Cheap point-and-shoot camera or a smartphone?
A while back I wrote about mobile photography and ever since I have been thinking about various options for something I can easily slip into my pocket. There aren't many options, but then I remembered we recently "recovered" an old Sony camera that we gave my father-in-law when we upgraded our camera.
The cool thing this camera has going for it is that it's a Sony, which is what we use for our primary DSLR (an Alpha 5000). The base settings and functions are all similar so it's easy to hop back and forth between cameras. The greatest thing about this camera as something to carry every day is that it is tiny.
It would easily fit in your pocket, not much bigger than a wallet. But is it worth using this camera instead of defaulting to my smartphone?
A quick comparison says yes! The Cyber-Shot picture resolution is 14.1 mega pixels, while my smartphone comes in at 12. Comparable, not a huge difference, but already that's a win for Sony. Technically I can take photos at 64MP with my smartphone, but that tends to cause my phone to start chugging along and sometimes crashes the camera app. Not good if I want to take some quick shots.
The video quality is where the smartphone wins. If I want to take good video on the go, the Cyber-Shot is only capable of 720p HD. My smartphone can take 4K video, easily. I don't take a lot of videos, but a smartphone is more reliable here.
The downside: I don't think the camera's battery holds a charge very well anymore. I went to test it just now and it was dead—I know for a fact that it hasn't been used since the last time we turned it on to view pictures. I'll have to wait and see once the battery finishes charging.
Certainly something I'll play with for quick shots when I'm not carrying all my camera gear.