This camera I hate

[GaryLH]

Lately I have been seeing this more and more.. The good and the bad of it is that w/ instant upload to their favorite site (Flickr, tweeter, Facebook, etc), it seems to be about being able to show all your friends about what u are up to then worrying about rudeness for some of them..

I think for others, it is really the only device they carry that can take pictures. For them, this is good enough.

Gary

 

[MarylandBill]

Camera sales have stalled especially at the low end. Olympus just dropped their low-end digicams. Tablets and phones have taken their place.

I never claimed otherwise. But I think we should keep in mind that of the major camera makers, really only Samsung and Sony have the expertise to make inroads in the phone and tablet market (where Samsung is in fact a huge player).

For many users, they don't have a cameraphone, just a tablet. So if that has a camera, that's what they use.

Wait, what country do you live in? In the United States (which may not be representative of every country), there are at least twice as many smart phones out there as tablets (and at a guess, I would say at least 80% of tablet owners also own a smart phone). I know of very few smart phones that don't include a camera and even the vast majority of feature phones include cameras as well.

Today's cameras do not "play nice". They almost all depend on a PC to act as the software darkroom, yet more and more people do not have a home PC (sales stalled there as well). A few connect to the internet, but it is often a laboured process.

If they "played nice" they'd be more functional instead of stuck in their discrete little world, dependent on a PC which the user may or may not have. That dependency is giving sales of cameras over to tablet and smartphone makers to the point where Apple just launched a $70 million ad campaign trumping the iPhone's dominance as a camera! And for its convenience. So if it is convenience people want, dedicated cameras have to go there as well. I doubt very much that many of these tablet photographers really enjoy photography this way, but they do because their convenience trumps all else.

A dedicated camera is never going to be able to compete with a converged device for the dollars of the average snapshot shooter. Sure there are some people using iPhones for serious photography, but for the vast majority of people, they get the iPhone and then decide they just don't need a dedicated camera as well; despite the shortcomings of the iPhone.

Meanwhile, I want the serious cameras of the world to stick with giving me the best picture possible. Give me the best base image possible, I will choose the tools I want to do with that image what I want.

--
Bill

 

[DougFord]

Haven't experienced this myself.
I typically don't photograph 'events' though. I figure if there's an idiot taking pics with an iPad in front of me then I'm probably pointing my camera in the wrong direction.

 

[GaryLH]

Sorry, I think of them as modern day idiots.

Why? Is it their fault that they ave no desire to become true photographers, that they just want a device that can capture a moment in time for them? So long as they at not rude about it, does it matter?

Gary

 

[GaryLH]

it's awful even if you're just spectating. worst is at concerts where people periscope the ipads to see over the crowd and block the view of folks in back of them. karen o of the yeah yeah yeahs has told her audiences not to do this.

Agreed.. If u been asked not too.. I know I have been to weddings where the pro has asked the guest w/ cameras to let him take his pictures first at the setup shots. Since he laid down the rules, they respected it. I have been to others where it was a zoo because the pro never laid down his rules.

Gary

 

[Photog9000]

It is not just amateurs that get in the way

It is not just amateurs that get in the way

Understand the frustration but it is sad when another working pro gets in the way at an event. I was working for a small weekly in the Florida Panhandle when Janet Reno made her truck tour through while running for governor. I arrived at the location, scouted it, and made some preliminary selections for shots. There was also a shooter from the Tallahassee Democrat following Reno. We nodded at each other and, as Reno arrived, I went to one of the spots I had scouted. As Reno approached, I was just about to press the shutter button when this a$$h@1e stepped directly in front of me. He knew I was there but I guess he thought "I am a big daily shooter and I have rights!" I glared at him and he just smiled. Fortunately over the next 10 years I never saw him again.....

 

[kshapero]

Why? Is it their fault that they ave no desire to become true photographers, that they just want a device that can capture a moment in time for them? So long as they at not rude about it, does it matter?

Gary

Because it is rude to hold up a device that large and block people's view. The fact that is also a camera is irrelevant to me.

 

[GaryLH]

That I would agree, but u were commenting about a picture of people using their iPad camera that was not doing any such thing in my mind.

Gary

 

[Al Patterson]

highly NSFW:

http://thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=padhole

Yes, but it says it all better than I could.

Don't be a padhole...

 

[Al Patterson]

I still say, rude rude rude.

Yep. Like wearing a baseball cap in a restaurant...

 

[Roger Hicks]

Camera sales have stalled especially at the low end. Olympus just dropped their low-end digicams. Tablets and phones have taken their place.

For many users, they don't have a cameraphone, just a tablet. So if that has a camera, that's what they use.

Today's cameras do not "play nice". They almost all depend on a PC to act as the software darkroom, yet more and more people do not have a home PC (sales stalled there as well). A few connect to the internet, but it is often a laboured process.

If they "played nice" they'd be more functional instead of stuck in their discrete little world, dependent on a PC which the user may or may not have. That dependency is giving sales of cameras over to tablet and smartphone makers to the point where Apple just launched a $70 million ad campaign trumping the iPhone's dominance as a camera! And for its convenience. So if it is convenience people want, dedicated cameras have to go there as well. I doubt very much that many of these tablet photographers really enjoy photography this way, but they do because their convenience trumps all else.

Are you sure? Is it not at least as likely that people already have perfectly functional computers, but are replacing them far less often because there's no real need?

Cheers,

R.

 

[GaryLH]

Are you sure? Is it not at least as likely that people already have perfectly functional computers, but are replacing them far less often because there's no real need?

Cheers,

R.

Plus one.. Sort of

For the average person doing email, surfing the web and word processing, the power of the pc hit that point a long time ago.. The only reason for the addition horsepower after that was the graphical interface that made the computer easier to use.

Once tablets/smart phone interfaces became easier, graphical computing power, battery life, cost and mobility hit the sweet spot, then it was only a matter of time that a downward trend in pc sales would occur.

Gary

 

[Aristophanes]

Because it is rude to hold up a device that large and block people's view. The fact that is also a camera is irrelevant to me.

I wonder how people felt in the "old days" when photographers set up view cameras with their tripods and stuff.

 

[Aristophanes]

Are you sure? Is it not at least as likely that people already have perfectly functional computers, but are replacing them far less often because there's no real need?

Many are choosing not to replace a PC with a PC, but with a tablet or even just using a smartphone.

When I see tablets used as cameras I do see the annoying physical space they take up, but I also see the market space they embody (the whole mindshare thing). Camera sales are stalling because of this, certainly at the low end, but it will creep up.

Camera makers are still locked into the mindset that users will take a physical card out of a dedicated camera, put it in a PC, edit, organize, and share. The use of a digital camera depends largely on a PC.

No longer. Consumers are using non-PC interfaces, which means tablets and smartphones. The camera makers see the PC as an accessory to the camera. In fact, it's now the reverse. The tablet or iPhone is rapidly seeing the camera as the accessory to the network. The major camera brands have done almost nothing to interface with this new technology.

Why shouldn't consumers use a tablet? It takes the photo (quality is subjective even here on RFF), allows for quick and easy previewing, can edit, organize, and share, all in one, with a huge variety of options for editing, networking, archiving, and professional apps.

The inability of the camera makers to make it easy to interface (SD/CF card reliance) is leading to people leaving the camera at home and just getting by with the tablet camera. There's too much networking and personal use friction to getting a photo from a dedicated camera into the main consumer interface device.

You're going to see a lot more of this, etiquette be darned.