling bag for essentials, and my iPhone 13 Pro as my primary camera. After making this switch, I instantly felt a weight lifting off my body (literally), and it was so much more convenient and freeing with just an iPhone to take pictures.
Balancing Convenience and Quality
The small and compact size of the iPhone made the rest of my trip a breeze and drastically lightened my daily carry. It felt more refreshing and I had more energy to take on a full day of walking, eating, and sightseeing. I eliminated the bulky DSLR and switched to my iPhone which I already carry around everywhere anyway. However, what am I sacrificing by giving up the DSLR camera and exclusively using the iPhone camera instead? The iPhone camera is excellent, especially the Pro version with its triple lens setup of ultra-wide, wide, and zoom options. This camera system produces great quality pictures that would be satisfactory for most travelers, while also taking excellent videos with 4k60fps quality and a decent built-in stabilizer. However, there is only so much that software and tiny camera lenses can do compared to the good physical optics you will find in a DSLR camera. Of course, the DSLR will produce better photos with more details and quality than any smartphone camera, but the marginal benefit of higher quality photos was not enough to outweigh the bulkiness and weight of the DSLR camera for me. While I can’t say for everybody, I can suggest that for most travelers, the photo quality that an iPhone (or any other smartphone with great camera systems like the Samsung Galaxy flagships or Google Pixels), will produce excellent photos that will meet their needs of sharing photos on social media, and even standard to large size prints. We are not professional photographers, so personally, I believe being able to more freely enjoy your travels without carrying around the weight of a DSLR camera is worth the slightly inferior photo quality that we will get with our smartphones.
Should You Ditch Your Bulky DSLR?
Ultimately, the decision comes down to how much you value the convenience and ability to travel lighter when you replace the DSLR camera with your smartphone, something that you already carry around everywhere. I believe that the answer to this question for most people and casual photographers is a resounding yes. Unless you really enjoy shooting in RAW format and spending hours after the fact editing your photos on Lightroom or other editing software, the benefits of shooting with your iPhone outweigh hauling around the DSLR every day. When I first began shooting with a DSLR back in 2018, I was really interested in photo editing and spent hours on the computer in Lightroom trying to perfect each good photo that I took. However, fast forward 5 years and I no longer see the value to dedicate such large amounts of time and energy during my travels, and after my travels, to get that extra 10% out of the photos. iPhone and other smartphone cameras have gotten so good with the software that the photos I can achieve with just a smartphone are already more than enough for me to share on social media and with friends. At the end of the day, I suggest everyone to give this a try and see if you enjoy the freedom of shooting everywhere and anytime with your pocketable smartphone camera. I strongly believe many of you will also make the switch just like me. However, I am also beginning to explore the idea of picking up a more compact Mirrorless camera (more compact versus a DSLR). There may be an even better balance to be found here with a Mirrorless camera in terms of convenience, comfort, and photo quality. I will provide an update in the future if I decide to go down this path.
