Camera phones step up a gear for photographers

I’ve loved photography for as long as I can remember, When I was at school all I wanted for Christmas every year was a camera and when my Grandma bought me my first 35mm camera I was more than excited. I would photograph everything possible practising the real theory of photography measuring light levels and setting apertures and shutter speeds to get the perfect shot. I would spend all my pocket money going to the local chemist and getting my films processed and being delighted with my shots.

As the years have passed my love for photography has never dwindled, I studied my first photography course at a weekend tester session at Southend on Sea in Essex followed by two evening courses in Witham before attending a full higher national diploma, half at Southend on Sea in Essex and completing the second half of my course at Truro College in Cornwall.

During this time photography has changed so much even in my lifetime. I remember getting my first ever digital camera which cost me just over £400 for the camera alone, it was a Fujifilm digital camera that used a smart card memory card which cost me about £60 I can’t remember the size of the card but it was definitely in megabytes not gigabytes. With my new digital camera I really did think I was unstoppable, with the 2 megapixel camera you would find me photographing everything and only printing the photographs that were the best. To get the pictures from this memory card to the computer I required a floppy disk drive adapter to access the images on my computer. There was nothing like memory card readers or built in drives on the side of a computer and mobile phones were just mobile phones with small digital screens and the thought of having a camera on your telephone was a futuristic idea that seemed impossible.

Fast forwards ten years and mobile phones have lost their aerial’s poking out the top and have not only gained digital image ready screens but have also gained cameras, often not one camera but two! This has created a whole new level of photography taken on smart phones. People that have never been interested in photography before, now have access to really good cameras and access to aps like instagram have given photo editing to the masses.

But it’s not just still images that have been brought to the masses through camera phones but it is now video with sound as well, with instant uploads onto YouTube any one can be a photographer or videographer without any studying to gain high quality footage.

When I saw this video for the new LG G2 Smartphone I was actually blown away by the promises that this little smart phone can offer. As I photograph a lot of surfers I’m often a long distance from the action and rely on high quality expensive lenses that have built-in image stabilisation to steady any movement to capture crisp clear shots and eliminate any unwanted movement from my images. 

Watching Lizzy the chicken in this video and seeing how well the image stabilisation works within this clever little phone is beyond impressive.

Being a photographer I now know which new smartphone I now want but even for those that have never studied or been passionate about photography and video will be blown away by the lens on offer on the camera phone and want one as well. 

Sponsored by LG G2