Should You Bring a Camera When You Travel Or is a Phone Enough?

For the majority of travelers, taking pictures of adventures is simple with the smartphone in your pocket. What do you, however, miss out on by relying solely on your phone? In order to determine whether a casual traveler would benefit from owning a dedicated camera or if their phone would suffice, I recently traveled to Germany.

While every traveler’s gear is unique, the majority won’t be carrying a DSLR or pro-level mirrorless camera. Instead, they will weigh their options between a pricey new phone and a more practical and cost-effective everyday mirrorless camera. (If you prefer a standalone camera, there are point-and-shoot options available, but they might not be as good as your phone’s camera.)

I’m not a professional photographer, so don’t look to me for advice on how to get the most out of this kit, but for amateur photographers who leave their camera on auto, this is a good comparison to see what each device can handle without too much hassle during a hectic trip abroad.

My equipment isn’t the best you’ll find, but it’s probably not too dissimilar from what many tourists might carry around in their pockets and bags: my own iPhone 12 Pro, a Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (to test a more camera-intensive phone), and a small Sony ZVE-10 mirrorless camera with a Sigma 16mm f1.4 DC DN (a reasonably priced prime lens).

Here is a breakdown of what each device was best at and what it wasn’t able to do.

IPhone 12 Pro

The iPhone 12 Pro launched in October 2020, but it has been available for a few years now. It is still a powerful phone, and its photo capabilities are probably comparable to those of many older, more expensive, and newer, less expensive phones. The iPhone 12 Pro originally sold for $999 (£999, AU$1,699), but now that it’s been around for a while, the only place to find it is refurbished, where it can be had for under $500. A stock iPhone 12 is still available for $599 on Apple’s website, but it is missing the 2x telephoto lens.

Although they had the warm tones typical of iPhone photos, the iPhone 12 Pro captured basic moments well. Images I took weren’t quite as color accurate as those from the Sony ZVE-10 or the Samsung S22 Ultra. However, the iPhone 12 Pro excelled at capturing daytime images of sidewalks, museums, and pleasant lunches. It struggled with nighttime photos that had a grainy texture from image noise and dimly lit dinners.

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra I brought on my trip is still a camera powerhouse even though it has been replaced by the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra this year. Despite having a 108-megapixel primary camera and a 12-megapixel ultrawide camera with a 120-degree field of view, its real strength is zoom photography. It has not one but two telephoto lenses: a 10-megapixel with 3x optical zoom and a 10-megapixel periscope-style capable of 10x optical zoom.

As anticipated, the Galaxy S22 Ultra produced excellent far-off photos. Was a zoom lens necessary for my photos? No, the majority of my subjects were between 20 and 50 feet away.

Unless, of course, you’re photographing far-off structures, such as the Neuschwanstein Castle, which is situated near Germany’s southernmost border and is nestled in the Alps’ foothills not far from Austria. It was nice to have more control to frame the photos with the zoom capability, even if I didn’t need the 100x “space zoom.” To focus on a cropped corner of a zoomed-in image, the feature combines optical and digital zoom with AI techniques. The 30x was sufficient and rarely required. In spite of this, the 10x optical and digital hybrid zoom on the S22 Ultra produced much better images than the 10x digital zoom on the iPhone 12 Pro.

Shots from the main camera at 1x, 3x, 10x, and 100x zoom are shown here from the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra camera on the road at the base of a trail leading up to Neuschwanstein.