Hi all. My wife surprised me with an iPhone 11 for my birthday / anniversary as an upgrade from my 4 year old iPhone 6S and I’m trying to decide whether it’s worth an additional $350 to trade this unopened 11 for the 11 Pro to get the additional 2X optical camera, higher definition display 13m water resistance vs 6.5m water restistance and, supposedly, better reception in poor signal areas.
She got me the 11, because I had mentioned in recent months that it looked like a good upgrade to my 6S. What she didn’t know is that my main reason for lusting after the 11 series phone was for the telephoto on the 11 Pro.
So, I’m trying to research whether it’s worth the extra $50 restocking fee + $300 to upgrade to the 11 Pro for the 2X optical camera, higher resolution display, 13m water resistance vs 6.5m and supposed better reception.
My biggest frustration with the 6S camera is trying to get bird or insect pictures where the object isn’t real close. My phone is usually the only camera that I have on me. My longer lens camera is a Cannon PowerShot SX500 IS, with a 30X optical lens, but I rarely have it with me, unless long distance photography is one of my preset objectives for an outing, since it doesn’t fit in a pocket.
I like to share my photos on social media and my Cannon doesn’t have WiFi or Bluetooth, so I can’t get pictures from it to my cellphone until I get home to download the pics to my computer.
I appreciate any firsthand or secondhand input on this subject. Money is tight, so I want to be prudent with my spending and be sure that I’m getting good value for my money.
Online opinions go both ways regarding whether the 2X optical camera and better display are worth the extra money. They also are divided on whether the 11 Pro actually gets better reception than the 11. Almost no reviews even mention the added water resistance of the Pro.
I got a I phone 11 Pro as my 6 crapped out the second week of the pandemic. Fortunately the store was “essentia;” ( hee hee, but I was happy).
As a basic camera the tele goes to 10 x so your regular camera does better.
Thanks for posting Yanoer as I heard that I ought to be able to take pics with settings as a full fledged DSLR
But after a little research I found out I would have to pay for a second party app. I got Moment for $5.99
It allows me to manually adjust focus ( or autofocus) and exposure and shutter speed and ISO and you can add various lens effects It has a learning curve for sure and I am not ready for speedy wildlife or birds. I was hoping to get bee on azalea but the bees decided to hide!
So to sum up the camera that is with you is the one you will use.
How much better it is than the 11? Don’t have both to compare but think I am getting way more than 10 x with the tele lens and the Moment app. Birds…hmm hard to follow though the shuttter speeds can be insanely fast on the app. 1/20000?
But there is no excuse anymore to say I forgot my camera. And the battery is decent.
One comment that I’d heard for justifying not paying more for the 2X camera on the Pro was that they could just crop down a zoomed photo of the 1X on the 11 and get the same result of the 2X of the Pro.
I’m probably going to bite the bullet and kick in the additional $300 (actually $350 with the addition of a $50 restocking fee) for the 2X camera on the Pro so I can see my target better without cropping to see if it’s focused well.
If cropping was a fine way to be sure the subject would be in focus Canon would not be selling $10000 tele lenses!
And I love your insect flower pics
No better way to practice before trying kingfishers
I only get the butts!
The iPhone 11 is an amazing camera, it really is just that good. But… if you think you’ll want the telephoto, get it. But don’t think it is for birds or wildlife, it is still pretty lame for that.
I have an iphone 8, but I always have my small Nikon 200 5X optical tele water proof to 59 feet with me in a top pocket or pfd pocket when I am going paddling or fishing or walking in the woods. It cost me $200 when i bought it. It has wifi and gps as well. I bought it back in 2013. I think it is 16 mega pixel. I attach it to a gear keeper or run the strap through a button hole so if I drop it I don’t loose it. I don’t think I could free dive to 59 feet though I use to go down 30+ when I was young. it’s about the size of a pack of cigarettes. Smaller than the phone, but thicker and weights more. when it dies I’ll will replace with a newer model.
Looks like the Nikon coolpix 300 is $387 waterproof to 100 feet, shockproof to 8 feet with both bluetooth and wifi, GPS depth gauge, altimeter, ecompass, 4K Ultra HD videos, Time-lapse videos, Super lapse videos and music montages, plus more.
I have a “CoolPix” as well but a couple of years newer. It’s pretty good for what it is but far from perfect. Like most LCD screens it can be hard to compose a shot in bright sun light. Also, sometimes seems to be off on exposure and sharpness. Some is probably operator error as I’m usually somewhat busy when trying to take a shot from my canoe. Battery life is good as long as you keep the GPS off. It was a good thing that I took a spare on the Missinaibi as I made the error of starting with GPS on. The second battery was going strong after 8 days once I turned GPS off.
I use a bridge camera for wildlife shots. It has a big range so your wildlife is less blobby… Took this from a boat at some 100 feet.
The bridge cameras have amazing zoom at the expense of small sensors. But if you get one wet it is not a budget breaker. They zoom to 60 x or so. But not waterproof. nor pocket size. I used a Canon SX70 HS
LOL
