anotherview Loc: California

The best I can tell at this juncture, cellular telephones with cameras serve snapshooters. These individuals comprise a huge market, to which makers of these devices will cater for profit.

As a certainty, the application of technological advance will influence the performance of the cameras that go with the telephone. This process and its output nobody can predict with useful confidence. After all, computers and their software including engineering and artificial intelligence will shape this business.

Personally, for now, I remain attached to my Canon DSLRs and several good lenses, from Canon and Sigma. The advent of mirrorless cameras, stripped of sales hyperbole, cannot do enough to budge me to chuck my present photography gear. I do not see a deciding advantage of mirrorless over DSLR cameras. I do not see a significant image improvement between the two.

The attention to composition and exposure along with the importance of subject still govern the doing of worthy photography.

tenny52 Loc: San Francisco

Wow, hat is impressive, but about >2.5 the price and 5lb vs 0.5, the size is obvious.

ChrisRL

Yes, the cell phone camera has taken over the snapshot camera.
But the snapshot camera started in the US with cameras like the Kodak Brownie. Which has been superseded by many other snapshot cameras along the way, agreed.
This current cell phone camera will doubtless give way to others.

But the large format cameras are still with us. Still beyond the reach of the average person, as ever it was.
Almost the same as the digital medium format cameras, in fact, some of which still survive.
And let's not mention the 135 format company that started all of that, and that company, like Apple, has continued to thrive into the digital age.

Will Leica make a cell phone camera? Or Hasselblad? Perhaps. But I'd venture to suggest that until 16x20 or larger exhibition style or mural style prints can be successfully created by such cameras, the larger formats will still be used daily - by pros, not by the everypeople.

And even then, just like there is always a new generation of people who are keen to shoot black-and-white film and process / print themselves, cameras will still be around for many centuries more.

In fact, this past few years has seen the resurgence of a "new" form of photographic medium - large format paper negative photography, using photo sensitive paper (yes, available brand new from Ilford) that slots into your (now cheaper) 4x5 or 8x10 or indeed even half-plate or full-plate film negative carriers, get exposed as usual (slower ISO at this point), but then go to a regular B/W print process (not a negative one) to yield a paper negative that's then scanned to digital. Quite the thing, for them who's into it.

Granted, "real camera users" won't be that high a percentage of the total camera users, much the same as the Speed Graphic users were vastly outnumbered by the Brownie users of old.

But does that face mean that the age of the camera is over?

To me, that's like saying the age of the eye is over.

And then expecting others in this thread to take that comment seriously.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

I turn my computer on every day - much better than this smart phone that forces me to backup periodically because I touched the wrong key and made a mistake that auto-correct can't fix.

Diver8236

As others have noted above I don’t believe a cell phone camera will replace DSLRs.
Also, please note that there are two FBI issued notifications in 2016 on HUAWEI network hardware stating that the 3800A router had the ability to store and forward client’s transmitted data over the Internet. The concern is real.
With that I will stay with my Nikon!

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

and 8x10 "view camera" users were outnumbered by Speed Graphic users. With the 'right' advances smart phone cameras might even be used to record major news events in the future, with only artists using "real cameras" .... but we aren't there yet.

Fredrick Loc: Former NYC, now San Francisco Bay Area

Once you experience the EVF viewfinder on the Nikon Z7, or the hybrid EVF and OVF viewfinders on some Fuji X cameras, it's hard to go back, IMHO.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

Isn't a router part of the Internet System Provider's hardware .... not something owned by typical, smart phone user?

nikonbrain Loc: Crystal River Florida

O.k. Nikon d850 14.8 stops of light focus stacking , highlight weighted metering , 47 real megapixels not interpolated , base Iso 64 , prints easily up to 5 foot by 8 foot without artifacts compared to about a12 x18 with artifacts . can sync with flash at up to 1/8000 of a second has built in intervelometer. Has lenses sharper than anything possible on a cell phone with fast apertures of f1.2 to many more to list , at about 3 to 4 lbs I am 67 years old and I can carry it all day what are you a weakling ....cell phones for serious photography is ridiculous....

ChrisRL

For that matter even the D800 and D800E are way above and beyond, for the time being.

Granted, the smart phones will get better...

But by then the D900s or D1000s will be??? Because they're not standing still either.

Fredrick Loc: Former NYC, now San Francisco Bay Area

Do you really think Nikon will be making new DSLR’s in 5 or 10 years?? Really? Then why have they started making Mirrorless cameras? That’s the future.

ChrisRL

Not talking about a mirror or not.
Talking about a cell phone vs other cameras or not.
OP says the age of the camera is doomed. Nary a mention of any DSLR or plate film holder, or Polaroid back...

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Truthfully, you can buy your own cable modem and router with most Internet Service Providers, to avoid the monthly rental charge. We own ours. Best Buy and similar electronics retailers sell them.

We use a Motorola Arris Surfboard sb6121 DOCSIS 3.0 Cable Modem and a Netgear Nighthawk AC1900 Model R7000 Smart WiFi Router on the Spectrum cable network. We have no trouble watching movies on two Samsung Smart TVs, an Xbox 360, four iPhones, an iPad, and three computers... any two at a time. Internet speeds exceed the service rating we pay for, at least 80% of the time.

Usually, when you buy a cable modem, you must register the MAC address (Media Access Control address) with the cable company. It's a unique identifier that links your cable modem to your account on your provider's network. Buy the modem locally from someone who sells only cable modems that work with local systems!

The Netgear Nighthawk is a pretty powerful dual band router (2.4GHz and 5GHz). We use both bands, depending on where we are in the house (upstairs, main floor, basement, backyard...). 2.4 GHz works with more devices and over longer distances, but 5GHz is much faster when you're closer to the router. I can sit in my tool shed taking a break from yard work and surf the web, answer emails, and watch YouTube with my iPhone. I used to wire everything with 100Mbps Ethernet, but no more. Everything is WiFi here, now.

Fredrick Loc: Former NYC, now San Francisco Bay Area

Good point. As an aside, cell phone cameras and cameras will morph into different products that we can’t even envision today.

In the meantime ... let’s all enjoy what we have!

SuperflyTNT Loc: Manassas VA

Totally missing the point. Maybe it’s a great cell phone camera, but it’s not gonna replace a good DSLR or MILC for many things.