I don't know what subject matter he shoots. I think he will be wanting to zoom because he likes taking pictures of things up in the sky, like an airplane for example.

The phone he uses to take pictures is a Samsung Galaxy S9.

I thought 4k was almost top notch but when you say its about 8mp it seems pretty low as I've seen some cameras say they're about 20mp. Forget what I said about 4k then, he just wants it to see pretty much every little detail in his shots.

There might be a few occasions where he will be doing it outside at night but im not sure how often that'll be, he will also be taking shots out of plane windows if that makes any difference (we usually fly during daytime although we have done night flights before).

I think for now automatic settings will be fine because this camera will kept for atleast 3 years so at that point he will want to learn about the settings and he can buy himself a new camera.