Smartphones: The Future Of Digital Photography?

By Mike Thompson


Ever since smartphones have entered the technology scene, it has caused a serious slump in compact camera sales. One of the most popular photo sharing sites, Flickr, has cites that the most popular cameras used by its members are the Apple iPhone 4S, the Apple iPhone 5 and the Apple iPhone 4.

Even though it appears that smartphones have made the existence of digital cameras superfluous, there are many people still purchasing these types of cameras. One of the many reasons why this is the case is because of photo quality. A dim light photo test that pits the Apple iPhone 5, the Samsung Galaxy S4 and the Canon Powershot G15, shows that the Canon Powershot is the easily the best choice.



Not like the smartphone, with a digital camera, you will able to shoot photos from a fair distance away because of the larger zoom factor. There are other benefits as well, including better metering, white balance and superior subject tracking. You may also crop photos at 300% zoom and use that to show off to your friends on Facebook or Instagram simply because the quality is still really great at that crop level. With a smartphone, this is just not possible.

You also have to take into account of the fact that your smartphone is still really just a phone that happens to be fairly versatile and that taking lots of photos can be a cause of a massive battery drain. You definitely don't want to be struggling to be making a phone call or a text message later on because of this.

As a matter of fact, the big camera vendors have decided to compete against smartphones and not just let them achieve a monopoly. This has resulted in the creation of 'smart cameras' which are digital cameras that allow you to send photos online via Wi-Fi or your mobile phone's connection.

For instance, Canon has recently developed the Powershot N, which is a small square shaped digital camera, designed to have the similar size as a smartphone as well as having built-in Instagram-like filters and built-in Wi-Fi for instant photo sharing.

In general, digital compact cameras are becoming increasingly sophisticated so much so that it even rivals the DSLR versions of themselves. Take the latest Nikon Coolpix A for example, it has the same 16.1 megapixel sensor found in the Nikon D7100 camera as well as the image processor found in the earlier D7000 model.

All in all, smartphones shouldn't be totally disregarded as a viable camera alternative. It really comes down to shooting preferences. Are you someone who would ever shoot photos for the sake of social sharing? Then smartphones are your best bet. Are you someone who would like near-perfect shots everytime regardless of lighting conditions? Then using a digital camera is more suitable for you.

The best way to negotiate between these two choices is this, think of smartphones as complementary to digital cameras instead of their replacement.




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