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by marlor 1850 days ago
In low light, I’ve never seen a smartphone that will beat a fast prime on a mirrorless or DSLR camera.

A kit zoom lens will struggle in low light, but you can get extremely high quality fast primes for a couple of hundred dollars these days that will blow away any smartphone.
2 comments
boulos 1850 days ago
Versus night sight? The single shot with wide enough glass is definitely going to be better: there just aren’t many photons on the little sensor! But the stacking that night sight does “in camera”, particularly since the Pixel 4, seems to outpace “cheap DSLR”. Here’s a basic Nikon vs Pixel 2 a couple years ago [1].

[1] https://old.reddit.com/r/GooglePixel/comments/9rb53o/weekly_...

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AmVess 1850 days ago
You aren't going to get a decent, fast prime for a few hundred dollars, much less an excellent one.

Apple's low light performance in their new phones is excellent, and they are making huge strides in every area with every generation. A minimum acceptable DLSR with an acceptable fast prime will cost $1k, which is also the cost of Apple's excellent pro iphone that will rival the quality of the former for the average user.

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marlor 1850 days ago
The Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM is optically just fine if you stop down slightly, and the RF version is even better. It’s not much more than $100.

The Olympus 25mm f/1.8 is absolutely fantastic, and smaller. As are all the Olympus fast primes. You can get it for $250.

More expensive fast primes are worth the price for me. But the entry-level ones are optically pretty great these days.

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