Are cameras becoming obsolete due to smartphones?

[Renegade]

So they killed the MP3 players and wrist watches (at least for their utility if not for their novelty) and now they are almost there with the cameras (again for the casual users). Or are they?

From what I see around I believe the digital camera sales have come down considerably compared to yester years. No longer do people bother to carry cameras when they can travel light with the smartphones. The phone camera quality has been improving constantly.

On the other hand smartphones cannot give you exposure options or ISO control that cameras do, well to some extent but only with software manipulation instead of pure optics. Smartphones are not good with action and low light compositions. But honestly do casual photographers really use anything beyond the auto mode?

So what is your opinion on the matter. Are the smartphones about to show the door to the compact digital cameras. Or are the cameras here to stay for a long time to come.

 

[srkmish]

yeah with cameras and image processing becoming better in smartphones, youth of today doesn't need digital cameras anymore. furthermore the appeal of instant sharing and editing is huge and digicams cant offer that either. the thing where digicams fare better for a casual user is battery life.

on the other hand, the market for dslrs, micro 4/3, high end compacts is increasing among photography enthusiasts as these technolgies are also growing at great rate and prices are falling. i am just amazed to see the pics produced by an olympus omd em5. nowadays even entry level slrs are so advanced that if you are not producing amazing pictures, there must be flaw in your imagination or technique

 

[raksrules]

I think I can say that in last 3 years I have take 90% of pics from my phone and may be 10% from camera. For me my iPhone has replaced the main camera. It is capable of 1080p videos also which turn out really good as well (watched them on 46" HDTV).
Photos are equally good. I anyways don't using anything except auto mode on my dedicated camera.

 

[blr_p]

From what I see around I believe the digital camera sales have come down considerably compared to yester years. No longer do people bother to carry cameras when they can travel light with the smartphones. The phone camera quality has been improving constantly.

No optical zoom on phones, though samsung is trying to make moves here with k zoom.

On the other hand smartphones cannot give you exposure options or ISO control that cameras do, well to some extent but only with software manipulation instead of pure optics. Smartphones are not good with action and low light compositions. But honestly do casual photographers really use anything beyond the auto mode?

exp comp & ISO are present on phones whose vendors deem them to be fit ie Samsung, sony, nokia, htc. There is no software manipulation they are using the sensor itself. The manipulation is digital zoom or ultra zoom.

The ones who do not offer these options are apple, lg with its g3, moto and the latest chinese flagships, xiaomi, OPO, lenovo vibe z & Oppo. Very strange with the chinese phones as they offer other interesting features, i just did not expect them to subtract a few in the process. None of them does exp comp and only vibe z has manual iso.

Smartphones are good with action so long as light is adequate. They can do low light too in skilled hands. find7 features an incredible 32s shutter. What smartphones cannot deal with is moderate action in indoors or low light.

Casual photographers with smartphones are the modern version of illiterates. They expect the phone to work miracles and when it does not they blame the device. They want to be freed of what it takes to know how to get a photo and are ready to pay handsomely. But auto is a sure recipe for unpredictability, as lighting conditions are never the same from one scene to the next. In clear cut situations you can get away and that depends on how smart the software is, otherwise you get a mess.

So what is your opinion on the matter. Are the smartphones about to show the door to the compact digital cameras. Or are the cameras here to stay for a long time to come.

sensor size on phones is limited, compacts have an advantage of using bigger sensors and better optics. But convenience gets in the way. One needs to want better than what they are getting presently.

I would not mind a consolidation in the compact space where there are less but more capable models than the many at price intervals of a few k ruppees.

 

[Onemufc]

For a casual user the modern smartphone camera is good enough. For 8 out of 10 users that camera will serve most of the purposes but for a few DSLR is still the way to go .

 

[nimod]

I haven't seen any data yet, but what I have observed that people are not more buying point-and-shoot types and Video cameras.
But i have seen more people buying D/SLRs.

 

[benryu]

Havent used my digicam in years now. Only use phone and only auto mode. Dont know anything else.

 

[nRiTeCh]

Smartphone cameras can never replace/or compete the ability of a professional dslr or even a professional digital camera.

In fact there are very few people when it comes to either of these gadgets, they use or have knowledge of each and every functions their gadgets offer.
Majority of them just juggle between image and video mode and shoot only in Auto mode.
They dont know the device has settings like closeup modes, portrait, motion/speed capture, low light intensity, color/light balance, panorama, and many more to keep adding. In fact they dont even know ther is something called as night mode and complain that as promised my camera/cellphone doesnt shoot crisp images 2 night.

I have seen people buying hi-end phones and many gadgets just for the sake of buying and show-offs and having no real usage in their lives. They buy just coz their peers have it or they get influenced by them or just that they want to own a 30-50k device thats its. But their real usage??? Just calls/text/whatsapp/fb/music/general web surf and occasional camera usage but only in AUTO mode. Well for such people even a basic Nokia Asha will suffice their needs.

I truly feel they are disrespecting the gadget by not using it the purpose it has been designed for.
Its like owning a bmw and using it for a fiat purpose.

 

[RD274]

Bring up any specification, feature or details of any high end phone on the market but aside from the Lumia, no other phone has a xenon flash. And that alone makes all the difference in the world when you're trying to take a picture at night. Now if more phones had an extra xenon flash and not get heat up while shooting FHD, I'd be worried. But till then I'd stick to my trusty Coolpix.

 

[nRiTeCh]

Bring up any specification, feature or details of any high end phone on the market but aside from the Lumia, no other phone has a xenon flash. And that alone makes all the difference in the world when you're trying to take a picture at night. Now if more phones had an extra xenon flash and not get heat up while shooting FHD, I'd be worried. But till then I'd stick to my trusty Coolpix.

Its a myth that only Xenon flash can take good pictures at night. Many dual flash phones click excellent pictures in pitch dark.
In fact xenon sucks on many occasions due to its over-whitening effect which spoils the actual overall picture/ object.

I still use N86 and it has got dual flash and never ever it has disappointed me till date. I too had a N82 which was the first Nokia's and much talk about phones having Xenon flash but its magic only works shooting from a distance and you cannot capture closeups in pitch dark night with a xenon, as what you will get is just a plain white glow effect rather than the targeted object.

 

[blr_p]

Forgot to mention that its only the flagships or better mid ranges that can actually compete with compacts as the sensor sizes are similar and processing algorithms are much better. Course without optical zoom they will always be at a disadvantage. other low to mid range phones do not really compete, its just that since that segment makes up the bulk of the camera phone owning crowd that similarly low end compacts are going away to be replaced with better quality & more capable compacts. The scope is there, better lenses and larger sensors. Phones are always limited by size and use plastic lenses.

When it comes to smartphone cameras, the biggest limiting factor is the camera software. The sensor itself is capable but you cannot interact with it directly, must go through the vendors tools. 3rd party does not help much as if the vendor decides to lock their camera libraries then no software will access them. So the capability might very well be there but there is no way to unlock that potential. So what the phone allows and more importantly disallows needs to be considered.

Simple thing like no exp comp means photos can be blown whereas otherwise a simple tweak will get it right. When exp comp is absent then you need to avoid taking shots in bright light or trick the camera by focusing on the brightest part and then moving to the subject, both of which needs to be at the same distance, whether the camera allows this or not has to be determined . Same with low light.

 

[RD274]

Its a myth that only Xenon flash can take good pictures at night. Many dual flash phones click excellent pictures in pitch dark.
In fact xenon sucks on many occasions due to its over-whitening effect which spoils the actual overall picture/ object.

I still use N86 and it has got dual flash and never ever it has disappointed me till date. I too had a N82 which was the first Nokia's and much talk about phones having Xenon flash but its magic only works shooting from a distance and you cannot capture closeups in pitch dark night with a xenon, as what you will get is just a plain white glow effect rather than the targeted object.

Thats ridiculous. Try taking a pic from a distance of greater than 5 feet, most phones will immediately struggle. A lot of phones can't even tell how well the LED has performed and how much it has to compensate in software. Not to forget, LEDs blind cause they stay on for so long, where as Xenon makes one quick and sharp burst that illuminates everything. That said, I suggested that phones should have an extra xenon flash in addition to their led flashs. The LED for assisting, video shooting or even as a flashlight but the Xenon for everything else.

Funny you mention that Nokia phone as an example. I have a Nokia 79 which I use as a backup phone which has dual LEDs too. Theres no doubt that the dual LEDs are extremely bright (and blinding) but they are downright terrible on the phone when it comes to white balance. Every pic taken with that phone and its flash on came out yellow to the point where I stopped using the flash as it gave everyone jaundice. I originall thought it was a problem with my phone till I discovered that all N79s have this problem. Xenons weren't too common on phones back then so perhaps your N82 was bugged like my dual LED flash N79. But even then some phones did it very well like this K850i - before/after, I like to see an iPhone 5S even touch that.

 

[Ragin_Ice]

Most people are happy with the output of phone camera. Here is what the top cameras look like which includes smartphones.
https://www.flickr.com/cameras

 

[blkrb0t]

For normal day-to-day uses, yes, cameras are being replaced by smartphones. But dedicated cameras are here to stay for various reasons.

 

[nRiTeCh]

Thats ridiculous. Try taking a pic from a distance of greater than 5 feet, most phones will immediately struggle. A lot of phones can't even tell how well the LED has performed and how much it has to compensate in software. Not to forget, LEDs blind cause they stay on for so long, where as Xenon makes one quick and sharp burst that illuminates everything. That said, I suggested that phones should have an extra xenon flash in addition to their led flashs. The LED for assisting, video shooting or even as a flashlight but the Xenon for everything else.

Funny you mention that Nokia phone as an example. I have a Nokia 79 which I use as a backup phone which has dual LEDs too. Theres no doubt that the dual LEDs are extremely bright (and blinding) but they are downright terrible on the phone when it comes to white balance. Every pic taken with that phone and its flash on came out yellow to the point where I stopped using the flash as it gave everyone jaundice. I originall thought it was a problem with my phone till I discovered that all N79s have this problem. Xenons weren't too common on phones back then so perhaps your N82 was bugged like my dual LED flash N79. But even then some phones did it very well like this K850i - before/after, I like to see an iPhone 5S even touch that.

I have clearly mentioned that you cannot capture near and closeup objects in pitch dark nicely with a xenon flash but only with a single flash or a dual ones to be better. I have never used N79 so cannot comment on that but N95 8gb struggles on that part and so many other nokias of that era which I tested personally. Also my N82 wasnt suffering from any bugs or flaws and I bought it just to experience whats a xenon flash all about. No doubt Sony introduced xenons on their K series camera line phones and their xenon and camera software was simply unbeatable at that times. Sadly I wasnt able to get my hands on any of those K series.

And 5 feet is no big deal. As inside my home, my N86 clicks my bedrooms and kitchens in pitch very crisp and clear. At a distance of 39 foot(1200 cms) is my kitchen straight as seen from my hall and my bedroom diagonally/cross 37.5foot (1150 cm) from mid-hall ....just now calculated with a ruler manually. Also sometimes I click images of flowers in balcony in pitch dark when everybody is asleep at night and of my die cast collectible model cars.

Finally, I dont say my N86 is way too great or so but yes it does serves my purpose very well & its the only camera+phone I have and all praises. In fact it still kicks ass of many androids available in the market on camera part.

To conclude both of them have their very own +ve and -ve aspects. At times even a single flash can blow xenon and dual flashes as the situation needs just very minor lighting.

I wished cellphones would have come equipped with a software which can even adjust the light of the flash just like the one we have dimmers at home to make the room lighting light or dim. In this sense we could have got even near perfect pictures in low light conditions.

 

[blr_p]

But even then some phones did it very well like this K850i - before/after, I like to see an iPhone 5S even touch that.

before - 1/5s, ISO 250
after - 1/250 (!), ISO 200

This is with a f2.8 phone that has half the aperture, ie lets in half as much light of modern day F2.0

no way to match it.

the shutter speed boost is 50 times faster. with an led best you can expect is 1/5 becomes maybe 1/50 or little more which means an led can not freeze motion as well indoors as a xenon. Bear in mind this is a totally dark picture the xenon advantage is still there even in low light wehre it can give just that little bit more than an led.

I wished cellphones would have come equipped with a software which can even adjust the light of the flash just like the one we have dimmers at home to make the room lighting light or dim. In this sense we could have got even near perfect pictures in low light conditions.

The 5s is supposed to do this but i've not seen it verified. Only possible with an led though.

about xenon being overpowering, all you need to do is stick some tissue paper over to diffuse. Gets fiddly.

An overpowering flash is less of a problem than an underpowered one. leds are fine for a lot of situations but i've yet to see them freeze motion as reliably as a zenon can.