gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

Most usage is texting and social media and photos.

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

So you always have a regular camera with you?
I use the phone camera all the time including when coming home from shopping and got plowed into while stopped at a red light.
Work involves a cell phone camera all the time to show a detail or copy a document needing to go out right then.

alexol

I'm curious as to what type of truly useful answers you expect from a site (apparently) dedicated more to camera equipment and photography technology more than to photography as art, and with an exceedingly high average age?

The vehemence with which encroaching celphone capability is denied is both laughable and revealing.

One of the next posts will surely start taking about long lenses and birds in flight, blah blah.

Better to ask the same question on a dedicated celphone photography site - which will astonish you - as well as here - the reality is somewhere in between.

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

I totally agree with you. Every camera has its pros and cons but an excellent photo can only be made by an excellent photographer. I see a lot of photos here taken with expensive gear that are pretty much just snapshots documenting various things

delder Loc: Maryland

Take a look at the Qualcomm
Snapdragon X-35 modem chip they just announced.
This is a low cost communication feature that COULD be added to CAMERAS.

Retina Loc: Near Charleston,SC

They make great tuners and metronomes. As a bonus, their low light sensitivity with deep DOF makes them great for copying sheet music you can't take home. Most of my phones have no cellular service.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

PHRubin Loc: Nashville TN USA

Wider - than what? A good camera or the old cell phone
Steadier than what? Faster..., clearer...

I bet my OLD CAMERA is better that all that except the pixel count.

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

One other thing.
Hold the camera of a cell phone to your cars darkened/smoked rear windows and clearly see what you might think is hidden.
My Jeep ones are very dark and I could clearly see inside. So I cover things up with random pillow or blankets etc. just randomly looking placed.

Red6

Excellent response and I agree. Photography is as much about art as it is about technology and the art side is often ignored to promote more technology in a particular area.

I think we should all encourage the use of photography as an art form regardless of the equipment used.

It is like a painter that uses oil based paints dismissing a water color artist as some blasphemous or lesser artist.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

It seems that cameras are the only part of a cell phone that makers can really improve. It can make am phone call. Great! What else can it do? It seems that the quality of the camera is the major force behind making buy the newest model. Look a phone comparisons on YouTube. I've never seen on comparing the quality of the phone calls. Virtually all comparisons are based on the camera.

As for phone vs "real camera," I would never try to compare specs. I don't care how good a phone camera is, if I want to take a picture, I'll use a DSLR or mirrorless.

alexol

Jerry, obviously you spend a huge amount of time researching various topics and are well versed on myriad of topics. Perhaps spend a little time on celphone tech, so "It seems that cameras are the only part of a cell phone that makers can really improve" can be safely deleted;)

While it is true that phone cameras (lenses, sensors, software, controls) are the most evident advances, there are many others, most related to sensors of many kinds including light, color temp & values, accelerometers (angles, directions, g-forces), temperature, humidity, heart rate, proximity, pressure, gyroscopes, magnetometers etc. Its an impressive list. Ask the person who's iPhone automatically called emergency services after the accelerometer recorded a high impact, location monitors "knew" she was in a car, upside down at the side of a road, while recording heartbeat and BP levels amongst other things. Many elderly people use their phones as first alert tools for falls etc.

Technology advances at an incredible rate - the first gyroscopes for radio controlled helicopters originally were the size of four decks of cards and cost many thousands of dollars for the truly dedicated few and now micro helicopters with 1000s times the capability costs under $15 delivered from China.

Phones and cameras share one primary characteristic - a total dependence on sensors of one sort or another. Hard to say whether phones are one of the leading drivers of consumer oriented sensors, or perhaps the beneficiary of sensors for other purposes, most probably both.

Advances in our culture do not always come from where we expect. Arguably, the primary drivers of internet commerce (which is ultimately after all what the internet is for and about now) and personal computer technology generally, are pornography and gaming.

Retina Loc: Near Charleston,SC

One thing than digital pocket cameras and phones enlightened me about art is how some people who don't consider themselves photographers have a real talent for composition that might go unnoticed and unpracticed if we were still on film and DTMF land lines.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Some people have a gift, but maybe little interest in pursuing it.

alexol

Interesting comment, well said.

Sadly, the converse is also true, zero gift but huge interest in pursuing it;) Remember that one neighbourhood guy, 'you must come over to see my slides of our vacation'. Subsequently, 'here, in slide 37, this is the family loading the car before leaving' while you desperately try to avoid snoring too loudly.

Not hugely different of course from people taking selfies while eating their 1/4 pounder...