A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis, serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. © James Conner.

29 September 2015

An iPhone and selfie stick will neither impress nor intimidate

Years ago, a political operative in Minneapolis whom I knew used to inflate the importance of a political event by sending to it a camera crew with a huge video or movie camera and powerful lights. Neither videotape nor film was needed. If the event merited the expense of that much equipment and manpower, it must be important.

I was reminded of that showmanship by today’s story at Petapixel on a Swiss television station’s switch from a big crew and equipment to a lone reporter with a iPhone and selfie stick. iPhones lack telephoto reach, but they have excellent image quality; better image quality than the video and 16mm movie cameras of yore. But the presence one person with an iPhone never will hype the importance of an event the way Pete’s camera crew did.

An iPhone, incidentally, is ideal for covering a lot of events. It’s inconspicuous, has high image quality, and can send photographs to the internet in near real time. There are even applications for instantly sending to the internet videos the police might attempt to confiscate.

Do I use an iPhone? No. I prefer a small but high quality camera with better optical reach (a Nikon P310, usually) that doesn’t look like a professional camera and thus attracts much less attention than my big DSLR and telephoto lenses. Sometimes a big camera has its place, but more often than not iPhones and small cameras are the best choice for photographing events at which one can move around freely.