Morry Loc: Palm Springs, CA

Read a review recently for a Sony cell phone I think they call Isperia. I may have got the spelling wrong. On that phone the lens appears to be an almost full range lens. The phone also had other interesting features that would appeal to a photographer. Sounds like the cell phone of the future. However I could never be interested at the price which is about $1600.

mudduck

cells are handy, but with a lens smaller than a penny and a chip the size of your little finger nail they'll never be as good as even an average camera, great to have on hand for quick videos and such.

MrBob Loc: lookout Mtn. NE Alabama

They are ALREADY as good as an AVERAGE camera....

sodapop Loc: Bel Air, MD

You are correct! You can buy a pretty nice camera for $1600. Way above the average, awkward to handle, cellphone cameras

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

I'm certain that the generation who grew up with cell phones in their hand would find a dslr to be the more awkward device.

I remember in the late 1990's being in awe of how easily my three-year old nephew used a computer mouse to play a computer game. A decade later I was trying to teach seniors how to use a computer mouse and the results weren't pretty

BebuLamar

While holding the cell phone especially for landscape orientation shot isn't easy but the camera viewfinder is something unnatural. If one never started out with an eye level viewfinder one wouldn't like it.

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

"Landscape orientation isn't easy..." I've noticed a few tv ads for iPhone that show photos being shot landscape orientation. Perhaps as cell phone cameras become more and more awesome (loaded with special effects and features), users will learn to try that way.

Mudduck's comment, "great to have on hand for quick videos and such" is relevant only to those of us over 60

JD750 Loc: SoCal

What century are you living in? You certainly haven’t kept up with current cell phone camera technology.

Better cell phone cameras are a competitive advantage. Thus, cell phone companies pour huge amounts of dollars info the camera development and the cameras get better every generation. For example BSI sensors came from cell phone camera development money. Dedicated camera companies simply don’t have that kind of development budgets.

Modern cell phone cameras are very capable with the most advanced high megapixel sensors, and optical zoom.

The cell phon cameras and like any other camera have limitations, advantages and disadvantages. Like any other camera used within their limits they are capable of delivering high quality results.

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Every day on UHH I'm reminded of how easily we seniors become isolated from younger generations and more enmeshed in "the good old days." A slippery slope that I am trying hard to avoid sliding down

JD750 Loc: SoCal

Me too!

I got a recent example of the new generation of phone cameras while hiking at Yosemite. We were looking at a dark area high up on a cliff, what is it? A cave? I looked thru my 90mm M43 lens and couldn’t tell. My friend (also “our” age) used his iPhone14 and zoomed in and the detail was incredible, it was obviously a cave.

Now with work, shooting raw, processing, my camera landscape pics still show a slight edge in IQ, color and dynamic range, over the iphone14 camera, but it’s a very subtle difference.

coolhanduke Loc: Redondo Beach, CA

I might beg to differ just a bit and I have a D850 and a z9.
I was just considering getting a “point and shoot” camera for taking to party/pot luck events this group I hang out with hold. Being the photographer in the bunch they count on me to take candid shots of the activities and then usually a group shot. Not wanting to lug my D & Z around with a flash I just use my iPhone X which the images come out dark and blurry due to low light.
Friday one of of the gals was showing me photos she took of scenic places they traveled to. The photos were stunning.
Another member has an iPhone 14 Pro Max. We compared photos we took at a recent pot luck. I couldn’t believe the difference in the low light pictures.
So I scrapped the idea of a point and shoot and ordered an iPhone 14 Pro.
That’s not to say it will replace my D & Z but I think phones have their place in the mix.
Once I get my 14 pro, I’ll report on my findings.

Hip Coyote

In the Wall Steet Journal today there is an interview with the CEO of Box Inc. He talks about industry interruption technology, a company that created tech than can anticipate code rather than not having to be written and the impact of AI. Translate that to photography.

The industry’s going to be interrupted further. People who hold on to the notion of longer lenses, and the usual are badly missing the point. AI will likely allow the user to photograph with a phone (or watch or eye glassses) and have AI fill in the blanks making for NO noise.
The notion of a long telephoto may make no sense in that AI can fill in the blanks of what the scene should look like based analysis / learning from trillions of other photos.

Money is pouring into AI systems, not digital photography. We old guys can want what we want but, as I travel quite a bit, I see less and less real cameras and more phones. Maybe ratio of 1:1000.

The market will also adapt to a demand for better manipulation of the device. An add on? A separate device that is tethered like an iWatch using computational power of the phone? Heads up display in some way?

Add to all that then on-board photo editing, storage and distribution of pics in the phone? The industry is threatened or better do something to survive. I just don’t see it.

I like my gear. Buy new lenses and all that. But my phone is a very viable camera and often acts as a backup to my camera.

MrBob Loc: lookout Mtn. NE Alabama

I have to agree Hip is really Hip on this one...." Fill in the blanks " is where it's going to happen. AI will interpolate and everything from zooms to holography will ensue... WAIT for it ! One is supposed to get wiser with age, not calcify with older beliefs. Way too many seniors don't like or want change. It's happening folks, whether you like it or not. Make a nice frame and mat that buggy whip stock certificate so you can hang it on the wall as a throwback testimonial to the days of old...

coolhanduke Loc: Redondo Beach, CA

Technology completely changes every 18 months they say.
I have an iPhone X I have had a little over 3 years. They have since come out with the 11, 12, 13 and now the 14. I paid $1100 for it and lucky to get $195 on a trade in.
I owned a photo lab I opened in 1994. When the first cell phone with camera came out, my appraiser clientele started using them. I said at the time, these will never replace a camera. Resolution is not good enough. As soon as the 2 megapixel cameras and phone came out, I lost that market. $20,000+/month in business went out the door.
The iPhone 14 pro and max have a main camera resolution o 48MP. What is the iPhone 15, 16 etc going to bring?

BebuLamar

Don't blame it on the phone for your lost of business but rather the social media. If there is no social media people still go to your lab anh have prints made although it's a different kind of prints. But the social media made prints obsolete kind of.