Well, a large part of what made the piece cgw referred us to so _________, and so _______________, and so_____ (insert favored pejoratives in blanks, as needed) was the muddled thinking, the attempts to reduce the world to a one-size-fits-all solution based on the experiences of one man, of one generation, as well as his lack of clear, intelligent analysis and identification of the underlying issues surrounding personal photography. In other words, the New Yorker's blog piece was yet another in a series of fluff pieces, churned out in an attempt to convince readers that a cell phone camera can, and will, utterly replace traditional "cameras". It was based on some highly flawed half-assed efforts at "reasoning".
The Leica lust-but-had-to-settle-for a Nikon-on-a-college-student's budget/Nikon backpacking trip across Japan/college kid shooting his first slide film/the cult of the Hassy 500C experience/joining the digital SLR crowd with all the MWAC and GWAC when the Nikon D70 hit the streets at under $1,000/ switch to a small mirrorless/ six-day hiking trip with an iPhone arc. That one man's dabbling in photography has led him to conclude that the iPhone 6s of the future will replace all cameras. That being a "networked photographer" and editing on a cell phone's touch screen is some kind of bliss.
It's alllllll based on the assumption that "sharing on Facebook", and sharing ,"NOW, Godd*mni+!!" is what drives the whole of photography. He got a real woodie on the six-day hike in Japan, which by the way, built cell phone towers even in remote locations, YEARS ago, so that wireless telephony would be possible even in the remote parts of that tiny island nation. Apparently, he got so much wood by insta-spewing his images to friend around the world that he had an epiphany of sorts...based on good cell phone service and the feel-good vibes he got, kind of a Facebook and e-mail feedback buzz, he declared the end of photography as we have known it...
It's kind of sad. The New Yorker used to represent higher standards, but these days, they'll let anybody blog. What the author's piece failed to take into account is what YOU are asking: What happens if more-traditional, interchangeable lens, or even zoom-lens cameras, become "networked"? His entire premise is based upon the unstated assumption that ONLY cellphone cameras offer networking capability, and that by virtue of that, that other camera types will become irrelevant in the near future--or as he implies, when the iPhone 6 is current.
But yeah....the huge elephant, the WHAT IF cameras become connected line of thought...uh...that went out the window with the baby and the bathwater...
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