The End of dedicated digital cameras

[cmc850]

There will always be photographers who desire the capabilities a dedicated camera offers, but for the "average snapshooter" the phone camera not only suffices as a replacement for their former "point-and-shoots", but allows them to easily and instantly share their photos.

Recently I posted some older film scans of family photos, and realized something interesting. Snapshooters are shooting pictures at a higher rate than ever, but these photos largely stay in the digital realm. I wonder if the day is coming soon when there are no family photos (prints) hanging on the wall? So may photos taken with smartphones are forgotten as quickly as they are viewed. Not actually a comment on their quality - just their purpose?

As an aside - wonder what percentage of shots on the average phone are "selfies"? Smartphone cameras have capitalized on what was not quite as obvious before the explosion of the selfie - people are "selfish"

 

[Manuel Patino]

Of course, P&S cameras are superfluous if one has a smart phone. Even some higher level cameras like my Sigma DP-2 M and other models can be supplanted by the phones because of the lack of a OVF or EVF. But the rest of the article is indeed FUD (either version). Obviously the phone can take decent enough photos and is about as convenient to use for picture taking as a simple dedicated digital camera in addition to being a phone and even a simple computer with internet access...

Frankly, the simpler menus with less choices make the phone cameras easier to use. I wish the dedicated cameras had simpler menus with less "features" and more dedicated knobs and dials. All that being said, it's pretty much drivel to suggest that dedicated digital cameras will cease to exist and be replaced or supplanted by phones. That's idiotic, inaccurate drivel.

 

[jsrockit]

Things change...

 

[mani]

I don’t really know much about Petapixel, it’s not on my normal list of sites, but I saw the link in my feed - probably from Hacker News or something similar - and it felt like an interesting Monday-morning post: a way to stir some reaction and get the conversation going. I certainly didn’t guess the intensity of emotions it would provoke.

One thing I’d say is I’m definitely not as sanguine as some of the people here that just the camera sector that we enthusiasts (a tiny minority) are so keen on is somehow immune to the onslaught of smartphones. As far as I can see, a camera company forms a synergistic entity that depends on all the parts progressing, returning a profit, and feeding back into the general cycle of research and development. There’s no way that these great monolithic organizations will be creating advanced electronic cameras for a tiny niche of consumers, without the support of the mass-market units.

In other words, I do think we’ve already seen the golden age of digital camera production. It’s gonna be interesting to see what happens from here onwards, and no amount of calling the discussion "idiotic drivel" will change the irrevocable march of events.

 

[airfrogusmc]

I think we are seeing a lot of people that bought DSLRs and such just to photograph the kids and dogs and got caught on the gadget go round are jumping off and not upgrading but instead just using the new technology for that.

I think for many that post here the iphone is not the tool.

 

[GarageBoy]

The low end compact market has been decimated- but it's really competitive in every type of camera above that