Two images taken on a digicam phone. As the quality of such devices increases and the use of the web as a means of exchanging images grows will they be the photography of choice for the vast majority over the next few years ? Discuss....
Phone cams are point and shoots. I don't consider most of the digitals out now p&s cameras, as you can adjust shutter speed, focal length, etc. But yeah, I think that as kids who are used to using them get older and as they get better, their use will will really spread, at least in NA/Europe/Japan.
well these are the best I have seen so far. So they are improving and personally if you know and shoot within it's limitations even the cheapest cameras produce more than acceptable photographs.
The majority of camera users aren't into photography, they just want to take photos of their friends, family, and places they travel. They want a small, easy to use camera, that's always with them; for many folks that's more important than image quality. Right now it's cell phone cams. Soon it may be cameras mounted in sunglasses. Eventually the cameras may be mounted directly in the users skull.
I like matt's answer because it deals with the reality that not everyone is looking for the same things. My wife and daughter deal in one reality, I want the camera simple and in my purse. My son in law and I deal in another reality. We have to deal with the images from those point and shoot cameras. Neither of us can get past the poor quality of the image, but my wife and daughter just want the picture of spencer they don't really care all that much. They are sending the picture to his great grand parents. The Gp's have no idea what a good picture is anyway but they love the ones of spencer even if they are blown out (a term I dont like at all). Matt is dead right and even one more even the procams are still evolving. Who knows what it will be, maybe a tiny little slr type camera mounted in a big empty box, so we feel better about it. Son in law said when he was working with me. "I have to have a bigger camera than this. It doesn't look like the ones I see on TV.".... LOL
I also think technology changes significantly faster than people do so just because a dSLR becomes an amazing value doesn't necessarily mean people will buy it. Some good points on this thread. My two cents is that cameras are just a tool and it's the person behind it that decides what it's use is and that won't change significantly despite the advances in the tool. There will always be that group that just doesn't care about an SLR's advantages because they're content with a P&S as there will always be another group that wants manual control over EVERY feature a camera can offer because of the artistic difference it brings to the pic.
When I was working in a camera store selling mostly film cameras it seemed to me most people wanted a small camera, big zoom, and big, easy to see viewfinder. That pretty much describes digital P&S; I'm sure all my old customers are loving the live action LCD on the back. The digital camera that I dream of is like an Olympus Stylus Epic (the little no-zoom, film Stylus), but it has a sensor like what's in a 20D. And it needs aperture priority, and a pc socket so I can use off camera flash. But other than that, it can be just like a little P&S.
