Sunday, 21 July 2013

Smartphones: The Future Of Digital Photography?

By Mike Thompson


Since the advent of smartphones, these devices have cause a major overhaul of digital compact cameras. Flickr, one of the most popular photo sharing websites has surveyed its members and has found that the most popular cameras used were the Apple iPhone 4S, the Apple iPhone 5 and the Apple iPhone 4.

It appears as if smartphones have eliminated the need to ever own a digital camera, however, there are a multitude of reasons why this is not the case. The simplest reason is higher quality of photos. A low illumination test against 2 popular smartphone brands, the Apple iPhone 5 and the Samsung Galaxy S4, and an average run of the mill point and shoot digital camera, the Canon Powershot G15, has shown that the digital camera is superior by a long shot.

In contrast to a smartphone, you will be able to shoot crisp and clear photos from a longer distance away with a digital camera because of the extra zoom. Other advantages of the digital camera are better subject tracking, metering and white balance. It is even possible to crop a photo at 300 per cent its original size and post that online on sites like Facebook and Instagram since the quality is simply that good. For a smartphone, this is completely out of the question.

Keep in mind that your smartphone is exactly what it says it is, a phone that has multiple functions and taking many pictures can be quite taxing on the battery. It is definitely not advisable to to do this as you might not be able to make phone calls or text messages afterwards 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 example, Canon has released their newer digital camera called the Powershot N. This very small compact digital camera looks more like a smartphone but shoots like a digital camera and it also has Instagram-like filters as well as built-in Wi-Fi to allow you to share your photos online.

Compact digital cameras in general are becoming more and more powerful as even these kinds of cameras have quality that can rival the more sophisticated DSLR range of their own respectively brands. The latest Nikon Coolpix A has the same 16.1 megapixel sensor as the Nikon D7100 DSLR and has the same image processor as the older Nikon D7000.

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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