Best Cameras on a Mid-Range Smart Phone

• 

  Twix on 02/06/2023 - 12:02

  +8

  Google Pixel 7 and 7 Pro.

  • 

    chartparker on 02/06/2023 - 13:06

    +1

    What he said. Bang for buck, Pixels offer the best cameras for the money.

    • 

      Sinnerator on 03/06/2023 - 08:23

      and the people at google can now watch your school kids in real time, you know, for marketing purposes

• 

  FoxJump on 02/06/2023 - 12:36

  -1

  No it does not make sense to buy phones.
  a) batteries are not replaceable. Battery dead, phone dead. Now you need a powerbank too.
  b) phones are slippery, you cant use with wet hands, they dont like rocks.

  buy this
  https://www.teds.com.au/olympus-tough-tg-6-red
  and some spare batteries.

  actually water proof
  actually strong
  actually will put up with abuse from kids and the environment.
  has GPS too

  • 

    FoxJump on 02/06/2023 - 12:40

    -1

    In regards to downloading photos, yes that is more inconvenient.
    however, i'm sure there are applications to automate your photo downloading from an sd card in a card reader and putting it in folder with a particular folder structure.

    personally, i use a small python program i wrote to do that. it also re-transcodes the video using handbrake so it takes up less space, and then copies it to my NAS via a VPN. So all I do, is turn on laptop, run program, put card in and then remove once its finished emptying it and then put the next one in, etc, etc.

  • 

    ForkSnorter on 02/06/2023 - 13:15

    +1

    I can't see kids jumping at the opportunity to use this dinosaur of a camera with its tiny sensor when the phone in their pocket will take far superior photos that they can share immediately.

    • 

      FoxJump on 02/06/2023 - 14:17

      Yes. i agree the camera has a smaller sensor, and it can be considered a dinosaur interms of tech when compared against a phone.

      but you're talking about a school, and i'm guessing primary kids who probably don't already have their own phone. IF it were secondary, then each kid would already have their own phone.

      and giving a primary kid a mobile phone then brings about other IT issues which the school IT people would probably would much rather live without. It's also more attractive to theft (like the good old mouseballs of 4300 years ago). It's also more prone to being broken by school kids.

      If it's literally just about taking photos then i think a camera is better.
      if theyre doing other uses with the same devices like some educational apps and what not , or camera apps with AR then yes a phone it makes sense.

      But - just taking photos - no IT issues, reduced theft issues, more rugged survivable device … etc etc.

      esp if they just talked about taking them camping. where they'll drop the phone on random things or leave them behind.

• 

  DingoBlue on 02/06/2023 - 13:13

  -4

  Our school is looking for some cameras to be used in classrooms

  ok

  personally, i use a small python program i wrote

  ok

• 

  AustriaBargain on 02/06/2023 - 14:27

  Old iPhone Pros maybe? The kids will just drop them/steal them won't they.

• 

  scphotos on 02/06/2023 - 14:36

  Just to clarify, it's for teachers. They aren't allowed to use personal devices to take photos so the school needs to provide some technology to take photos.

  There will be a bank of them in the library for them to take photos on event days, incursions, excursions etc.

  We want it to be as simple as possible (hence the idea of a phone with a service account that auto-backs up to a shared SharePoint folder). They just take the photos, go to their laptop and they are there. The admin staff have easy access to all photos for yearbooks/facebook etc.

  We have some P&S cameras in the library that are relics. I think we'd have more success with teachers using a phone, but perhaps I'm wrong.

• 

  Roman Sandstorm on 02/06/2023 - 15:50

  +1

  Pretty much any point-and-shoot camera of the last decade or so will have WiFi. Costs from maybe $200 to $2000.

  And although I agree with @FoxJump that the Olympus TG-6 would be a good option, you do not need to be a Python programmer to copy photos off the device! It has WiFi, and specific desktop applications for downloading pics and GPS info. (Other makers actually have better implementation of WiFI, etc than Olympus. But it works.) Or a $5.00 USB-SD card adapter.

  A dedicated camera will likely take superior photos to a smartphone in a larger range of conditions. Low light better, multi-shot better, flash better, timer better, universal tripod thread.

  And then there are the more 'meta' circumstances to consider. Turn on, push button, photo taken. No login, no fingerprint, no face ID, no icon to find, no pesky frequent system software updates, no demands for a SIM. Can use with gloves, wet or dirty fingers, (or even underwater, as the Olympus). Can't be used/potentially abused as a phone can be. can have spare batteries. Standard chargers and cables.

  To do the phone with instant uploading/updating you will need Google/Apple/whatever accounts; then there's passwords with different staff, MFA SMS responses, etc, etc.

  As an IT mamanger who leands out equipment of varying types to staff I see a bunch of potential pitfalls using a smartphone for your purpose. Better to go with the simplest solution.

  • 

    sumyungguy on 02/06/2023 - 16:09

    I wholly agree. Also knowing how sensitive schools have become to consent and publication of images, the workflow needed for cameras will be much more secure than working with mobile phones.

    • 

      scphotos on 03/06/2023 - 06:47

      Tend to disagree. We'd be able to remote wipe a stolen device with our MDM, get the location of the device if lost etc. Potentially even call it if we went down a simcard route.

  • 

    scphotos on 03/06/2023 - 06:44

    To be fair, the phones would be enrolled in our MDM with OneDrive setup with a service account. So no accounts needed for staff.

    Photos would auto-save to that account. PowerAutomate would move the photos from the OneDrive to our SharePoint.

    Valid points about gloves etc.

    We're buying 6 so I might just by 2 for now, a P&S and a phone and see which gets more usage before buying the 4 additional.

• 

  freefall101 on 02/06/2023 - 16:08

  iPhone SE is a pretty good option, especially if they already use iPhones. I bought one for around $500 recently, it lacks things like image stability, ultrawide, optical zoom, night modes and such but for plain photos it's really good. Presumably it's the same standard camera just without the bells and whistles because the image quality is excellent.

  It's IP67 rated which is not as good as the new Pixel (which is IP68)