Unlike digital zoom functions, optical zoom lenses help you get closer to the action while still keeping images sharp and vivid. This is ideal if the object is far away or if you want specific effects like having the background out of focus.

Even entry-level digital cameras take great macro photos and can focus up to a distance of about 1.5cm from the subject. This makes digital cameras ideal for taking close-up photos of flora and fauna, or creating interesting visual perspectives in food photography.

Whether you’re attending a major sports event, or just photographing your kids running around, digital cameras usually capture detailed, sharp images. Mobile phone cameras usually can’t capture moving subjects well and shutter lag means the subject would have moved out of the frame before the photo is taken.

With the right app, a mobile phone can take pictures in burst mode - that’s when several pictures are taken every second. But such pictures are often at much lower resolutions and aren’t very sharp. A good digital camera allows you to take burst photos at the camera’s full resolution for a montage of high-quality stills.

Digital cameras generally take better pictures than mobile phones at night or in low-light conditions such as when you’re at a party. They have more powerful CMOS sensors that take pictures under a wider variety of conditions.

Mobile phones are great do-it-all devices but battery life is often an issue since they run multiple apps at the same time. Constantly taking pictures or videos quickly drains a mobile phone’s battery. On a mobile phone, storage space is shared by apps, email and multimedia content. If you take plenty of pictures and videos, a digital camera may be a better choice in the long run.

Most digital cameras let users edit pictures, offering numerous ways to adjust images. Their powerful filters help users capture unique pictures. A colour accent filter, for example, highlights only one colour while making the rest of the photo appear in greyscale. The results are usually better than what’s achievable with a mobile phone and a filter app.

Recording videos with a digital camera lets users take advantage of its optical zoom lens and image stabilisation. Some models can apply filters and take still images while a video clip is recorded.