George Frey/Stringer/Getty Images These days, we use our smartphones for almost everything — especially taking photos. Smartphone cameras have gotten so good that there's really no need to carry around a separate camera for most situations.

Business Insider's Christian Storm and Harrison Jacobs tested the iPhone 6's camera against a Canon 5D Mark II DSLR ($3,000) and a point-and-shoot Canon PowerShot SD1400-IS ($169) to see exactly how the three compare.

Here's the bottom line: a DSLR is always going to capture higher-quality images, and professional photographers will always need the customization that you can only get with a DSLR. But, the iPhone 6 shoots impressive images that are just as good, or better, than a standard point-and-shoot.

Still, there's one crucial area where the gap between the iPhone 6 and a DSLR really shows itself: zooming.

The photo below was taken from our office's rooftop with the DSLR using a 70-200mm telephoto lens. It's so detailed you can easily make out the text on the one way traffic sign and the pattern on the sweater in the Ann Taylor store window.

Christian Storm/ Business Insider



Now here's that same photo taken with the iPhone 6, which isn't clear at all. Storm and Jacobs write that the iPhone camera doesn't actually zoom — it just creates the "illusion" of doing so. Instead, you're actually just enlarging a portion of the image.

To be fair, this is probably true of most smartphones, except for the few that have an optical zoom like Samsung's Galaxy S4 Zoom. Still, it's interesting to see where DSLR cameras shine over smartphones.