Why Smartphones will Take Over Photography

[beameup]

If you are posting online, then all you need is a small image and the phone is handy.
If you are pursuing those "Museum Sized" images, then the pro mirrorless is your choice...
but that gets expensive.

 

[RS86]

My Samsung Galaxy S9+ has awesome IBIS and I often use it to shoot very smooth video in town from my bike. Am amazed at the quality of the video.

Sure, no one is denying phones can take great photos and video. Would be interesting to see a comparison of your E-M1 II and Samsung, especially in a little bit lower light.

 

[RS86]

Of course, there is an existing customer base with cameras 1-10 years old that continue to buy lenses and other gear, but the industry will have to consolidate significantly for their to be much innovation in the future among camera makers servicing a market of 5-6 million new camera customers in 2020 that may continue to decline as Smartphones continue to improve their cameras and offer enhancements in computational photography linked to cloud based GPU processing.

Okay, good to hear at this point that you acknowledge that camera companies can adjust to the situation because they have certain benefits that are needed by certain people.

Do you still think everyone in this forum will switch to smartphones from ILC's in 2 years time? Any arguments why would people here do so? And even so it would be too expensive for most to do it so fast when the benefits are not likely great at that point.

Because to me it seems you are projecting your own photography style (where smartphone is enough, and they are good cameras of course) to everyone else. Unless you know some insider information on how smartphones can do everything an ILC can in 2 years time? Those points have been talked here to the death already.

 

[Armand Di Meo]

ILC's and DSLR's will dwindle. The market will consolidate. There will be fewer vendors. In 10 years we will all wonder why we all needed these heavy things.


Thanks for the cheery thread to start off my morning. I thought that is why we shoot Micro 4/3 is because we do not like carrying around these "heavy things." An Olympus Pen Lite is smaller and just as light as many smartphones. As some have suggested, aspects of computational photography can and will be incorporated into "real" cameras. If we hang on long enough, we will have the best of both worlds. I am a partial film shooter. So, if the doom sayers are correct, I can always go back to shooting film exclusively. Although I doubt the worst case scenario will come to pass, the hegemony of the smartphone confirms my reservations about photography becoming a branch of consumer electronics in the first place.

 

[hoodlum]

Sure, no one is denying phones can take great photos and video. Would be interesting to see a comparison of your E-M1 II and Samsung, especially in a little bit lower light.

Here is a good comparison between various phones cameras and the X-T30 that gives an idea of how they compare. You will need to pick the device and focal length under each image and then click on the image to view the full size. It is much easier to do this on a computer vs on a phone.

High dynamic range scenes
https://www.anandtech.com/show/15845/mobile-phone-camera-overview-2020-h1/2

Low light scenes
https://www.anandtech.com/show/15845/mobile-phone-camera-overview-2020-h1/5

 

[SteveAdler]

Okay, good to hear at this point that you acknowledge that camera companies can adjust to the situation because they have certain benefits that are needed by certain people.

Do you still think everyone in this forum will switch to smartphones from ILC's in 2 years time? Any arguments why would people here do so? And even so it would be too expensive for most to do it so fast when the benefits are not likely great at that point.

Because to me it seems you are projecting your own photography style (where smartphone is enough, and they are good cameras of course) to everyone else. Unless you know some insider information on how smartphones can do everything an ILC can in 2 years time? Those points have been talked here to the death already.

https://www.43rumors.com/olympus-st...oth-longtime-and-new-photography-enthusiasts/

 

[RichardC]

I have absolutely no doubt that smartphones are fine for people who would otherwise have bought a Polaroid camera, an Instamatic, an Olympus Trip 35, a Pentax Zoom 70 and post film, the majority of fixed lens digital compact cameras that aren't waterproof. These individuals probably stopped buying wristwatches years ago for exactly the same reason.

Everyone else? Not yet.

While there's a market for good quality print images, there will still be a market for good quality camera systems. Might get more expensive though - but photography is pretty cheap right now.