my kind of sunset picture ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone (FYI, made with the “ultra-wide” lens (14mm-equiv)
(embiggenable) • CANON Powershot G series camera
entre chien et loup ~ (embiggenable) • CANON Powershot G series camera
ON MY LAST ENTRY, Thomas Rink left a comment:
Mark, did you intend to use the phone camera for this work, too? I'm curious since for my own intimate landscapes, I find wide-angle lenses often too short to extract small parts of a scene. A "normal" focal length and longer works better for this purpose as far as I'm concerned. Probably a small sensor camera with a zoom would work best due to flexibility and depth of field.
my response: re:...did you intend to use the phone camera for this work? The devil, aka: contrarian, in me says I should use the iPhone just so I can give the finger to the "perfectionists". However, since I often print my usually highly detailed intimate landscape pictures large-up to 24x24"-I will make a few comparison pictures-iPhone v. "real" camera- to be certain iPhone pictures would compare favorably with "real" camera made pictures at the large size. From my experience making large prints from iPhone image files, I believe they will fill the bill.
re: lens selection. By my estimate, approximately 90% of my landscape / nature pictures were made with a 40mm-µ4/3-equivalent-lens. In fact, it might be accurate to write that 90% of all of my "real"-camera pictures were / are made with the same lens. I am a 1-lens/1-camera kinda guy.
Were I to use the iPhone for this undertaking, I would most likely use the "wide" lens which I believe is a 26mm-ish-equivalent lens. That is the lens I use-my iPhone 1-lens/1-camera equivalent-for approximately 90% of my iPhone-made pictures. With 18 months of iPhone picture making using that lens, I have had no problems getting the results I want and the pictures hold up well when paired with "real"-camera with 40mm(equiv) made pictures. That written, when I make some comparison pictures, I will make a few using the iPhone "tele" lens which is actually a 52mm-equivalent lens, aka: a "normal" lens equivalent.
It is worth noting that after I lent, to my grandson, one of my Olympus PEN cameras with my 20mm lens-the 40mm-equivalent-I have been using my 24mm-equivalent lens in my 1-lens/1-camera set up. In my analog 35mm camera days, my 24mm Nikkor lens was my favorite lens. As I sit here writng this entry, that lens is mounted on one of my Nikon F3s on a shelf right next to me (it makes a nice paperweight). Consequently, I have a long and happy relationship with the 24mm field of view.