Experiments with a Smartphone (Pixel 7a) and a full-frame Camera (Nikon Z5)

There are numerous postings, threads and videos by now on comparisons between a smartphone and a "real" camera. I have occasionally written about this too, always from an amateur perspective, of course, or rather from the perspective of a street and travel photographer. I emphasize this point because smartphones are not always the appropriate tool.

I find it absurd to replace a camera with a smartphone in professional situations like portrait photography, wedding photography, wildlife or architecture shots. 

The smartphone is simply too small to be able to deliver appropriate results in these scenarios, and I bet this will be so for a very long time. The needed equipment in the form of lenses or lights simply does not fit to the form factor of a smartphone.

However, I also share the opinion that a modern smartphone might be all you need for every-day snapshots, depending on your goals and standards. 

Even the recent iPhone 15 cannot hold a candle to a camera, even one at half the price of this expensive gadget. Color rendition, dynamic range and sharpness of a camera are simply on another level.

Let us discuss a few examples to learn about the problems we are facing.

For a start, smartphone photography is usually out-of-camera (OOC) photography. If you are already in the realm of RAW files and post-processing in Lightroom, you are not the target audience for smartphone cameras. Modern smartphones can save RAW files, but almost nobody does it. 

Smartphones are made for easy shooting and uploading to social media.

The Pixel 7a can save RAW in parallel to JPEG, but uploading and handling those files is not something you want to do on an everyday basis. The RAW files of the Pixel 7a are also surprisingly difficult to develop in Lightroom. They lack colors, contrast and any lens correction. Of course, in an emergency situation, missing a proper camera, a RAW file can be useful. The colors of a JPEG file are way more difficult to fix later.

The scene at the start of this posting shows a light where I would not even dream of getting a good result with a smartphone. It is carefully edited in Lightroom from the RAW file to look exactly as it should look. I learned, however, that some photographers prefer a HDR style, and would lighten up all dark areas in the frame. They will be much happier with the default results of a smartphone than me. 

In my book, photography is not about showing everything, but about delivering an emotion.

You can get that photographic style with a smartphone too. Just disable the default overdone HDR and sharpening, and maybe work on the images in post-processing a bit. I found that the Pixel 7a meets a more photographic approach even by default.

For the next examples, I used the JPEG output in the default settings out-of-camera on the smartphone (a Pixel 7a), and the RAW images on the camera (a Nikon Z5) which I carefully handled to compare the sharpness and colors of the smartphone. It was very interesting to learn what is done during the processing inside the smartphone.

The Pixel 7a is specified to have a 64MB camera. But is binned down to deliver 16.1 MB images. I do not like that marketing. Customers might want to install other camera apps just to get a disappointing 64MB resolution. The focal length of the camera is 25mm full-frame equivalent. You can digitally zoom in to get a 50mm camera with much loss in image quality. I found it best to accept that the camera only has a wide-angle camera and use it as such.

Use the Pixel 7a 25mm camera un-zoomed, and get close to subjects for best results.

The other camera is even wider at 12mm full-frame equivalent. It can deliver stunning effects. As always, you have to get close for wide angle photography.

Pixel 7a, 0.5x with wide-angle lens, out-of-camera

This lens has also some macro capabilities, although top-line smartphones do better. Some even include a third lens for telephotography. Sadly, the Pixel 7a has none.

For a next example, I took two pictures of the same situation in the same dim light. Below, you see a painting on our wall with a wooden frame. The field-of-view was a bit different, because I used the 50mm f/1.8 lens on the Nikon Z5. The smartphone has a much wider primary lens, equivalent to a 25mm wide-angle lens. This does not matter for the things I want to compare. I fixed the images to the same view.

Pixel 7a, 5.43mm, ISO 126, f/1.9, 1/100

Nikon Z5, 50mm, ISO 450, f/4, 1/250

You will find the results to be very similar. The Pixel 7a sharpens a lot, but does not over-sharpen. I have mimicked this by sharpening a bit more that I usually do in Lightroom. The JPEG of the smartphone is also processed to a higher contrast. The scene and the RAW image had much less contrast. I fixed this too to get a comparable result. In summary, the images will look quite similar.

To the edges of the frame, the smartphone lens is much softer as in the center.
Otherwise, the images are very similar

The 50mm f/1.8 shows a lot more details off the center. In the center, both look comparable. However, this is not a test chart, and some details may have been invented by the algorithms inside the phone. I find the full-frame camera cleaner and more natural. But we are talking here on a level which is beyond the scope of the average smartphone user.

Let us try another scene with more difficult colors and more dynamic light.

Nikon Z5, 50mm, f/4, ISO1600, 1/40

Pixel 7a, 5.43mm, ISO255, f/1.9, 1/25

The most obvious problem is the lens flare in the small camera, which would be almost impossible to fix. One needs to be aware that the new Nikon Z lenses in the S-line are extremely robust against this kind of problems. However, most good camera lenses will do better than the smartphone.

Another problem could have bee avoided with more care. I find it very much easier to hold a camera straight than a smartphone. The Pixel 7a has even a levelling indication to help. But I got it wrong nevertheless. I just mention this to make you aware of the difference in handling. Some photographers don't even care about horizontal or vertical lines. I do.

It is also a lot more difficult to get correct colors in such light. Even the out-of-camera preview of the Nikon was better than the initial try of the Pixel 7a which I had to fix with the tools available in Lightroom. Admittedly, this is a difficult scene. The impression you get with your eyes is one with very warm colors. The purple cold tint below is way off.

All in all, and aside the flare issue, I would still say that the Pixel 7a produced a very useful result. But this is only true, if you are willing to do some post-processing, especially on the colors.

If you are willing to work on the images, a smartphone can produce very usable results.

I have clipped the following screenshot from a review of the iPhone 15 Pro Max on DPReview. This smartphone has one of the leading cameras in the industry. Be aware that it is a 100% clip. But it shows the kind of problems with tiny sensors and lenses. It is very difficult to keep the light from overflowing from one area to another causing unpleasant mud in the bright areas. The internal post processing cannot fix that issue.

The picture also demonstrates the problems with the signal to noise ratio on small sensors, causing a severe restriction of dynamic range. As we see from other pictures on this page, this is not  a problem in better light with less contrast.

Let us try a scene with more depth.

Nikon Z5

Pixel 7a

This is another image in dim light. The Smartphone is an advantage if we look more for a big depth-of-field than for object isolation. But I find the smooth background much more pleasing to the eye. 

The full-frame image looks like a photography to me, while the smartphone delivered a snapshot. 

This may be due to my long-term love for photography. Be prepared that many viewers will disagree. In terms of details and sharpness the smartphone might even be preferred.

But I find this result typical for smartphone photography. Photographers tend to look for object isolation and a nice presentation of the main subject, not for sharpness everywhere. Photographers also care for nice and natural colors and for good rendering of textures along the complete dynamic range of an image. 

It is the details where the smartphone falls behind.

As you might know, modern smartphones can blur the background using AI features. The Pixel 8 is even equipped with a mighty AI processor. The Pixel 7a is not, but it can blur backgrounds of images too.

Nikon Z5, 70mm, f/4

Pixel 7a, 50mm digital zoom, "Portrait" mode at 100%

To get the effect, set the camera in Portrait mode. This will zoom in. Then edit the image with background blurring. In the image above the effect is at 100%. It does not look bad. Moreover, the foreground object is sharp all around while the full-frame body shows some depth-of-field (DOF) blurriness. 

To fix the DOF on a full-frame camera, you'd need to use a longer lens and a closer aperture, then back off to fill the frame with the subject. The next image demonstrates this effect. Note that the DOF does not change with the focal length, only with the aperture, if you fill the frame with your subject. For the image, I took f/8 instead of f/4. The DOF is still not on the level of the tiny sensor at f/1.9. That would need approximately f/16. 

The blurriness of the background will be a bit better, because it depends on the quotient of the focal length and the aperture if the frame is filled with the subject again by backing off. But most importantly, there is less background in the image. However, the light was no longer as favorable as above and the background is too bright.

Nikon Z5, 24-200 at 180mm, f/8, ISO1000, 1/200

Of course, you could use the background blurring feature of Lightroom simply. 

For this and the next image, I turned the smartphone camera to RAW mode. It produces a DNG file which can easily be handled in Lightroom. However, the in-camera background blurring is only effective for JPEG exports.

Nikon Z5, 28mm, f/4, ISO100, 1/1600

Pixel 7a, 5.43mm, ISO45, f/1.9, 1/1700, JPEG Export

Pixel 7a, 5.43mm, ISO45, f/1.9, 1/1700, RAW and JPEG via Lightroom

Here is an image in easy light. The Pixel 7a JPEG is surprisingly good. It is sharp and shows lots of details. Only dedicated photographers will see that the full-frame result is a tad clearer. Below is the RAW export with only very little processing, like sharpening and adding some vibrance. It would need a lot more work. You probably want to set up a preset to import these RAW files. I think, the calibration in Lightroom might help too.

Lightroom does not cooperate well with the Pixel 7a RAW files.

I also tried to fix the 2x zoom and zoomed in a little more to mimic at least something like a 70mm lens on full-frame. The image quality suffers to the point where I would take such images only for remembering the scene. Photographically, you cannot expect excellent results. 

Pixel 7a, zoomed in

What I did not test here is action photography. I might add this later if I have good subjects to show. I also restricted myself to stills. Videos are a different story. But I already heard vloggers say that they prefer a big camera.

In summary, you can use the Pixel 7a for your travel, street and party photography. It will not be on the level of a full-frame camera. To get a normal 50mm look, you have to zoom in twice. That alone makes the results a bit worse, especially towards the edges. Future smartphones will have even more lenses, or lenses with better resolution. 

In any case, if photography is your hobby, you will want to use a full camera
and not restrict yourself to a smartphone. 

For me, it is just an option for restricted types of photography, mainly street and parties. For anything I want to keep, I want the best tools I can get my hands on. 

Having written this, I remember the nice pictures of my grand-kids which I would not have without the smartphone of my daughter.