Mirrorless Shipments Down Year-to-Year

[jsrockit]

Why would any ordinary person even bother with a camera anymore when their son and their son's best friend gives them a last generation iphone for free, after having upgraded themselves to the newest iphone?

A smartphone goes everywhere, can be burried in sand, and it goes inside a backpocket or even in a woman's bra.

Hard to beat.

That's fine for people not into photography... but there are still plenty of people who want more... plenty of ordinary people like photography.

 

[Exdsc]

Why would any ordinary person even bother with a camera anymore when their son and their son's best friend gives them a last generation iphone for free, after having upgraded themselves to the newest iphone?

A smartphone goes everywhere, can be burried in sand, and it goes inside a backpocket or even in a woman's bra.

Hard to beat.

... And an iPhone and most smartphones play music, surf the net, play games, and do many more things -- they also look much sleeker and nicer compared to most digi P&S and their LCD screen is bigger and better.

The only draw back to most smartphones are that they lack RAW capability.

 

[Clint Troy]

That's fine for people not into photography... but there are still plenty of people who want more... plenty of ordinary people like photography.

Yes.
But I am still hardly wrong: smartphones are taking over. It's a fact.

And long ago I came to the conclusion that almost all smartphone images, even those taken by total newbies, are more appealing then a majority of images taken by seasoned photographers with P&S cameras. The appeal is there and it's real.

 

[Clint Troy]

... And an iPhone and most smartphones play music, surf the net, play games, and do many more things -- they also look much sleeker and nicer compared to most digi P&S and their LCD screen is bigger and better.

The only draw back to most smartphones are that they lack RAW capability.

Raw would be the last nail, Imo...

 

[GaryLH]

Raw would be the last nail, Imo...

Not sure I understand this...

From an average person perspective.. I don't think they would care about raw.. Any serious photography would know about the quality gains of a raw file, but for the masses jpg is really all they know.

I am not sure what the phone manufactures would gain by adding raw support.

So last nail in the coffin of the digital p&s for the masses or in general?

I think for the average person, the days of the average digital p&s have been nailed for a while now w/o any need for raw support.

The only way I think camera makers are going to attract what is left of the pie (the rest of the consumers), is figuring out what the rest is interested in that cannot be done w/ a camera phone..

Cameras like the Ricoh grd or Coolpix A or super zooms like the Panasonic zs200 or Fuji xs1 can be said to be where they are trying to c if they can make some money..IMHO.

Gary

 

[jsrockit]

Phones need to have better ergonomics, bigger sensors, better lenses, high ISO, a better flash, and faster AF, etc. before they will completely take over P&S cameras. The bottom line is that for someone who want to do photography seriously, the P&S camera (like a Ricoh GR or Sony RX100) is still the better, more comfortable tool. For those who only care about photography as a means to photograph social activities, such as times together with their friends and family, what they like (so they can show friends), what they ate, and what they just bought, etc., then their phone has already replaced their P&S.

 

[Exdsc]

The Sony Nex-6 is going for $650... Its not even post-summer sales season, let alone the end of the year shopping season... more interesting is that unlike before, the steep camera sales are starting from Canada and then US follows (same happened with Nikon 1 series).

http://www.adencamera.com/product-overviewer.asp?ProdID=4207&Category=1