burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Take the vs out of your thread title and replace it with and.

There’s room for both imaging tools.

Yes, the people who bought dedicated cameras for casual photography have mostly left them gathering dust since adopting smartphones. The people who buy seriously dedicated cameras still want to be conscious image makers, not snapshooters. But even we use smartphones.

And. Not versus.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

MUCH!!!

berchman Loc: South Central PA

I have suffered through Pakarklis' videos. His manner of speaking is incredibly irritating--what he does with his hands and head.

joer Loc: Colorado/Illinois

For main stream public stand alone cameras are already obsolete. These people and future photographers have no desire to learn about the mechanics of photography. Phone cameras today are more than adequate for posting images on social media, internet, digital displays and sharing with others..

As AI advances exposure, DOF, motion or lack of it, composition, bokeh, angle of view, etc. will mostly be accomplished by software rather than hardware. Size and weight will favor the new technology, just as now. Getting the shot has always been the key objective, since without it there is no image.

Although DSLR/ML cameras are not likely to go away, just like film cameras are still being used but their role in photography will be greatly diminished almost to the point of irrelevancy.

Photography and its current hardware has to be learned much like wine snobbery with irrelevant terms, references and standards. Many people do not embellish and exaggerate the process, they just enjoy the product.

johneccles Loc: Leyland UK

The real problem with phone cameras is that in bright lighting it is very difficult to see the screen, to help with this problem l try to move the phone into a shadow, I also use a selfie stick which also helps a lot.

sidpearce

Within 20 years Professionals and serious amateurs will be the only users of cameras. The rest will be on cellphones or similar.

BlueMorel Loc: Southwest Michigan

I have a 5-yr-old Galaxy 6 cellphone that has pro setting on the camera that you can set for RAW. I don't usually, but I can. I'm assuming newer phone cams are more sophisticated and rival some cameras, but I am skeptical that electronics beat out combos of good glass and good electronics.

PhotogHobbyist Loc: Bradford, PA

I have not read through the six pages of responses here, but I believe the cell phone camera vs. DSLR debate is like comparing the Kodak Instamatic with the 8X10 view camera. The overall quality and capabilities of the two are very different. There will, obviously, be improvements in both cell phone cameras and DSLRs as well as MILCameras. As many have already said here there will always be a significent few with whom the more professional and capable camera will be preferred and the everyday person on the street who will opt for a cell phone to obtain photographs. Bottom line: there will always be professional photographers and the amateur snap shooters.

twillsol Loc: St. Louis, MO

Do you really believe this?

foathog Loc: Greensboro, NC

I'll second that thought

Retina Loc: Near Charleston,SC

The key words are "do a better job". It all depends on the requirements at the time. The statement is too general to take seriously except as a conversation starter.

In many situations the phone indeed does a far better job, but obviously not in all scenarios. If so, highly competitive, sports, press, fashion, and advertising photographers will be the first to tell us.

Fotoartist Loc: Detroit, Michigan

Movies and radio didn't go obsolete when TV was invented.

jeryh Loc: Oxfordshire UK

Both my daughters are photographers; one uses her phone almost exclusively, the other uses a camera, and nothing else. The one with the phone targets every day life on the move, anything and everything, here and abroad. The other one does weddings, and cultural history, living with mountain tribes. Thus, it is 'Horses for courses'. For myself, I have and use digital and film cameras. I am out mostly everyday, weather depending- as in UK systems ! One never prints anything, the other does. I print a hell of a lot ! Go figure.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

They are two different means of capturing an image. I wish people would quit trying to compare them.
--Bob

Fredrick Loc: Former NYC, now San Francisco Bay Area

Actually, iPhones can shoot RAW now. I watch a guy on YouTube named Nigel Danson, a very talented landscape photographer. Before every landscape shot, he takes several images with his iPhone to help him pre-visualize the final shot with his camera. He says he uses his iPhone because it has the best screen out there.

We understandably spend a lot of time getting to know all of the controls and capabilities of our cameras, but truth be told ... who among us spends a lot of time doing the same thing with the cameras in our smartphones?? They are just incredible, and get better everyday. Snapseed (which is FREE) rivals most editing apps we use today. There are over 600 editing apps for smartphones, many of them FREE, many others for a buck or two.

The only potential limitation I can see in the future is smartphones continued inability to produce great large prints due to their sensor size ... but the technologist in me says that somehow they’ll figure that out.

For now let’s all enjoy our cameras, and for some of us let’s embrace the change with smartphones that is occurring.