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.
Wildlife photography really is mostly about the equipment though. And waiting/being in the right place obviously. But I can tell you from experience, a novice can absolutely produce pictures like this with the right equipment.
depends on your definition of novice.
a novice that is incredibly passionate and has been absorbing knowledge and experience at a fast pace? sure
a novice that just got a camera who's shooting in .jpeg and has yet to hear of lightroom? (or alternative photo editing software) no
don't forget novice who stumbled into a great location during what they later learned was golden hour
Phone cameras are great. Their compatibility with telephoto lenses is what sets them back.
They make telephoto lenses for phone case now
Sucky ones.
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.
The 120mm lense, 1inch sensor phone
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
Cheap phone from 2019 is better than medium format film wat?! Better than 35mm film?! I dont see it.
Well, went and did research (gasp!) and found I had been lied to! Or at least to say it's complicated. My statement does have merit in that yes! The most popular cameras from 2019 average 25 megapixels, and that puts it neck and neck to several uses of film (frequently animated uses).
I still think my primary argument is unchanged, but the precise details of my statement are somewhat hyperbolic. In my defence, "better than film" has been the marketing for at least a decade and there are things that digital photography shine at.
Still, thank you for keeping me in check.
https://www.learnfilm.photography/the-resolution-of-film-negatives/
i think your argument stays. photography is a mix of lot more things and attributes than just resolution.
how is it physically possible to fit a 120mm lens into a phone?
Like a periscope. It's actually pretty cool.
Source
I said equivalency, so I don't think that's quite literal. That said, it does stick out a bit and is sunken into the phone itself by about a cm.
I'm not really sure how they get the rest of the way.
Phone cameras are good, yes, but their lenses are not. Even a cheap, used camera is better.
I get the point but there is no way my phone camera can capture the mountains reflected on the eyes of any animal even on full daylight