In a new TikTok trend, which is set to a remix of George Michael’s Careless Whispers, content creators are comparing portraits taken on their iPhones with the far superior photos that they took on a traditional digital camera.
The viral trend was started by influencer Lauren Wolfe in early March. In her original TikTok video, Wolfe compared the poorly lit photos she took at sunset on a beach on her iPhone to the stunning, unedited images that she took on a Canon Powershot G7 X.
Wolfe’s video amassed over 4 million views with TikTok users declaring:
This fully convinced me to buy a digital camera.
And in each experiment, TikTok users concluded that the digital camera was always, unquestionably better than the smartphone — leaving one exasperated viewer complaining:
Pesala BandaraWhat did I spend $1,300 on an iPhone with 3 cameras for?
Well, well, how the tables have turned! Dedicated digital cameras undoubtedly have several advantages over smartphones, no matter how many cameras manufacturers pack into their slim bodies: from larger sensors with better dynamic range and less noise to better optics, and let’s not forget better ergonomics. The recent trends towards aggressive post-processing would also contribute to smartphone pictures looking ‘too crisp’ and ‘fake’.
But, no matter how much I’m in camp ‘digital SLR for life’, I think something else is happening here. The comparison photos in the article from digital cameras were clearly captured with a flash; the extra illumination, especially with a backlit subject, would vastly improve the result on any camera. I suspect this TikTok trend started as a covert marketing campaign by one of the camera manufacturers, to raise awareness of their products and present them in a favorable light for a new generation of potential customers.
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