The new p&s camera

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The new p&s camera

Stuyou
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p.2 #1 · The new p&s camera

If there was a way to have manual controls on my Iphone camera, 2/3rds of my photos would come from my phone. The Iphone 5 camera is amazing and it is always in my pocket. I now have a G10 that lives in my briefcase (with an ext flash) or my car's glove box. The big camera and lenses come out when I want to do something not possible with the other two (shallow DOF, really wide, long reach, low light, really sharp, macro, etc.). I enjoy framing and editing a picture much more than carrying a bunch of gear around.

To me its more about the photographer than the camera.

Jan 15, 2013 at 10:50 AM

rebelshooter
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p.2 #2 · The new p&s camera

timpdx wrote:
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.

But you get a fantastic picture of the fence.

Jan 15, 2013 at 10:51 AM

ricardovaste
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p.2 #3 · The new p&s camera

DaveOls wrote:
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. Can you even upload them to your computer?

Well, I wonder what they were thinking in return? "Hey, we're just enjoying a day at the Zoo, might take a photo or two. What is that guy doing fumbling all those lenses, taking so many photos? What will he even do with them?". I'm far from siding, as I do agree with your point in part, but there are a number of ways to look at it. You've chosen to experience the Zoo through a couple of cameras, lenses... will you really remember or care at all about these photos in 10 years? Just speculating for the point of the argument, so nothing personal :-)

As for phones, well... as mentioned some produce more than acceptable quality these days if used in good light. My sister actually has a 10x8 from her Galaxy S2 (not exactly a new phone now) that I was surprised looked pretty well. This was for reproducing in paint, not to hang on the wall or anything. So if you take that into consideration, why would the average Joe lump a second camera around? They don't, waste of time, waste of money, waste of space.

As for photos of your family, well, this is should be important for anyone I believe. But isn't it just a reflection of the self image obsessed world we live in? Not to be dramatic, but I do think this is part of it. If you use Facebook at all, you will understand what I mean. The worse I've seen for family photos is someone using an instagram ish filter for their baby photos, awful green, scratches, high contrast, over sharpened, very dark - Great, your child looks like it's a a victim from a horror movie. For me I can naturally relate it to wedding photography - friends of friends experience cheap, shoot & burn, and realise what they're left with. Over time, some people will realise what they're left with. For the others, ignorance is bliss...

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

I was at a small exhibition last year and there was some guy walking around with his iPad level to his face, photographing every single piece (every time followed by a flash of light, as if it wasn't annoying enough). I'm not a confrontational personal, but it really p*ssed me off. I was just trying to enjoy & understand the exhibition like most normal people would... he didn't really say much, walked out of the exhibition straight away...

Jan 15, 2013 at 11:26 AM

Jman13
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p.2 #4 · The new p&s camera

How was he taking flash photos with an iPad? No iPads have a flash.

Jan 15, 2013 at 10:36 PM

h00ligan
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p.2 #5 · The new p&s camera

Because most people a) have no idea about the gear. B) have no idea about photography.

How many iphone or Instagram shooters would get great results with a good pocket cam. Without taking the time to even read a manual.

It's one reason sones scene modes are quite genius. Ad more so we can turn off menu hints.

Jan 16, 2013 at 12:21 AM

woodrim
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p.2 #6 · The new p&s camera

eosfun wrote:
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

I think eosfun is on the right track. Never underestimate technology advancements. And what others have said is also true, in fact, my own son comes to mind. he makes it clear he's capturing memories and oddly hasn't any interest in photography despite growing up with a photographer dad. I recognize his priorities and allow him the convenience that he believes goes along with an I-phone or whatever. But getting back to what eosfun was saying, we just need to look to the past to get an appreciation what the future will hold. Compare the first digital cameras to today's and think of the relatively short period of time that has passed. I can even see the phone cameras, or whatever communication and media devices they become, having resolution capabilities well above anything we've even considered. How about software that would give the user to simulate using telephotos, wide angles, and even characteristics like bokeh - all done digitally. Let's see, dial in an old Helios-40 for a swirl bokeh. And as long as they still make it possible for the P&S people to take pictures of their fingers in front of the lens, nothing will be lost.

Jan 16, 2013 at 01:54 AM

VetraLens
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p.2 #7 · The new p&s camera

I used to be skeptical until I saw some photos with an iPhone 4. While obviously not DSLR quality, they were on par with the average $100 p&s. I will stress that it was outdoors in good light, but the detail was inpressive. Of course, IQ degraded rapidly as light fell.

I think what confounds me more is the fact that while people cantake a decent enough photo with a smartphone, they insist on ruining it with "artistic" Instagram filters to make it look unique, or whatever the reasoning is. (I will admit I occasionally see well-done Instagram shots).

Jan 16, 2013 at 05:02 AM

ken.vs.ryu
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p.2 #8 · The new p&s camera

Phones are decent in good light and for web posting.

If you want to share photos from your cam, this is my solution. A card reader and a phone.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIEtFIC310c

Jan 16, 2013 at 05:20 AM

15Bit
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p.2 #9 · The new p&s camera

Perhaps we should spare a moment to consider how we view our snapshots. In the past we printed them at a variety of small sizes ranging up to 4x6 or 5x7 if we really wanted to pay for the printing. Printing at this size didn't require great quality from either camera or film, and folk were happy capturing their memories on hardware that by any metric was poor.

Now we primarily view our photos on our phones and computers (mostly phones i would say). The image is displayed at around the same size as the prints we are used to (either on the phone or on Facebook etc), and the hardware requirements are thus similarly not so high. Already i would argue that most phone cameras vastly exceed the capability of the P&S film cameras of old, especially with respect to low light. And as EOSFun points out, they will improve further still. Being able to capture and view on a multifunction device that we are carrying around anyway is an obvious convenience, and if the performance is more than "good enough" (which it is) then why would folk buy something else? The death of the cheap P&S was implicit the moment cameras started appearing in phones, the final nail was the launch of smartphones with decent sized screens.

Jan 16, 2013 at 06:49 AM

ulrikft2
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p.2 #10 · The new p&s camera

sebboh wrote:
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.

+1

Oh, and for the record, I just placed second in a photo contest, I handed in three shots, two from my nex-7, one from my iphone. The iphone pic was the one that placed second...

Oh, and an old obligatory phone pic:

This image is copyrighted by the owner

Jan 16, 2013 at 07:09 AM

ricardovaste
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p.2 #11 · The new p&s camera

Jman13 wrote:
How was he taking flash photos with an iPad? No iPads have a flash.
It must have been some other sort of tablet, clearly.

Jan 16, 2013 at 09:22 AM

Sam Waldron
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p.2 #12 · The new p&s camera

I use a Smartphone and an EM5.

Really impressed with my Galaxy S3 in good light, plenty for a full screen facebook shots and whatnot.

Jan 17, 2013 at 12:38 AM

chez
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p.2 #13 · 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.

Maybe nt to you, but to the person who got a shot for memory...it could be priceless. Let's not judge what is important to other people. We all have our own priorities.

Jan 17, 2013 at 01:40 AM

chez
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p.2 #14 · The new p&s camera

Jman13 wrote:
^^ 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)

And I bet if I would look at some of what you keep, I would say the same. We all have our own needs...why judge others?

Jan 17, 2013 at 01:43 AM

chez
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p.2 #15 · The new p&s camera

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.

Or a geek with a big lens and a big camera trying to take a photo of a caged animal. Never did see the fascination of shooting at zoos...let alone even visiting a zoo.

Jan 17, 2013 at 01:46 AM

Jman13
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p.2 #16 · The new p&s camera

I can't help what I hear in my mind. I don't ever say anything to them. If it's a good moment, I will comment on how it captures a great moment. I would never make anyone feel small about something like that. I understand that most people are shooting for memories and not for photographic art, but I still find it jarring to see a framed shot where the person is up close and completely blurry.

I don't make judgements about how good a person someone is based on their photographic skill, but if you're saying you don't judge the quality of photos you see, I'd say you're not being completely honest. As photographers we have to naturally critique our own photos to improve, and this leads to us also viewing others work...does a particular shot work for you? If it does, why? Can you apply that to your own photography? If it doesn't work, can you see what would have been better to do next time? You're telling me you just view all photos and think to yourself 'that's nice' regardless of what kind of photo you see?

When people ask me for camera advice, I don't immediately say "spend $2000 on a great camera and lens and take photography lessons." I ask them what kind of pictures they take...are they snapshots for recording events or do you want flexibility in creating more artistic photos? Do they need manual control, or are they a pure green box person? Then I recommend cameras that apply to them. In many cases, I have actually said, "Honestly, you're probably better off just sticking with your smartphone." because it fits the way they shoot and the quality level they need. In fact, last February, I wrote an article that goes through this process completely...and I even recommend that for many people a phone camera is all they need: http://admiringlight.com/blog/when-is-your-camera-good-enough/2/

Plus, for someone who is scolding others for judging, you seem to be having a very large string of very judgemental posts.

Jan 17, 2013 at 01:50 AM

Chrissearle
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p.2 #17 · The new p&s camera

As a fairly serious amateur it's easy to loose sight of the fact that the vast majority of people are completely happy with the photographs they take with a phone. I often have to bite my tongue when shown slideshows of photographs by friends just back from a foreign holiday, photographs that are out of focus, smeary with agressive noise reduction, terribly composed and just plain uninteresting. The thing is, many people do not even see these issues, they just see the memories and thats good enough for them. And, I have to say, I've been very impressed with the results its now possible to achieve with a phone if a little care is taken.

Jan 25, 2013 at 04:15 AM

Jorgen Udvang
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p.2 #18 · The new p&s camera

I'm sure the image quality out of most phone cameras is vastly better than what could be obtained with this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11Mpj2CwsOw

And I remember the photos from the sixties that people took; headless, legless people, tilted and under/over exposed. But the negatives probably lasted longer than most digital photos. Even if it's possible to copy photos from a phone to a computer, very few do that.

Jan 25, 2013 at 05:42 AM

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