Cheap Camera Challenge
So you want nicer images of squirrels than you can get from a phone?...
Modern smartphone cameras are great at capturing details, but not so much subject isolation. This is how much your subject stands out from the background due to shallow "depth of field" (DoF). Whether you like shallow DoF can be a little subjective, but most do and if you want to get more and/or better quality DoF than your phone (even with it's "cinematic" mode); Here are some camera setups that I would choose on a modest budget (in 2023)... The "Bokeh Panorama" Economy page features much of the same information, but covers light setups as well as just cheap ones...
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All budgets include camera and lens
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Prices are average second hand values
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Prices in Euros (similar to £ GBP, or $ USD)
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Phone comparisons shown at the end
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See Notes concerning subject isolation
€100 : APS-C DSLR
Choosing Nikon's first small purpose build DSLR, allowed me to budget for an auto focus 50mm prime lens for under €100. This lens works out as a 75mm f/2.1 equivalent (field of view and depth of field) on this 21 year old, 6mp APS-C CCD sensor. This is a surprisingly nice camera to use today. It feels a bit flimsy compared to the D200, but it's still pretty tough, has a comfy grip and nice controls. You have to get quite close with the lens to get good subject isolation, but that's true for framing squirrels well anyway. Although an 85mm lens will give more effect and a better shooting distance you'll need to step up to the next budget tier for that...
Nikon D100 - (€2000 in 2002) €25~
Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 AF-D - (2002) €75~
€200 : APS-C Mirrorless
Like the €100 DSLR, this small n light Sony mirrorless camera also uses an APS-C sized sensor. The 'N' variant improved the original NEX 5's resolution, dynamic range and noise performance while not costing much more today. I actually managed to get this combo for €100, but since that seems rather lucky I have doubled the budget here to be more realistic.
Sony NEX 5N - (€700 in 2011) €50~
Konica 85mm f/1.8 - (1970) €150~
€400 : Full Frame DSLR
Nikon's first full frame sensor was first seen in the professional D3, but a year later was also used in the D700. I think its resolution and dynamic range are quite competitive today. Fifteen years on, we are still seeing 12 megapixel sensors used in new cameras (Sony FX3, ZV-E1, A7SIII). Yes the pixels have been doubled a couple of times for the best cameras today, but that's not as big of a deal as you might think. This is still a wonderful camera to use today if you like a bigger grip and the controls are typical Nikon.
Nikon D700 - (€2600 in 2008) €250~
Nikon 85mm f/1.8 - (1987) €150~
€500 : APS-C Mirrorless
The Samsung mirrorless cameras were discontinued shortly after this model came out. The NX 500 is rather famous for being an extremely good camera and thus has held it's value surprisingly well, but that seems to be finally fading as Samsung cameras have been forgotten for a few years now. I managed to pick it up for quite a cheap price (€150). This auto focus lens has very good image quality. It's just a bit big and heavy considering it's APS-C only, but this too can be picked up for a lot less than it once was. This camera and lens are by far the newest ones in this article. If you don't mind buying into a dead system it's a fantastic combo for shallow depth of field! There is a firmware hack that enables a few awesome features too, namely a fully silent electronic shutter and focus stacking (as well as additions to timelapse and video).
Samsung NX 500 - (€700 in 2015) €150~
Samsung NX 85mm f/1.4 - (2011) €350~
€500 : Full Frame Mirrorless
The Sony A7 was the first full frame mirrorless camera with an interchangeable lens mount in 2013. Its 24mp sensor was extremely good for the time and is still competative today. Its relatively low price, small size, light weight and most easily adaptable lens mount made it very popular.
Sony A7 - (€1300 in 2013) €375~
Nikkor 85mm f/1.8 - (1969) €125~
NOTES: Isolation
As with all photography; Lenses are everything! and there are three main elements that dictate how much subject isolation you can acheive from them.
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Entrance Pupil; This describes how large your aperture appears when viewed through the front elements of the lens. This is how much light is coming into the camera (how much hits the sensor is the t-stop, rather than f-stop). You can work out this size by dividing the focal length by the f-stop (for example 50mm f/1.2 = 42mm). I will add a chart that includes some common lenses so you can see which are better at a glance.
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Sensor Size; Although not strictly part of the lens, what the light is projected on to will effect the depth of field you can achieve... Using the same lens, larger sensors will mean you get closer to your subject to frame it the same. Equally, smaller sensors require you to be further away. It's this distance element (in relation to the entrance pupil) that controls the depth of field and not the sensor size itself. Since larger than full frame sensor cameras are stuck with lenses that have smaller entrance pupils, they don't provide an advantage here and thus are not recommended. We don't even need to discuss how huge, heavy and expensive they are (which also disqualifies them from this article).
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Distances; As mentioned above; The closer you are to your subject (focus distance) the more you will isolate it from the background. However, this is also relative to the distance your subject is from the background. If your subject is against a wall there will be no isolation effect. So: Get as close to your subject as you can while leaving as much room behind it as possible.
Really long lenses can be much bigger here (300mm f/2.8), but they are massive, heavy and expensive so not for this article...
FL / f-stop / [Entrance Pupil]]
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iPhone 15 Pro
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50mm
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85mm
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100mm
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50mm
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50mm
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105mm
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75mm
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85mm
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85mm
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135mm
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50mm
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100mm
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50mm
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135mm
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75mm
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85mm
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135mm
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200mm
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85mm
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100mm
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135mm
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105mm
f/1.8
f/2.8
f/2.8
f/1.4
f/1.2
f/2.5
f/1.8
f/2.0
f/1.8
f/2.8
f/1.0
f/2.0
f/0.95
f/2.5
f/1.25
f/1.4
f/2.0
f/2.8
f/1.2
f/1.4
f/1.8
f/1.4
[<4]
[28]
[30]
[35]
[36]
[42]
[42]
[42]
[43]
[47]
[48]
[50]
[50]
[53]
[54]
[60]
[61]
[68]
[71]
[71]
[72]
[75]
[75]
Phone vs Camera
To demonstrate why a dedicated camera gets nicer subject isolation than a phone let's look at what causes the effect. As mentioned above; It's Primarily driven by the size of the entrance pupil. More light coming into the lens allows it to bend around your subject. Being projected to a larger sensor (larger image circle) allows you to get closer to your subject with the same framing and this amplifies the effect from the entrance pupil. Wider focal lengths help you frame your subject, but they tend to have smaller entrance pupils, so longer focal lengths will be needed. This is where the main tradeoff happens due to usability, size, weight and cost.
As you can see a phone is limited by every element that allows good subject isolation due to its size. The best we can hope for is that one day they might be able to fake it really well. That would take very high resolution sensors that can capture hyper accurate depth information for every single pixel That's a lot to ask, but I guess it could happen. For now we will be stuck with some pretty lackluster fake results like the phone samples you see below...
Asus Zenphone 9 (July 2022)
Sensor size: 1/1.56" (8.2x5.1mm)
Entrance pupil size: 2.9mm
Lens (actual): 5.46mm f/1.9
Lens (equivalent): 24mm f/8.4
This is a very common hardware combo which doesn't provide very much subject isolation, even for a phone. Its modest size sensor combined with a small entrance pupil and a wide lens is unfortunately a perfect storm of mediocrity. Most frustrating is the auto focus, which refuses to focus on squirrels 80% of th time (even if you click on them or if they're filling the frame).
The portrait mode (fake blur) is so unreliable I wouldn't recommend touching the function to avoid frustration and missed opportunities. It cannot mask subjects properly, produce much blur or a pretty rendering.
ZTE Axon 40 Ultra (May 2022)
Sensor size: 1/1.7" (7.4x5.6mm)
Entrance pupil size: 4.6mm
Lens (actual): 6.5mm f/1.9
Lens (equivalent): 35mm f/6.5
This is an unusually long focal length for a standard camera lens. It's what you get on the popular Fuji X100, which many people (including me) love for general photography. This is about the best optical subject isolation you can get from a phone at the moment. As impressive as this is, it's only one tenth the 'width' of the blur you can get from a real 85mm f/1.8 lens (see examples above).
The portrait mode (fake blur) is interesting here. The masking is not bad at all, although of ourse it cannot handle the intricate detail of hair/fur. The amount of blur is not very high and the quality of blur is especially disappointing, which is a shame as this is one of the better portrait modes I have seen due to its mask. The fake blur seemingly simulates a range between f/3.5 - 6.5, although the stated range is a impossibly laughable f/1.0 - f/16.
iPhone 15 Pro (Sept 2023)
Sensor size: 1/1.28" (9.8x7.3mm)
Entrance pupil size: 3.6mm
Lens (actual): 6.53mm f/1.78
Lens (equivalent): 24mm f/6.5
Although this is a nicely large sensor, the field of view is unfortunately rather wide to get much subject isolation here. The 77mm equivalent tele lens is capable of focusing close enough to shoot squirrels, which the ZTE could not do.
The portrait mode (fake blur) required actually selecting the mode, it did not auto detect squirrels like it does with humans and pets. Being able to control the amount of depth and focus point in post was really nice (which I'm told the Samsung phones do as well). The amount and quality of blur was really nice here, but there were times when the bokeh was bigger at f/4.5 than f/1.4, so it's a little buggy. The mask a focus transition were quite well done, but still not when it comes to hair/fur.