Smartphone Reviews

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Jon Sienkiewicz  |  Apr 05, 2024  | 

In addition to the usual suspects, we've rounded up a couple lesser-known options. It's time to get those images off your phone and out into the world for others to enjoy.

Ron Leach  |  Oct 31, 2023  | 

Whether you own a new iPhone 15, or use an older model running  iOS 14, the photos you shoot will be significantly better after watching the comprehensive tutorial below. This "ultimate guide" from the Mount Media YouTube channel was designed for beginning and intermediate users alike.

Jon Sienkiewicz  |  Jan 20, 2023  | 

The SnapGrip Creator Kit from ShiftCam lets you hold your smartphone like a camera, charges the battery, lights up the scene and provides a stable tabletop support. It’s very well made and practically attaches itself.

Henry Anderson  |  Oct 12, 2021  | 

If you're a photographer who is considering upgrading from the Apple iPhone 12 Pro to the recently released iPhone Pro 13, the video below is for you. In the iPhone comparison, photographer Anita Sadowska pits the 13 Pro vs the 12 Pro to see which one performs better for portraits.

Jon Sienkiewicz  |  Sep 26, 2019  | 

Sony offered to loan me an Xperia 1 mobile phone for 30 days. I thought it was a mistake at first. My (first) name is pretty common; I’m not a phone guy. My last cell phone had a rotary dial and a whip antenna. But I heard that the Sony Xperia 1 had some of the most sophisticated camera features around, so I cautiously accepted and approached the product the same way I approach cameras. Here is what I found.

George Schaub  |  Jan 24, 2018  | 

Shutterbug, a member of the Technical Image Press Association (TIPA), once again joined forces with 30 other member magazines from around the world to choose the winners of the annual TIPA Awards for the best photo/imaging products in 40 different categories. The award process began in early 2017 with an initial selection of a wide range of products conducted by TIPA’s Technical Committee, on which Shutterbug’s Editor-at-Large George Schaub serves. 

Dan Havlik  |  Oct 31, 2017  | 

Chase Jarvis seems like ideal choice to be one of the first photographers to shoot with Apple’s new iPhone X. He literally wrote the book on camera phone photography.

Barry Tanenbaum  |  Nov 17, 2015  | 

Stephen Shore fondly recalls his Polaroid SX-70. Shore, known for color images of everyday America, in books like Uncommon Places and American Surfaces, loved the immediacy of the SX-70. “Whatever you observed and chose to picture was right there,” he says of that ingenious little device.

Joe Farace  |  May 19, 2015  | 

Mobile is an adjective often used to describe photography made with smartphones but I can put a tiny Panasonic Lumix GM1 in my pocket and take a walk—mobilize, if you will—as easily as my iPhone and shoot some nice photos. Instead, let’s call it what it really is: Smartphone Photography.

Joe Farace  |  Sep 19, 2014  | 

Like most photographers I occasionally become equipment obsessed, but sometimes even the smallest tool, something as simple and useful as a new LensPen, can make creating new images a little easier. I’ve often said that the most important piece of equipment is the one between a photographer’s ears, but creating images also requires tools. Choosing the right tool or accessory may not make the difference between a good photograph and a bad one, but may make the difference in whether or not you even try to capture it.

George Schaub  |  Nov 27, 2013  | 

The Galaxy S4 Zoom is what you might call a “multi-personality” device. Phone, camera, Browser, game device, gateway to all the Android apps, GPS, mapper, email connector--it’s all of that and more.
I say “multiple” because while the initial face of the unit looks like half point and shoot camera/half phone, one pasted atop the other, there is a lot more going on under the hood. That includes all the current connections one could imagine and access to the entire Android set of apps,from camera functions to finding where you can get a decent latte in any city or state or country you might find yourself. One can listen to music; watchvideos; browse the Internet, get email, tap compatible phones (literally) to share content; and send and receive via any social media you could imagine.

Edited by George Schaub  |  Sep 13, 2013  |  First Published: Aug 01, 2013  | 

Every year member magazines from the Technical Image Press Association (TIPA) gather to consider and vote on the top products of the year in 40 categories, ranging from cameras to tripods to software and printers. This year’s selections represent technological sophistication along with features and functionality that make them leaders in their respective categories.

George Schaub  |  Jul 01, 2010  | 

While we don’t normally review camera phones and similar devices, when offered a test period with the Nokia N86 and its 8-megapixel capture we wanted to see just how far one could take the image. Because the device captures in JPEG only there is of course a good deal of compression on every file, but still, 8 megapixels in this device reaches into the realm of point-and-shoot digicams from...

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