I’ve found no recent topic. It would be interesting to know some opinions from the field regarding the best smartphones for documenting nature in 2025–2026, with priority on macrophoto.
I’m considering buying some of the announced near-future models, like the Xiaomi 16 Ultra (current model is 15 Ultra) or maybe the Vivo X300 Pro/Ultra (current models are X200s). I currently use a Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro (2021 model) with a great macro camera (example https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/312861775 ) and a lame main camera without zoom capabilities. This macro camera has a minimum focus length of 3 cm, but there are no such good macro cameras in modern models. Instead, the best macro results now are achieved with periscopic telephoto cameras with minimum focus lengths of 10-15 cm. So I’m not even sure that a new top phone will be more efficient than my 5-year-old cheap model for the purpose of photographing small invertebrates, considering the focus lengths. Will it be?
I don’t claim to know the first thing about cameras, but pretty much everything I post on here is taken with an iPhone 15 Pro Max, and it’s fine for getting small details. I’ve been photographing tiny leaf mines this year where you need to see the patterns of frass within the mine to identify the species, and I’ve not had any difficulty seeing what I need to:
I have an iPhone XS Pro which I beleive has just gone ‘officially’ obselete so I would be interested in this question too. I saw the iPhone release event for the new model 17 last week and while I’m sure it’s all around better, I wasn’t blown away. The telephoto seems to really only be x1-4, with the x8 just being a crop. I don’t know how good the macro is.