Are cameras on the way out?

[xavier]

Friends
I was talking to a manager in Savins ( an home cinama and HI-FI shop) of Limerick about cameras, which he plans to get out of. He beleves cameras are on the way out as new teqnoligy has joined cameras and phones, But I disagree with him. whill I beleve tecnoligies will change, the camera will remain. Frankly I wonder if I'm being silly or is he the silly one?

[StephenBatey]

You're probably both correct - from your own perspectives.

Cameras are no longer precision tools used by photographers as they once were (box cameras excepted) but mass market products produced to a price. For the market your manager friend is in, the buyers want something to produce snaps for social networking sites and digital photo frames; a camera phone is good enough.

For the enthusiasts, this isn't the case; and for the critical, it never will be. For reasons I can't be bothered to explain, you can't compress a camera that can be used to produce a decent enlargement into the space that a camera phone has to occupy.

Cameras may die, of course, when there isn't enough money to be made from them for the mass market makers to be bothered with them. When that happens (and if film is no longer made) serious photographers may go back the the methods of the 19th century; in which case, expect to see a flood of cookery books on what to do with egg yolks.

[Jediboy]

I personally believe that cameras are here to stay. I have just come back from Prague where the majority of people (tourists no doubt) where using cameras almost constantly. Whilst alt of photos being taken were on phones, an awful lot where on compacts and DSLRs. There is clearly a market. And while there is money to be made, I suspect the companies will continue I manafacture cameras.

Add to this the way in which companies are relentlessly pursuing new camera technologies and relapsing new models, I believe that cameras are definitely here to stay. I certainly hope so.
But I'm a lay man, so what do I know??!!

[Ashleyj]

I agree with Jediboy.

Last weekend I was out in Amsterdam and pretty much all of the people who were obviously tourists were toting cameras - and what I found more significant was that a large number of them were DSLRs - albeit mainly the consumer end of the market.

So rather than cameras being on the way out I think the market for them will grow along with the technology. Now that most DSLRs offer live view and video recording at reasonable prices the general public are now seeing this as the answer to all their needs.

I must admit I did see quite a few phones being used as cameras, but mainly by teenagers, and I did actually see one 'mature' couple using their camcorder to take stills.

[xavier]

to be honest I hope cameras do stay in their proper form as I wish to keep both device seperit. I feel if one wants to take aphoto bring camera.call me a twit if you like but i want a camera & a phone to do what they are ment to

[donoreo]

I do think the low end point and shoot market will be killed by phones. The higher end will remain.

[xavier]

Originally Posted by donoreo

I do think the low end point and shoot market will be killed by phones. The higher end will remain.

Do you mean the compact end will go and the DSLR will stay?

[Reinardina]

Quite a few of my (real) photographer friends are turning back to film!
For people interested in photography, rather then holiday snaps, I think the camera will stay.

[wavemachine]

No

[wavemachine]

Now to back my last answer up, I have a decent phone camera and it has no where near the level of control I have in my DSLR. I have a bridge camera and it has a lot of control but not as intuitive as my DSLR.

I think what will happen is the masses will lean towards a particular device but the demand will still be there for cameras, maybe not DSLR with mirrors or traditional viewfinders but with manual control.

I use social networking sites which are full of snaps/record shots not photographs a lot of them are pretty pointles as well here are 1000 shots I took on my trip to the zoo or here is me ordering a kebab after a heavy session in the muckspreaders arms etc etc. It also seems with a lot of these photos that they will post any old rubbish i.e. blurred images, out of focus images etc.

I think it comes down to why someone takes photos or wants to own a camera, a real photographer in my mind will want full control of what they are taking so will want a device that will allow them to do that.

So in the end small convenient devices will come out that allow people to take better exposed images (they exist now) or show more detail but that is only the first 10% of the battle it isn't going to help with composition etc.