6 Reasons to Take Pictures with a Mobile Phone

Nikon COOLPIX L3.

My parents bought a digital camera for my sister 6 years ago. But since the camera was abandoned for a long time, my family surrendered the camera for me to play. 5.1MP... Even my phone has 5MP. Of course megapixel is not everything. But yea, I still think taking pictures with my phone is much more convenient. Here I will present you 6 reasons to take pictures with a mobile phone:

1. Instant upload to your cloud storage or even your personal computer.

Dropbox Camera Sync.

Thanks to Dropbox for making it so easy. All you need is to install Dropbox in your phone, enable camera uploads and you're good to go! All the pictures you take will be uploaded into your Dropbox in no time. You can even take a video and it will also be uploaded to Dropbox! All you need is an internet connection.

Unlike a phone, uploading the photos from the camera to the computer would be a hassle. You need a computer, you need a cable or a card reader. Switch it on, plug it in, copy the photos over... too much trouble.

2. Share your photos at Instagram.

Instagram in my Android device.

After a long hike up the mountain, you snapped a photo and right away posted it on Instagram telling the whole world that you're on the mountain. Of course, you can also do that on Facebook or Twitter or i-don't-know-what as well. Taking pictures on a phone makes it so easy to share with others.

Take a picture of yourself on the camera, tell yourself that you'll upload it when you reach home, but you're on a 10 days trip. When you're back home, you certainly can't go "I'm on the mountain!" anymore. Probably you'll have hundreds of photos with you. You mass upload it. But people are just too lazy to view all the pictures; they just keep clicking next, next, next... Oh, I think they forgot they saw you on the mountain.

3. Use filters to edit you photos.

Camera360 effects list.

Nowadays we don't need to buy expensive polarized lens filter or sun our photographs under the sun for long hours to get really cool photos. We don't even need Adobe Photoshop to get that effect. If you already own a smart phone (sorry, Symbian phones are just not smart), you just need to download Camera360 for free! A bonus for android phones, Vignette. But Vignette doesn't come free though. I personally prefer Vignette in effects but I cannot deny the prowess of Camera360. Now everyone can take cool pictures!

Taken with Vignette's technicolor filter.

Took it with your camera? Oh no. You'll have to look for Adobe Photoshop... No money? Awwww. Perhaps GIMP will do. But GIMP seems alien! Then you'll need to look for plugins that will automate the editing job for you. Don't know how to search? Give up and just get a smart phone.


4. Transfer photos to your friends right away.
Take a group photo or a candid photo and bluetooth to the others. Well, you won't be able to do that with a camera. Again, you need your computer. But sadly for iPhone users, you can't as well. At least all the other platforms can!

5. Just charge one device.
When you run out of battery, you just need to charge your phone. Unlike cameras that use those AA batteries. Bringing a charger for AA batteries and needing to charge them overnight and have to bring extra batteries just because some NiMH batteries have short lives...

Charging your phone just take you not more than 3 hours, and you have 80% full for your whole day. You also have your car charger that you can charge while you drive in case you've used up too much battery. Camera? Ahhh, too troublesome.

6. Very portable and easy to handle.
So small, yet so easy to use. All you need to do is to click on the camera app and snap a picture! It is so portable that you can put it in your front pocket, shirt pocket, handbag... But some cameras are just way too big. Carrying an expensive big stuff walking everywhere is not easy. You can't put in your pocket, you can't put in your handbag, you have to hang around your neck or carry a backpack. That's just too much.

That said, of course it doesn't mean that camera is entirely useless. It takes professional pictures. Especially in low light condition or when taking a portrait, being capable of adjusting the f-number is very useful. Having a good lens that can zoom is also useful when capturing insects and animals from afar. Even if you have shaky hands or suffer from spastic paralysis, a tripod will solve the problem. But wait... Tripod what?

Clips as tripod.