Puh-lezz.
What they should really be asking me is if I think phone cameras are to the point where people think the images captured are as good those that most people can get with a DSLR.
My answer would be something like this.
Phone cameras these days are frickin' awesome! My phone camera will even generate a RAW image. How cool is that? There are apps that will even manage the phone camera settings. Image file sizes are fairly comparable between the two. That has to be the same quality, right?
Well, it depends.
Phone cameras make good photography within the reach of most. The $$$s required are minimal. After all, the camera is basically paid for. A lot of what I would call post processing software can be found for free. Who could ask for more?
The answer begins, as always, is physics.
First, I am a hobbyist. Not a professional. And I didn't get too far in physics in high school. Now that we've set the expectations, let's get on with what is possible and what is fantasy.
The heart of all image capture is the sensor. This is the same on a phone camera and on a DSLR.
From a very high level, all sensors are the same. The sensor captures light and translates the information to digital information. The digital information is captured in a file and you know the rest from here. To be sure, that is probably 100 steps condensed to 3. We'll keep it simple.
For the sake of my answer, I'll go with the image capture at the sensor is the best it can be.
If you look up the definition of photography, every one deals with the capture of light and somehow converting that information to another medium.
The key word here is LIGHT.
For most of my friends who are photography enthusiasts, we have (can afford) equipment with what is called a APS-C class size, 23.6mm x 15.8mm for an area of 3.73cm(sq). Most of us have dreams of hitting the lottery and going full frame which is 36mm x 23.9mm for an area of 8.6cm(sq). Ah, the quest of light.
So, what's in a phone camera? Without getting into the math, the APS-C sensor is roughly 18x-20x larger that what is in my phone. That's the physics part. I'm sure there is some law that states the bigger the sensor, the more light it will capture.
I can hear the rumble within the Apple community now, well Mr. know-it-all, how come my phone doesn't stink with that kind of math?
You have to give credit where it is due, all those phone engineers earn their money. Apparently there are tricks in order to get the most possible light to the sensor. Technology is a wonderful thing.
So the Apple crowd will also ask, well why don't they just put a bigger sensor in the phone? Well, you'd have to ask Apple, but one reason is with the rush to get smaller and more powerful the constant enemy is heat. And a sensor will generate heat.
So in the end the answer to the original question lies in, what do you want to do with the hobby? If you are happy with your phone camera, then yes you can take just as good a picture with your phone camera as you would with a DSLR. But my answer to the the question is no, my phone camera will not take pictures with which I would create my art. And it never will. And I'm OK with that.
My phone takes great 'family opportunity/travel/vacation' shots. I'm OK with Samsung's algorithms to produce a good JPG file. However, if I want to show off or print pictures, or as I like to say digital art, than I want the best capture of light I can get. Or the biggest sensor I can afford.
This covers just the sensor size. There are other aspects to this conversation as well. What about the elements of the sensor, the pixel element? With smaller sensor sizes comes smaller pixel elements, right? Is smaller better?
How do you get light to the sensor? I spend a few $$$$s on glass. Could it be that the lenses on the camera phone are just as good?
Another discussion, another time.
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