Having a super computer with a camera attached to it that fits in your pocket, is immensely convenient. Despite my background, I cannot even begin to pretend that a phone isn’t occasionally the ideal tool for your video needs. Having said that, I still do the bulk of my video on dedicated cameras, and here are some simple reasons why you might choose one vs the other.
Phones are good for being inconspicuous, cameras are good for being taken seriously
There is a really high demand for video to be taken in 4k+ resolutions. I have worked on projects that *had to be taken in 4k* only to for the final project to be 1080p anyway. Why the insistence on 4k? Because it represents a high technical standard, it is popular, it is touted as the best, which means your customer has asked for it (sometimes without understanding what it really means). Equally if you hire a videographer, and someone turns up with a phone, they are going to feel entirely mugged off. They expect lights, cameras, action! As such, having a big beast of a camera is required (even if it’s just to look good). Equally, if you are filming an interview with someone who (like a sane reasonable person) does not feel comfortable being under obscenely expensive, completely indecipherable technical equipment, a phone might be the ideal tool.
As someone who occasionally has to explain their presence somewhere as a “content creator”, big snazzy equipment can (sometimes literally) open doors. It can be a shortcut to being taken seriously. The guy who posts videos about street pigeons being controlled by 5G towers is a “content creator”, the nan rating chicken nuggets is a “content creator”, but somebody with a couple of technical looking bits on a nice harness is a “content creator” that might be worth taking seriously.
They only have one job (so they do it better)
No surprise that a device that is connected to everyone on the planet, can access all human knowledge and can fit in your pocket, might have to make some compromises. This has been growing increasingly less evident as smart phones have evolved, but they just haven’t managed to work around sensor sizes.
Sensors are the “eye” of the camera, big ones receive more light than small ones. The meaning of the word “photography” is literally “drawing with light”, that might help illustrate how big a deal light is to your video. There are two really common issues that show up smart phone cameras. Low light situations – where your photos will lose detail and start to look grainy, and capturing action. For capturing movement crisply your shutter speed needs to go faster, the shutter being open more briefly means less time for light to pass to the sensor. For a small sensor this means blurry visuals. Phones by the virtue of their form factor, heat and power requirements, have much smaller sensors than most cameras. For example, take my beloved Sony Nex 5 from 2010, compared to the iPhone 12 pro of 2020. The decade older, mid range camera has almost triple the sensor size of the premium flagship device.
My phone can do a billion things (that I might want to do instead of shoot video)
I have used phones to record things on the fly or when traveling light, and you cant really do a lot else whilst its filming. I cant email, I cant go on socials, I cant make edit notes (unless I use a pen and paper like a savage). A phone does so many amazing things really well, and filming isn’t always one of them. So why take a really useful tool out of my arsenal, for a job it performs weakest at?
Zooooooooooom
There are two types of zoom, mechanical and digital, or good and bad respectively. Mechanical zoom relies on manipulating physical lenses to widen or focus your shot, the scope for which is limited on a device that has to live in your pocket. Digital zoom relies on software that tells the sensor to focus on a particular portion of the frame. As your sensor is already doing a lot of heavy lifting, this results in a loss of image quality, that you don’t see with a mechanical zoom. Even if you are not trying to take wildlife shots miles away, some element of zooming to frame up your shot, is omnipresent in videography. Even with the rapid evolution, and room for AI implementation in digital zoom, I cannot see a world where even the best digital zoom isn’t a downgrade from mechanical.
The second hand market
I could pick off the top of my head, 3 second hand cameras that you could use for professional digital video work, for the same price as buying a new iPhone outright. What was the standard of broadcast media 5 years ago, is now looking for a new home on Ebay. For a web series, YouTube channel, video conference – the performance for price would be total overkill. Whilst there are tons of cool things you can do with old phones, the bang for buck is not comparable. Not forgetting, that there are tons of reputable sites for buying wonderfully maintained or reconditioned camera gear, that just cant exist for the mobile phone market. The second hand market for cameras means you can get gear that exceeds your needs, for less than the cost of a phone that wont even meet your needs.