Appreciation post: the old Canon PowerShot SD400 that still takes better close-ups than my phone.
Overheard some kid at a coffee shop last week say their phone camera is just as good as a real camera, but my SD400 from 2005 still catches details on a coin that my iPhone blurs out - anyone else still bust out their old point-and-shoot for specific shots?
That little sensor and lens combo just handles natural light differently, phones overprocess everything into a smooth mess. My old Canon G9 has the same advantage for macro shots, it catches texture that modern phone software just blurs away.
Hold on, does that overprocessing include the way phones handle depth of field? Like, I notice my SD400 keeps the whole coin sharp edge to edge, but my phone tries to blur the background (or fake a bokeh) even when I don't want it to. Have you ever tried taking a group shot of small objects (like a pile of seeds or beads) with both cameras? My phone always picks one to focus on and just guesses at the rest.