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by dataflow 168 days ago
> The psychology here is as fascinating as it is absurd.

> Both devices capture identical images.

This is so obviously false. The photos definitely don't look identical. If you're carrying a DSLR, it's a darn good bet you believe it'd take better photos than your phone. And someone who does so is going through the trouble of carrying one is more likely to spread the photo publicly than someone who's using their phone. Hence the stronger reaction.

It's always sad to see when people tarnish a good point with bad arguments. Doubly so when you're accusing other people of acting irrationally, based on clearly false premises. It hurts the cause you're trying to advance rather than helping it.

3 comments

> This is so obviously false. The photos definitely don't look identical. If you're carrying a DSLR, it's a darn good bet you believe it'd take better photos than your phone.

gonna push back a little on this one. Today, the best iphones can easily take pictures as good a DSLR, providing conditions are right (good light etc)

The quality of the photo btw, is irrelevant to the camera used.

But what the DLSR has that the iphones etc don't have is the ability to excel at the edges of technical capability. E.g. low light, large telephoto, interchange able lenses, filters, more control over exposure, better autofocus, more control over Dof etc.

It's like a Ferrari and a Pickup. Sure they both do the same thing on the face of it. Take you to the store, go a for a drive, visit friends. But that time you wanna go enjoy some twisty roads? you need the ferrari ? That time you need to haul trash to the tip ? You need the pickup.

And so the DLSR 'beat's iphone in some cases, iphone beats DSLR in some cases, but they both take decent pictures and if there are destined for screen only then it can be hard to even tell the difference.

There's youtube videos of people comparing exactly this, and until you print and blow up your image to 2ft x 3ft you can't see any difference.

> And someone who does so is going through the trouble of carrying one is more likely to spread the photo publicly than someone who's using their phone.

In this era of social media, is that really true?

Most people I've known that use an actual camera take thousands of photos looking for that one perfect photo. A journalist is looking for the perfect Front Page photo, not to publish an album. They also tend to care about getting a "clean" shot without awkward strangers in the background.

Conversely, people on social media seem to have much, much lower standards for posting, and will routinely capture audio and video. They also don't care nearly as much about some awkward person in the background, and might even be intentionally filming an awkward person to make fun of them on TikTok.

I would think the person who takes a ton of phone pictures is the one more likely to put them in an instagram reel.

And phone photos at near range are as good as DSLRs as far as "invasion of privacy" are concerned.