gvarner wrote:
Dear DSLR owners:
Do not fear the cameras in cellphones. They simply serve a niche in the photographic world and represent a transition from mainly mechanical to mainly digitally created photos. The two worlds will eventually mesh together so thoroughly that you will not be able to tell the end product from one versus the other. And if you’re just a viewer and not a printer, the difference is negligible. I can fantasize a digital zoom that equals the quality of a mechanical zoom, built-in macro with on demand focus stacking, and an ultra-high ISO without noise. They’re on their way.
Dear DSLR owners: br Do not fear the cameras in ce... (
show quote)
There's nothing wrong with adding a camera-like feature to cell phones. It's handy.
And new cell phones always have the very latest in display screens and low-power
processors (not that that has anything to do with photography, but it is neat).
There
is something wrong with marketing cell phones as replacements for cameras: it's deceptive
and has had a diasterous effect on camera sales.
This isn't a "step" towards anything except increasing the profits of Apple and Samsung.
Somene could claim that Microsoft Paint is a step in "a transition from mainly mechanical
to mainly digitally created" paintings. Consumbers and computer buffs liked it--but
artists hated it. Artists make art; consumers love paint-by-numbers.
Ditto with cell phone cameras: consumers love them,
photographers hate them. Image
capture is not the same thing as photography.
There are substitutes,
and then there are
inferior substitutes: rhine stones, silver plate, leatherette.
What is a cell phone camera?
* Subminiature format sensor ==> more diffration
* Shutterless (rolling shutter sensor or global shutter sensor)
* Limited to one or two aperture (f-stops)
* Limited to one or two lenses (not counting clamp-on "helper" lenses)
How are cell phone cameras being marketed? As replacemens for digital camers.
What effect has this had? Global shipments of digital still camers have declined by
over 70% since 2010.
Words don't alter facts. But marketers and politicians know that if you repeat
something enough times -- and get other peopel to repeat it -- it becomes a fact
in the mind of the public.