# Is it time to say goodbye to cameras? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 19, 2013, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-to-say-goodbye-to-cameras/650794 "2013-02-19T14:03:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 10:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-to-say-goodbye-to-cameras/650794/41 "2013-02-21T10:08:55Z")
> [@usedtobe](#): > > My point is that digital may be the future - I don’t doubt that it will be. My point is that more thought needs to go into how you are going to store that image, not how you view it. > Computers used to used paper tape for data. Then mag tape. Then mag disk. Using silicone chips is a huge leap into new, unproven technology. If you think beyond 10 years, the only thing certain is that USB sticks are going to be as useful as floppy disc are now. I still use floppy disks and don’t ever foresee a time when I can’t upload from one format to another or one storage device to another. ---
**Author:** ![Pitchmeister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pitchmeister/32/3459_2.png) [@Pitchmeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pitchmeister)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-to-say-goodbye-to-cameras/650794/42 "2013-02-21T10:47:55Z")
> [@Otara](#): > > Yes it’s time. > > What has changed is the viewing medium as much as the camera. If you’re looking at a picture on a phone or even an ipad, the composition and subject and post processing will generally matter far more than the cameras inherent image quality. > > Cameras are becoming like hifis, where the increments in image quality are more important to enthusiasts than your average person in the street, or where it’s more about the other aspects of the camera, eg external flash or the like. > > Otara Disagree vehemently. A phone will never match even a decent point and shoot in low light or other difficult situations. For your day at the beach, an iPhone will do amazing pictures that hold up on an iPad or even printed out. Once the sun is gone, however, the size of the sensor and the lens just doesn’t allow for sufficient S/N ratio or usable exposure times. This is similar to music: just because a song is only heard on crappy earbuds or, God forbid, a phone speaker, doesn’t mean that you can use a phone to record it. Sure, it has a mic, but that doesn’t even come close to accurately reproducing anything it hears. ETA: Okay, on re-read maybe I shouldn’t say “will never match”, but for the foreseeable future (5-10 years) I don’t see phone cameras completely replacing dedicated cameras for anybody but the most undiscerning. ---
**Author:** ![JLRogers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ce73a5/32.png) [@JLRogers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JLRogers)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-to-say-goodbye-to-cameras/650794/43 "2013-02-21T11:57:48Z")
“Real” cameras aren’t going anywhere. I’m told that at the moment the Canon Powershot S95 is the king of the pocketable cameras, but the only way I’m giving up my prosumer DSLR is by upgrading to a more modern model. Honestly, a crop body with a 50mm prime is just fine as a walking-around camera unless you’re really not willing to make any compromise in order to get decent photographs. ---
**Author:** ![MizGrand](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cdc98d/32.png) [@MizGrand](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MizGrand)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-to-say-goodbye-to-cameras/650794/44 "2013-02-21T13:39:12Z")
Just got a new really cool FugiFilm. It’s a tad heavy, but I utilized a Coach purse to be its case. Makes it a little more fun to carry around. ---
**Author:** ![artemis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/91b2a8/32.png) [@artemis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/artemis)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-to-say-goodbye-to-cameras/650794/45 "2013-02-21T15:58:57Z")
> [@JLRogers](#): > > I’m told that at the moment the Canon Powershot S95 is the king of the pocketable cameras… Two generations ago. I think the latest model is the S110. (Trying to keep up with the constant model updates gives me a headache!) > [@](#): > > Honestly, a crop body with a 50mm prime is just fine as a walking-around camera unless you’re really not willing to make any compromise in order to get decent photographs. I spent a week in San Francisco shooting with just a “nifty fifty” prime equivalent (a 25 mm f2.8 pancake lens) on my Olympus e620 two years ago and had a ball. Unfortunately, though, most DSLR models are heavier than my neck likes to carry around all day, hence my plans to switch over to m4/3s (since Olympus apparently has no plans to update the e620 model). It seems to me there are fundamentally two camera markets: snapshotters and photographers. The former are rapidly moving over to camera phones, while the latter are moving either toward larger-sensor camera models as they become more affordable, or to to the smaller mirrorless designs if they want something more portable. “Serious” cameras aren’t in any danger of extinction, but I don’t see much of a future for the cheap, run-of-the-mill point-and-shoot models. (The ones that do continue to exist will be the weatherized ones that allow you to shoot underwater, which is something you can’t do with an iPhone.) ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-to-say-goodbye-to-cameras/650794/46 "2013-02-21T16:07:06Z")
> [@Pitchmeister](#): > > ETA: Okay, on re-read maybe I shouldn’t say “will never match”, but for the foreseeable future (5-10 years) I don’t see phone cameras completely replacing dedicated cameras for anybody but the most undiscerning. I’m thinking that “most undiscerning” is going to encompass 90-95% of the camera owning public. Once you get to “good enough” the vast majority of people aren’t going to want the incremental benefit of a dedicated camera. Large sensors, large lenses and a dedicated platform is always going to outperform small sensors, small lenses and a platform shoehorned into a phone. The main question is whether the camera phone takes good enough pictures that most people are happy with them. The biggest thing I do with my photos is send an 8x10 of my kid to his grandparents, and they don’t care if it isn’t as clear, or has the fine tuned depth of field of a professional shot. Give me good enough focus and enough pixels to crop it some and blow it up some, and I’m happy. ---
**Author:** ![Walkabout](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/46a35a/32.png) [@Walkabout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walkabout)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-to-say-goodbye-to-cameras/650794/47 "2013-02-21T16:31:01Z")
When I was preparing for my last vacation I considered leaving my camera at home. It’s just a standard point-and-shoot, and my iPhone take pretty decent photos. I ended up taking the camera, and I was really glad I did. Once I started shooting, I realized that my phone was just not up to capturing the kind of photos I was wanting - insides of cathedrals, night shots, castles in the distance, and so on. Even though it’s nothing fancy, the camera still has the optical zoom, image stabilization, and other features that the phone doesn’t have. ---
**Author:** ![rhubarbarin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eb9ed0/32.png) [@rhubarbarin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rhubarbarin)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-to-say-goodbye-to-cameras/650794/48 "2013-02-21T18:13:03Z")
Since I got a smartphone (an HTC One) I’ve been using the phone camera quite a bit - it is easy to carry, hold and store, and makes sharing photos very easy. But I enjoy actual photography and am particular, often I want a higher-quality photo, or to photograph something my phone simply can’t (low light and zooming are problems). Right now I have an older Fujifilm FinePix and I am going to get a higher megapixel model soon. I think I’ll always have a ‘real’ camera, at least until phone cameras get much better. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-to-say-goodbye-to-cameras/650794/49 "2013-02-21T20:09:32Z")
I’ve got an old-fashioned dumb cell phone. It’s got a camera, but not a very good one. And if I want to save a pic, I’ve got to remember how to get a pic between the parallel universes of PhoneWorld and WebWorld. I’m not sure why I should want a smartphone, which is why I don’t have one. For several years now, shirt-pocket-sized digital cameras have been both cheap and good. After taking pictures, I can pop the SD card into my laptop, store the pix there, and crop, get rid of redeye, adjust the exposure, etc. on the laptop on the way into work. (My wife does the driving.) If I want to zoom in on something while editing, 14MP makes it easy to do that with minimal sacrifice of quality. I’m hanging on to my camera, thanks. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![GusNSpot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gusnspot/32/436_2.png) [@GusNSpot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GusNSpot)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-to-say-goodbye-to-cameras/650794/50 "2013-02-21T20:55:15Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > I’ve got an old-fashioned dumb cell phone. It’s got a camera, but not a very good one. And if I want to save a pic, I’ve got to remember how to get a pic between the parallel universes of PhoneWorld and WebWorld. > > I’m not sure why I should want a smartphone, which is why I don’t have one. > > For several years now, shirt-pocket-sized digital cameras have been both cheap and good. After taking pictures, I can pop the SD card into my laptop, store the pix there, and crop, get rid of redeye, adjust the exposure, etc. on the laptop on the way into work. (My wife does the driving.) If I want to zoom in on something while editing, 14MP makes it easy to do that with minimal sacrifice of quality. > > I’m hanging on to my camera, thanks. 🙂 Hell done frozze over. I agree 100% with something RT said. Can world peace be far? :eek: 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-to-say-goodbye-to-cameras/650794.md?page=2)