Smartphone cameras are getting better and better.. Are u ready to give up your p&s?

[Pablito]

Don't use a smart phone and rarely a cell. Have several high end point n' shoots for casual stuff.

 

[CK Dexter Haven]

No way for me. I don't even use the camera in my iPhone really. I hate it ergonomically.... I still want my camera to act like a camera... and I still like to choose shutter speeds and aperture.... Then again, I'm into photography and not social media.

Yessir. All of this.

 

[DougK]

I carry my iPhone 4S all the time and it has generally replaced a point-and-shoot for me. The output is certainly good enough for online or electronic display and I've made small to medium prints from it that are pretty decent as well. Is it as good as a dedicated camera? No, probably not, but it is the camera I know I'll have with me.

 

[DougK]

Also, I can take pictures using my phone pretty much anywhere and no one blinks an eye at what I'm doing or asks any questions.

 

[jsrockit]

and I'm sick to death of seeing people sitting around with their faces buried in them when they could actually be communicating with other human beings directly.

Do you get upset with people reading a newspaper or book in public when they could be talking to someone?

 

[j j]

It makes me laugh when people go on internet forums to denounce social networking so thanks for the chuckles in this thread.

Depth of focus and close focusing make a decent phone camera excellent for close ups. Some birders I know are getting fantastic distance pics using theirs with binoculars and telescopes (not me; my attempts have been pitiful). Neither of these uses are easy to replicate with film.

In answer to the original question I stopped using a p&s in favour of a small mirrorless. I use my camera phone regularly even when I have another camera with me as the results are different to other types of camera, because it is in my pocket and because it is connected*.

* An example. Found this beast of a caterpillar, took a photo and tweeted it to #teammoth and within moments had an ID and a warning that if hassled it would fight back by rearing up, waving appendages and squirting poison.


puss moth by jj birder, on Flickr

 

[GaryLH]

In a way, one can think of these photo forum sites as a form of social networking in a similar way that professional sites like LinkedIn can be considered career networking sites.

We celebrate birthdays, mourn passings, post about things going at times outside of photo interest here.

Gary

 

[mbisc]

I have to admit that the camera in phone has become a tool unlike a camera ever was for me.
Whether it's snapping a pic of a price tag or paint color or wine label or workers notes or check before cashing or… you name it.
Before the ease of a camera in the phone I would have written it down or simply taken the label off the bottle or would go in search of a copy machine.
Making quick images of these things is different than making a photograph.
It's a tool like a small tape recorder used to be. Not a precision recording instrument just a recorder. (oh and it's a recorder too 🙂 )

I do all that with my iPhone, too, but I would never have done that with a P&S camera, so I don't see that as a replacement for my P&S or "real" photography in general...

 

[leicapixie]

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=136759

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=136759

Do you get upset with people reading a newspaper or book in public when they could be talking to someone?

I guess it depends one's civility and politeness.
Guests at a special dinner or gathering reading a book, magazine,journal or phone would in my eyes be simply awful manners..I guess I am old fashioned.
I am a total square. Cube.

 

[SausalitoDog]

Unless you count the Fuji x100s as a point and shoot (some do 🙂, I gave up p&s in favor of the iphone and x100 back when the iphone hit 4s and the fuji x100 rolled out.

I always have my phone and if i even THINK I might see some cool shots, I have my x100s in my pocket or around my neck. Basically, I want the fuji for anything i will print and the iphone works for everything else.

I also learn a LOT from using the iphone. I have an app called Project 365 which I use religiously to force myself to always be thinking about a shot...at least one decent one per day...I upload it to the 365 Web site which posts it in calendar format and then at the end of the year I save all the calendars and a few shots in various categories and send them off to Blurb for an annual 365 book.

Here's last year's: http://blur.by/1bNRg83 (don't buy it, I set them all up so you can preview the whole book🙂

It's a lot of fun - my wife is actually a lot better than I am with the iphone and she got rid of all of her "cameras" and most often refers to the iphone as her camera (not her phone).

 

[burancap]

With every release these "smartphones" are less phone than anything else.

Think of them as a P&S that happens to also be able to make calls -and a whole lot more!

It seems inevitable that they will replace the P&S as we know it today.

Once I find a waterproof case that doesn't cover the lens on my piePhone with a nappy piece of plastic, I may assimilate.