The new p&s camera

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The new p&s camera

DaveOls
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p.1 #1 · The new p&s camera

I went to the zoo on Saturday with a film camera and a digital camera. I also took 5 lenses. I noticed that I was in the minority. I was surprised how many people were using their cell phones to take pictures. They are probably using their same cell phones to take pictures of their children as they are growing up. P&S cameras can be bought for a relatively small amount of money and have gotten much better over the years.
I don't understand how anyone can trust their memories to cell phone pictures. Can you even upload them to your computer?

Jan 14, 2013 at 03:30 PM

ISO1600
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p.1 #2 · The new p&s camera

Some of the newer phones can take very good pictures, as long as the light is half decent and you have half a clue what you're doing.
There are plenty of easy ways to back up/transfer the pictures elsewhere (Google Instant Upload, Dropbox, Facebook... ugh).

Yes, we all know on here that modern PnS cameras are much more capable, but at least they are taking pictures.

Jan 14, 2013 at 03:47 PM

Jman13
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p.1 #3 · The new p&s camera

Yes, you can upload them to your computer. And, if you haven't used a modern smartphone camera, they're actually pretty good. They're obviously not going to best a DSLR or something, but they are easily as good (or better) than most point and shoots from a few years ago, and even better than some of the modern cheap P&S cameras. Obviously, a high end compact like the Sony RX100 or Fuji X10 or X20 is going to be a lot better than a smartphone camera, but most people don't really care that much. The average person doesn't care one lick about noise or dynamic range. They want to be able to get a decent shot to upload to Facebook or Twitter.

I actually don't own a compact camera any more, and I use my iPhone when I want to take some quick pictures and don't want to carry a camera around. While my iPhone photos make up a very small percentage of my total shooting, I still take about 2-3,000 photos with my phone every year. In good light, I can print iPhone pics up to 8x10 and they look great. I actually made a little montage print of five Hipstamatic shots I took at my college when I was up there in 2011 for my 10th reunion. I took a ton more shots with my main camera, but the iPhone shots were consistent in processing and I liked the way they looked. I just had them printed as 5x5 prints and they look great on the wall.

Jan 14, 2013 at 04:03 PM

SSISteve
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p.1 #4 · The new p&s camera

What gets me more than using the cell phone are the people that haul their iPad around to take pictures with it. I agree that there are some fantastic p&s cameras that are inexpensive and small and will do a much better job than a cell phone. I have an iPhone but would never consider it for serious pictures. It might do a good job but just can't compete with the better small cameras.

Steve

Jan 14, 2013 at 06:53 PM

timpdx
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p.1 #5 · The new p&s camera

The zoo seems silly for a phone camera, you really want zoom at the zoo. When you shoot the tiger pen with a phone you get a 30mm-ish wide angle shot and the tiger is just a 10 pixel smudge in the overall photo.

Jan 14, 2013 at 07:19 PM

jojomon11
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p.1 #6 · The new p&s camera

Jan 14, 2013 at 07:28 PM

Vern Dewit
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p.1 #7 · The new p&s camera

Jman13 wrote:
Yes, you can upload them to your computer. And, if you haven't used a modern smartphone camera, they're actually pretty good. They're obviously not going to best a DSLR or something, but they are easily as good (or better) than most point and shoots from a few years ago, and even better than some of the modern cheap P&S cameras. Obviously, a high end compact like the Sony RX100 or Fuji X10 or X20 is going to be a lot better than a smartphone camera, but most people don't really care that much. The average person doesn't care one lick about noise or dynamic range. They want to be able to get a decent shot to upload to Facebook or Twitter.

+1! It's only us 'geeks' who actually care about the technical qualities of a photograph. Most people are just trying to capture a memory. Memories can be recreated from very crappy photographs!

I was out xcountry skiing with my daughter yesterday. As I took photos of our trip I editted them and uploaded them to FB while still skiing! Sometimes you gotta love technology...

Jan 14, 2013 at 07:42 PM

DTOB
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p.1 #8 · The new p&s camera

DaveOls wrote:I don't understand how anyone can trust their memories to cell phone pictures. Can you even upload them to your computer?

Yikes! 2 cameras and 5 lenses to the zoo....

I would say the people with the cell phone are at least making memories instead of juggling lenses...

Leave your entire collection at home...take 1 camera, 2 lenses. The zoo will still be there tomorrow. You don't have to photograph something for it to have meaning. Enjoy life and your families company. Yadda yadda yadda.

Jan 14, 2013 at 09:25 PM

HopeIsEternal
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p.1 #9 · The new p&s camera

The #1 problem with many phone photographers that I come across is that they pay almost no attention to the composition/perspective in their photos and they also do not hold the camera still without excessive shaking. The result is that the photos are not very interesting or memorable.

Jan 14, 2013 at 10:36 PM

Jman13
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p.1 #10 · The new p&s camera

^^ that's the #1 problem with any person who takes pictures and doesn't have any seriousness about the craft. There are some with a natural eye who aren't in to photography, but its not a large percentage.

I can't tell you how many times I've seen people actually print and frame photos that are completely out of focus (they focused on the background), and when I look at it, they say something like "I LOVE that picture!" And I'm thinking "wow, that would be a photo I'd actually delete." And I keep nearly everything. (I don't say that out loud)

Jan 14, 2013 at 11:12 PM

Spyro P.
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p.1 #11 · The new p&s camera

DaveOls wrote:I don't understand how anyone can trust their memories to cell phone pictures.

most people don't understand the difference between a cell phone picture and an 8X10, and when you explain it they go "uhm. Ok, soooooo, why do you bother again?"

Jan 14, 2013 at 11:18 PM

michael49
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p.1 #12 · The new p&s camera

SSISteve wrote:
What gets me more than using the cell phone are the people that haul their iPad around to take pictures with it. .....
Steve

Ahhh, nothing says loser more than taking out the iPad to take a photo - gotta love that.

Jan 15, 2013 at 01:02 AM

michael49
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p.1 #13 · The new p&s camera

Jman13 wrote:
...The average person doesn't care one lick about noise or dynamic range. They want to be able to get a decent shot to upload to Facebook or Twitter...

That may be true, but guess who is the one who is now basically expected to take all the photos of every holiday, trip or simple get together with my extended family?

Every year around Thanksgiving I start getting email requests for photos from over the year so people can make their photo calendars as gifts. All the photos end up being my "big camera" gear in their calendars - and none of their iphone photos - why? - because they don't get shots like this with their iphones....(they might not be able to articulate the difference in photographic terms, but they can see it pretty easily)...

This image is copyrighted by the owner

Jan 15, 2013 at 01:25 AM

DaveOls
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p.1 #14 · The new p&s camera

DTOB wrote:
DaveOls wrote:I don't understand how anyone can trust their memories to cell phone pictures. Can you even upload them to your computer?

Yikes! 2 cameras and 5 lenses to the zoo....

I would say the people with the cell phone are at least making memories instead of juggling lenses...

Leave your entire collection at home...take 1 camera, 2 lenses. The zoo will still be there tomorrow. You don't have to photograph something for it to have meaning. Enjoy life and your families company. Yadda yadda yadda.

I didn't switch lenses on either camera. Just left what was on there the whole time. I took 2 cameras so I could use one film and one digital. The film pictures actually look better to me than the digital ones from a D80.

Jan 15, 2013 at 01:52 AM

rattymouse
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p.1 #15 · The new p&s camera

Compact cameras are nearing end life. Cell phones are absolutely annihilating them. Go to some of THE most photographic places in the world, like the Great Wall of China or the Ming Tombs in Nanjing and you will see that the VAST majority of people are using cell phones to record these once-in-a-lifetime trips. Compact sales are stagnant at best and decline in most situations.

Thom Hogan wrote about this sometime last year, showing some data from a marketing firm. It was projected that in the year 2014 or 2015, that smart phone sales will exceed ONE BILLION units with compact cameras barely reaching 100 million. The compact camera market has peaked and will decline as people determine that cell phones are "good enough".

Jan 15, 2013 at 02:48 AM

runamuck
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p.1 #16 · The new p&s camera

"Good enough" varies from person to person. Good enough for me is often "Holy Shite" from someone else. I don't shoot professionally, though I've done a couple of weddings and sold some prints. Now I am finding myself in the same position as Michael49.

Jan 15, 2013 at 04:15 AM

sebboh
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p.1 #17 · The new p&s camera

HopeIsEternal wrote:
The #1 problem with many phone photographers that I come across is that they pay almost no attention to the composition/perspective in their photos and they also do not hold the camera still without excessive shaking. The result is that the photos are not very interesting or memorable.

you could take the word phone out of this statement and it wouldn't make a difference.

Jan 15, 2013 at 04:27 AM

Beni
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p.1 #18 · The new p&s camera

If they don't care why should anyone else? I used to run a 1 hour lab in the film days, the snapshots looked just as bad. The general public don't care and good luck to them.

Jan 15, 2013 at 09:39 AM

eosfun
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p.1 #19 · The new p&s camera

The phone camera now is what the 126 instamatics once were, the 110 film cameras have been and the digital elph powershots and coolpix models etc. in the beginning of the digital photography era. It's the point and shoot for the masses. What a lot of enthusiast photographers still can't imagine is that future cell phones will also take a part of the rebel-shooters market. Better low light performance, digital zooming and all kinds of in camera image processing will make the smartphone of the future even better than a lot of entry models D-SLRs of today. Those will be good enough and creative enough for a lot of enthusiast photographers who want more than a 10 pixel smudged tigershot in the zoo

Imagine a +/- 100 megapixel cell phone, with superb optics, in body image stabilization and a 3D imaging capability, not per se for 3D representation but for small DOF emulation through postprocessing, etc. built in the format of the smartphone you have today. I predict this is about five years from now. That will leave most of us at FM as the quality addicts with "large format" cameras. This FM place is gonna be a kind of group f64 type of photographers

while even a few of us, now in awe about Olympus OM-D and it's image quality, will be shooting their iPhone 7+ or Samsung Galaxy S5

Jan 15, 2013 at 10:00 AM

rscheffler
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p.1 #20 · The new p&s camera

DaveOls wrote:
I went to the zoo on Saturday with a film camera and a digital camera. I also took 5 lenses. I noticed that I was in the minority. I was surprised how many people were using their cell phones to take pictures. They are probably using their same cell phones to take pictures of their children as they are growing up. P&S cameras can be bought for a relatively small amount of money and have gotten much better over the years.
I don't understand how anyone can trust their memories to cell phone pictures. Can you even upload them to your computer?

The last time I was at the zoo, it was with friends who all had their toddlers in tow. 90% of the patrons at the zoo that fine summer mid-week day were young families. When you've got kids to look after and all the related gear to carry, pretty much most of the fun carrying around a full DSLR kit has been sucked out of your soul. I think I did see one guy with a fairly 'pro' set-up, but he was on his own.

I brought along my M9 and a few lenses. Didn't even bother 'shooting' the animals on display, rather the animals running around.

I've had this discussion with one of my friends at the zoo outing - why she shoots everything with her crummy BB's camera. Well, it's because it's what she has in her pocket/purse. While she has a digital P&S, it's one more thing to bring along. BTW, the memory card in that camera has images on it going back about 5-6 years... I think she did eventually figure out how to transfer those to her computer. With the phone, it's a few button presses to send update photos to nana...

michael49 wrote:
SSISteve wrote:
What gets me more than using the cell phone are the people that haul their iPad around to take pictures with it. .....
Steve

Ahhh, nothing says loser more than taking out the iPad to take a photo - gotta love that.

How about the guy shooting video with it at the hockey tournament I photographed this weekend. When one of his team's players was expelled from the game, he was repeatedly shouting at the ref (between expletives) "do you wanna see the replay?"

Finally the coach told him to settle down...

Jan 15, 2013 at 10:30 AM

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