Up until a few years ago, conventional wisdom would have said that for photography during the day, when there's plenty of light, you can use pretty much anything, including a phone. But when the light levels dip, you would put the phone away and bring out a "real" camera. In my case, the reverse is now closer to the truth.

Granted, the two main "real" cameras I use are on the (very) old side as far as digital goes. The Panasonic/Leica DMC LC1 is for all intents and purposes an ISO 100 camera (it goes up to 400, but nobody with functioning eyes would recommend using it there). The good thing about it is that it's a) mirrorless and b) very light, so if you can hold it steady and have good shooting technique you can get sharp shots at impressively low shutter speeds. But still, unless you can support it on a mini-tripod, wall, etc, you're going to be generally limited to daylight or well-illuminated evening. The Epson R-D1XG (which I have now nicknamed the "acronym nightmare") goes up to 1600, and to be honest it puts out a pretty decent file at 800. As it's a rangefinder, it too lets you shoot at low shutter speeds. Throw an F1.5 lens into the mix, and it's surprisingly adaptable for a camera its age. But compared to the newest mirrorless monsters which go up to stratospheric ISO levels and have 5-6 stops of image stabilisation, these two are real old school.

On top of that, the main smartphone makers are now throwing all their technological expertise at low light photography and they seem to be getting very good at it. The iPhone 11 pro is no different, although I'm still learning which scenes will do well with the night mode and which won't. 

Anyway, what that all means is that in today's article, all the shots taken in "dark" scenarios are from the iPhone 11 pro, and many of them are practically direct from the camera, bar a little straightening or perspective adjustment. The daylight shots are from the phone and the "Panaleica" mentioned above.

Hope you enjoy these!

Still haven't run out of photos, so keep an eye out.

Thanks for looking!