Poll: Should phone photography be judged in the same competitions as camera photography?

[Emma72]

Phone cameras have come a long way. Some of the images coming out of the latest flagships would have been impossible from a pocket device ten years ago, and plenty of people never touch a dedicated camera any more. That raises an awkward question for photography competitions. Should a phone shot compete head to head with one taken on a full frame camera and a lens that costs more than a car?

There is a decent argument for keeping them together. A great photo is about timing, composition and light, and the gear is just a tool. On the other hand, phones do a lot of the work automatically, stacking exposures and smoothing noise with software. Some photographers feel that is closer to editing than to taking a picture

Separate categories are another option, and plenty of competitions already run them. That keeps things fair, but it can also feel like a lesser prize for phone users. With the Nikon Small World row about AI processing still fresh, this feels like a timely debate

Where do you stand? Is a photo just a photo, or should the tool matter when judging it? If you enter competitions yourself, I would be curious what you shoot with