Long time I didn't post in here. This time I'm going to talk about smartphone camera vs action camera.
Both are portable device. Which one best for you? But first, I'm talk about what is smartphone camera and action camera first.
Smartphone camera[]
Before smartphone came in, basic feature phone with a camera since early 2000's. The video quality is VGA only (0.3 megapixels). At that time, it is the best quality in the phone. But in today's world, the quality sucks because it only can record 144p-240p. The best camera in feature phone is up to 3 to 5 megapixels or can record up to 360p or 480p.
Since smartphone came in around 2007, camera phone is getting better and better. From button phone to touch screen phone.
Since 2010, smartphone camera start to support HD 720p video recording and in 2011, 1080p video recording are also introduced. Since Galaxy S5 release in 2014, 4K video recording is now introduced. 1080p@60fps was later introduced in 2014 together with Galaxy S5 and 4K@60fps was introduced in 2018.
For iPhone, the first gen and iPhone 3G doesn't support video recording until iPhone 3Gs was released.
For camera lens, first smartphone start with as good as 2 megapixels. Since 2010, 5 megapixels was introduced. Later in 2011, 8 megapixels was introduced with Galaxy S2 and then in 2012, most newer smartphone start with 13 megapixels. Overall, all previous and current smartphone have an average 12 to 16 megapixels. Since 2016, some smartphones start to introduced 20 to 24 megapixels onto selfie camera (or else rear camera) and then 32 megapixels in 2017. Since 2019, more and more smartphones started to have so called "DSLR" camera phone at 48, 64 and 108 megapixels. Well known smartphone using 48 megapixels are OPPO F11, 64 megapixels are Realme X2 Pro and 108 megapixels are 小米红米Note 10 Pro.
Most latest and premium smartphone most likely to have EIS or OIS camera stabilizer.
The price to get a smartphone with 4K supported is from RM500 (~US$121) to as high as RM5000 (~US$1217) and up.
Action camera[]
The well known action camera brand are GoPro and the latest came in around 2019 are DJI.
Action camera first come in around 2006 or later from GoPro company. Since 2010, GoPro changed name to "Hero" for action camera from original name called "Digital" or "Digital Wide". GoPro Hero series become very popular for outdoor action and extreme activities such as ski, water Motorsports, Motorsports, BMX, diving and many more.
Action camera also use for normal activities as well such as party.
Most action cameras start with VGA video quality before HD version was released in 2008 or later. Since GoPro Hero series was released, 1080p was introduced. 4K was introduced since GoPro Hero 3 until today. 4K@60fps was later introduced with GoPro Hero 6 or later.
Most action camera can be as good as 12 megapixels compared to smartphone which can be up to 16 megapixels and above.
There's so many brands out there to choose from. From GoPro to DJI and also cheaper competitors such as ThiEYE, SJCAM and many more.
The price to get 4K action camera from RM150 (~US$36) to RM2k (~US$486) and up.
Pros and cons[]
Smartphone camera (pros)[]
- Many features
- Can edit video directly on mobile device
- Can upload video directly to YouTube and Facebook
- Better camera quality
- Most of them able to zoom up to 4 times (or more).
- Not easy to get busted
Smartphone camera (cons)[]
- Some cheaper smartphone cameras might have grainy videos or photos
- Some cheaper smartphone can hang until camera app stop working due to not enough RAM
- Most smartphone can crack screen if dropped from high altitude
- Most smartphone are not good into the water
- Not good at outdoor and extreme video recording activities
- Due to big screen, it is a bit hard to handle for some or most people
Action camera (pros)[]
- Can be as good as smartphone cameras
- Best for outdoor and extreme video recording activities
- Can go underwater (up to 30 metres)
- Small and compact
Action camera (cons)[]
- Can't edit video and upload videos directly
- Some cheaper action cameras might have grainy videos and photos
- Some action camera even they can make "fake" video quality (meaning you record 1080p@30fps but you get 480p@15fps) and photo quality (settings say 12 megapixels but get 0.3 megapixels instead).
- Most of them doesn't support zoom.
- Easy to get busted
Overall[]
Smartphone cameras are very popular against action camera for many reasons. Some may prefer action camera due to have better camera quality.
I normally use GoPro Hero 4 and ThiEYE i60+as my recording device and OPPO F11 as my photography device.