Conversely I have a good DSLR with very good glass attached, as well as M4/3 pocket camera, and two phones. After the trip I dump everything into one Lightroom album and go through picking out the keepers without looking at the specific camera model used. My typical result is 80% DSLR, 10% pocket camera, 10% phones.
What do you think is the biggest "keeper" differentiator for you, between the three, that favors the DSLR? For me, it used to be dynamic range, but now I basically can't making my (older) DSLR pictures look as good as my iPhone pictures.
I'm not them, but I have a similar process. I've got a mirrorless instead of DSLR, and a supertelephoto zoom lens (Sony a7R4 with 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 lens). I've also got a superzoom (Tamron 28-200mm f/2.8-5.6) lens for closeup and occasional landscape images.
I'm mostly interested in taking pictures of birds, including in flight. So long focal length is the biggest benefit. High resolution (allowing for deep crops while still getting a decent sized output) is another benefit. Good tracking auto-focus is another.
I use my phone mostly if there's a pretty landscape or flower and I don't want to switch lenses. I'm also willing to use my phone in some situations I wouldn't risk the camera & lens, eg while kayaking (in a waterproof case with lanyard). And of course the phone is lighter, so in everyday situations I'll have it, if I want to take a picture.
The reason I bought my A7II is so that I can:
* Get more light in with massive full frame lenses (and hence less noise)
* Ability to use lens hoods, xenon flashes, easier to use tripods
* Have more lens options available (even though the prices make me cry) that use the same (main) sensor (as opposed to phones with multiple lenses, telephoto etc tend to use low res/smaller sensors)
* (the biggest point) so I can take a photo, have the RAW and know that the only thing applied to it is the colour profile; no AI photo magic, no Apple saturation boosting, etc
When I take a photo with my A7II I know what I have on the card is the photo _I_ took. With a phone who tf knows what the image processing chip has done to it to make it "look good".
I found a nice compromise in Fuji's crop system. The cameras are about as small as can be while still retaining reasonable handling (having tons of mechanical knobs helps). My experience was that outside of some extreme special cases I don't want to make use of the large apertures enabled by full frame, the depth of field is just too small. And if you don't need that light gathering capability you can get smaller lenses. It's pretty nice being able to fit camera with a normal zoom, tele-zoom, wide pancake and normal prime into a 3L sling bag.
Regarding processing vs. RAW, all images are processed, there really is no such thing as a "true" photo. If the on device processed photo looks good then life is so much easier. If you can't trust the device processing or want to tweak the last millimetre out of the photo, even Apple devices can give you the RAW sensor data these days.
The resolution and detail on a “real” camera is killer for me. I can save photos with the crop much more easily. Also, portrait mode is good, but nothing beats real bokeh.
