Dave737

iPhone 6 8MP vs. (older)Sony CyberShot 8MP

i'm tempted to only take the iPhone to save packing weight and space but the Sony has 15x optical zoom, i use the zoom quite a bit to frame shots, and obviously a more versatile lens on the Sony. the iPhone would be limited with dark/night shots. the iPhone can offload pics to iCloud, the Sony can download to my iPad and then upload to a FTP server to unload the memory card.

anyone take travel pics only with their phone and are happy with the results?

abmj-jr

Although there are a LOT of considerations to consider other than simply megapixels, there are also a lot of folks who do very good photography with their phones. Scott Kelby's wife has a very nice blog dedicated to just that:

http://www.shotwithmytrustyiphone.com/

HKTraveler

I normally travel with a Sony RX100m3 and my iPhone 6 Plus these days. For my last two trips, I would say 80% of the shots are taken on my iPhone. I find it more convenient, less conspicuous and also has the benefits of auto back-up and GPS location tagging. Both offers acceptable picture quality though the RX100m3 is still better especially in low light or to capture action. I prefer the iPhone for food photos. For an old camera with optical zoom, I am really dubious you will get better picture quality than a iPhone 6 Plus. You can always crop and zoom by editing your pictures and optical zoom is basically cropping the picture.

rivlinm

Bolding mine, but I think you mean digital.

I don't think mobile phone cameras are shabby, but I am not about to give up a proper camera and lens for the iPhone.

I do supplement my photos with the phone though. It excels at sharing a photo via message and online in an instant. Also I prefer to shoot my landscapes with the phone as it stitches live. I tend to forget I shot photos XXXX.jpg through YYYY.jpg for that purpose when I get back to a computer.

And while 8mp (or even more) is ample for most needs my big factor is ISO. It's really frustrating viewing excessively noisy photos.

In my hometown though I don't haul the big-boy gear and settle for the convenience of my iPhone.

BorussiaMG

During my last trips I decided to rely on my phone. For personal use these pictures are absolutely sufficent.

Dread Pirate Jeff

I use both... for a long while I would carry my dSLR and a couple lenses, flash tripod and such as well as all my other travel crap.

I got tired of lugging all that around and bought a Sony a6000 mirrorless. It's an EXCELLENT camera and perfect for travel. You can use any e-mount lens (or others with adapters, I use old Minolta and Canon lenses on mine with adapters for fun).

It weighs so much less and with the pancake lenses on it, you could stick it in a cargo pocket or jacket pocket and go. You'd travel and still have the benefits of a full sized, interchangeable lense camera in a much smaller, lighter package.

I also use my iphone a lot as well, though I use it more for selfies, facebook and instagram posts and foodie shots when I'm out and about. It's more a supplement to using the a6K but you can get some very good results using an iphone too.

shutter

It's not just pixel density (8mp vs 8mp), it's also sensor size which has an impact in your images, so I think it's still worth carrying a larger sensor camera than the iPhone for your creative work.

That said, the best camera is the one you have with you and it's better to take anything compared with taking nothing. :-) You could check out the beautiful Chase Jarvis book about iPhone photography for proof.

Dave737

yeah i figure i'm just going to take the camera too.

Cat Man Do

I have, but I still want my camera. I just don't want it to take up any space.

I've used iPhone-only for my last couple of trips.

I took my mirrorless (G5) with me for the last one, but I was unable to make it actually work, thus leaving the iPhone to do all the work. It was ok, though I would really have liked to have more depth of field to work with, and a viewfinder.

After that trip I replaced the nonfunctional camera with a GM5, which is another micro-4/3 format mirrorless interchangeable lens camera. It's tiny, looks a bit like a pocket-sized retro rangefinder. It does have a small viewfinder, which I find invaluable anytime I'm shooting outdoors.

It's small enough that even with the kit lens, or a smallish prime, I can stick it in a jacket pocket,and sometimes a trouser pocket.

The new camera will go along on my next few trips.

The old one will now be the backup camera. As I discovered shortly after the new camera arrived, it turns out a faulty SD card can cause a completely-dead-won't-power-up condition.

meech

I have used my iPhone on recent trips as well as a Nikon DSLR and a canon compact I think the iPhone pictures are often as good or better than the other cameras