# recommend a phone camera



## minorhero (Mar 28, 2019)

Due to the small sensor size and how close the lens is to the sensor, my understanding is pretty much any phone will take decent macro shots. Decent meaning compared to other budget consumer cameras. You are right that a proper stand alone camera is superior... However, if your goal is only to post pictures on this forum it doesn't matter much what you use since the forum limits the size of pictures to only 1024x768. Thus while my pretty awesome sony a7III does still take better pictures then my phone, its not leaps and bounds better until I try to blow up a phone picture to 8x10 size. Then you notice the difference immediately. When you limit the both my camera and my phone to 1024x768 then you barely notice a difference.

So if you are comfortable with Apple then the iphone 11 is probably your goto. I just upgraded to a pixel 4 which in the camera department is really the only rival to the iphone. I think its a nice camera and a good phone but I like androids and Apple products are not an option to me due to general geek reasons that are are not applicable to this situation. 

TL;DR - Buy the iphone 11.


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## Blue Ridge Reef (Feb 10, 2008)

Probably going that direction, thanks. Last night I got what should have been some really neat shots but once I opened them all, they were really disappointing. Can't wait until I can capture what I see better than this.


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## minorhero (Mar 28, 2019)

One thing to consider is the software on these phones is not the greatest for what we do. Android has various camera apps so maybe there is one better than the basic google app. As it is, trying to get my phone to focus on the eye of a shrimp is super hard. 

With my real camera I can simply set a single point that will be where the camera focuses and then put that point anywhere I want it. This is a pretty basic feature for midrange cameras and up, but not something I can get my android to do as of yet. The focus area being far too large to get real clarity.

I have no idea how the iphone handles this issue but my guess is you will still have some difficulty.


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## Asteroid (Jul 26, 2018)

You could get good 'regular' shots with a phone camera, but not really macro. A macro shot is mostly the lens. To get a good regular shot with a phone camera you need to throw alot of light on the subject. The sensor in a phone camera just isn't big enough or sensitive enough in low light. 

A macro lens is engineered to be able to focus on something close enough so it's life size (1:1 Magnification ratio) That's what allows you to see detail. A typical lens is like 10:1 I believe. I don't believe you can get that from a cell phone camera. Don't know how good the add-on macro lens are for phones.


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## Blue Ridge Reef (Feb 10, 2008)

Well, I bought an iPhone 10 rather than 11 for the $500 difference. I'm finding that when I take pictures with this camera, it's more like a 1 second video. It doesn't duplicate this when I upload them but on the phone, the shrimp are moving for a second.
















This one in particular looks fine on my phone (though it's moving) but is sorry when shown as a still image:









Still have some learning to do but I have reason to think this is going to be a much better camera than my old iPhone 6S. I've seen there's a "live" setting so hopefully turning that off will fix this issue and the pictures will be more in focus.

Bump: Wish I'd tried that before posting. Now we're talking!


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## Asteroid (Jul 26, 2018)

You have "live" picture mode activated. When your shooting a pic, touch the icon on top of the screen that looks like a bunch of circles (2nd from the left). That will turn it off. You'll see a / line through it.

edit: Guess you figured it out


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## Asteroid (Jul 26, 2018)

Really like those blues. I noticed you have them with the yellows. Are you looking to cross-breed?


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## Blue Ridge Reef (Feb 10, 2008)

Shouldn't be possible, the yellows are tangerine tigers (Caridina) and the blues are Neos. The pictures are a little confusing because the yellow Neos are on the same substrate mix, but in a different tank.


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## Asteroid (Jul 26, 2018)

Blue Ridge Reef said:


> Shouldn't be possible, the yellows are tangerine tigers (Caridina) and the blues are Neos.


Shows you how much I know about shrimp thought they were all Neos. Those tangerine ones look alot like my Yellow Neos (from the pics anyway.)


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## Blue Ridge Reef (Feb 10, 2008)

Yeah, that's why I mixed them with blues so I could 100% tell the difference. But there's dark patterning on the tigers in person (or when in focus).


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## Asteroid (Jul 26, 2018)

Oh, got it, that's pretty cool. One think I'll mention about photography and shrimp. I don't know if it's a biological thing or not, but I find it very hard for example to get a very clear pic of my yellow shrimp even with my macro and dslr. It always looks a little blurry. Doesn't happen with fish and it's not as bad with the RCS.


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## Surf (Jun 13, 2017)

For most phone cameras focusing is often the biggest problem in picture quality. To get a good picture of shrimp or anything small most people move the camera closer. Often too close for the camera to focus. Resulting in blurry shot. For Iphones instead zoom in as much as possible to magnify the image and then move away from the subject until it can focus. Once in focus take the picture. With the IPhone 6 you can get vey sharp close up images this way.

The other common issue is motion blur. any shaking of the camera may blur the image. Or any motion of the subject may make the subject blurry but the rest of the picture sharp. This problem often occurs due to not enough light and the longer exposure the camera needed to get enough light to make an image. 

To solve motion blur add more supplemental lighting into the subject. For aquarium photography the best way to get more light is to place a light source right above the camera and turn off all room lights, This will make the subject bright while while avoiding glare off of the glass.


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## somewhatshocked (Aug 8, 2011)

A $10 lens kit from fleabay or Amazon does wonders for shrimp photography.


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## Asteroid (Jul 26, 2018)

Surf said:


> ...
> The other common issue is motion blur. any shaking of the camera may blur the image. Or any motion of the subject may make the subject blurry but the rest of the picture sharp. This problem often occurs due to not enough light and the longer exposure the camera needed to get enough light to make an image.
> 
> Once in focus take the picture. With the IPhone 6 you can get vey sharp close up images this way.


Actually I'm pretty sure iphones have IS (Image Stablization) so I don't think handheld is really an issue with blur. Shrimp are stop and go so movement shouldn't be a problem either if you wait for shrimp to stop moving.

Let's see what the iphone can do, post some photos to show OP what is possible.


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## Blue Ridge Reef (Feb 10, 2008)

somewhatshocked said:


> A $10 lens kit from fleabay or Amazon does wonders for shrimp photography.



Mine came yesterday. Got the Xenvo Pro for about $40. Messing around with it today in my spare time. First thing I've realized is that ANY smudge, smear, tiny spot of algae, water spots on the exterior, etc. will ruin your photo! It's shaping up to be a busy day but I'll try to clean some and get some better shots. I'm encouraged from a little bit of testing though.


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## spartin718 (Sep 22, 2020)

Samsung note 10 plus or a Google Pixel


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