I’m still a member of “the best camera is the one with you” club, with the proviso that one can and should be intentional about the camera one has in one’s hands. Once it became possible to shoot raw on an iPhone (and thus edit the raw files in Lightroom) and to take back control of things like shutter speed, it was easier for me to think about my phone as an additional camera body that I could choose to use rather than just something I had on me I could use in a pinch. There are times when my iPhone is really the better choice than either of my mirrorless cameras—e.g. for taking candid photos during friends-and-family gatherings in low light when you want people to forget you’re aiming a camera at them.
I just upgraded from an 8 Pro Max to a 13 Pro Max and the difference between the two is really noticeable—not just in terms of computational photography, but also in terms of what you can do when you try to use it as something more than a point-and-shoot.
PS - There are times when only a full-frame sensor and amazing glass will do!
Apple computational photography is too good for me. I won’t shoot RAW on my iPhone because it already gives me the best photos right out of the phone/camera. But if a situation allows me to have my full-frame Nikon in my hands, I have a lot more fun taking photos with it and processing my RAW photo files afterwards.
That’s okay, I may not be serious about photography–I do it for the fun of it!
My iPhone’s camera and my Nikon D750 overlap similarly to the way the Byword text editor and the BBEdit text editor overlap. I use both but in different situations and for different purposes. And I try to play to the strengths of each tool.
For straight-up snapshots, you’re probably right. There are times when I’m aiming for a particular effect, however, and that’s when I appreciate what a raw file and Lightroom offers me.
OT: I like using my phone’s camera, but I delight in using my “real” cameras. There’s something about looking through a viewfinder with intention: it’s almost like meditation.
Lightroom is very photo oriented. Bridge is meant for the people who use some or all of Adobe’s other software offerings and have assets of all types way beyond the common photo file formats.
I have never been in that club and dislike the way that sentiment is usually given (through no fault of anyone these days as it has achieved proverb status, which just makes me dislike it even more).
The best camera is, in my view, the best one for the job. The iPhone is great at many jobs and terrible at others (including ergonomics). My “big camera” is fantastic at most jobs except ultra-portability. If I want quality, considered shots, I will go for my big camera all the time. If I want a shot then often my only choice (not necessarily my best choice) is my iPhone.
I agree, the iPhone is not the best camera for many/most jobs. But back in the film days, before I worked with a bag full of Nikons, I didn’t have anything with me when I found myself standing 20 feet from the President of the United States.
And many times over the next 40 years or so I would have given $thousands to have had an iPhone in my pocket. It’s not the “perfect” photographs I took that I remember the most, it’s the ones I missed.
Bridge has a lot of great features, especially with two windows open. Makes it easy to copy/move files in an organized way. But for cataloging, no. It does nothing more than Finder in that case. If you care about metadata, then Photo Mechanic is like Bridge on steroids and bristling with automation, variables that gives you complete control over what information is in your metadata fields. It’s lightning fast. But it is expensive.
But if all you want to do is minor metadata editing, and looking at photos, and opening them in Photoshop, Bridge a great option. Can’t hurt to try it, it’s free. I do use it quite often.
I have taken the plunge and purchased Photo Mechanic 6 as a front end to using Affinity Photo. I like it a lot so far and am having fun using it to review and rename my collection of Nikon photos which I used to have cataloged in Lightroom. I could also see one day moving my iPhone photos out of the Photos app. Photo Mechanic seems like one of the those apps that will become more valuable to me the more I use it.
I also purchase PM after reading the positive comments from this discussion. @karlnyhus and others, as I am still learning how to make the best from PM, can you share how you get PM to access iPhone photos (or from Apple Photos app)
This video suggests that you Browse iPhone photos with Photo Mechanic - YouTube. You could also use Apple Photos’ Export command to send all of your photos out to the Finder and then ingest them using Photo Mechanic. I’m not ready to do either of these steps yet.
By the way, I got Photo Mechanic 6, the simpler, less expensive version. Did you get Photo Mechanic Plus, the more expensive app with a database that saves everything?
yes, I got the PM+ during the Black Friday discount.
I just browsed through the video, seems to be very tedious process. I wish there is a way the PM or PM+ can read the Apple photo library on the SSD/HD directly
I’ve use Export from Apple Photos before and it has lots of options. I think that would be the way to go. The Photo Mechanic ingestion process should be able to handle any file renaming and folder creation needs that you would have.
thanks, I have not gotten into setting up the workflow and structure yet. This is definitely my next step. At the moment, I am just trying out the boundaries where PM+ can take me
thanks a lot for the good tips. Keep them coming, same for others
