Something I Noticed Last Night While Shooting Christmas Lights

[digirebelva]

My family and I went to see (and shoot ) some lights that a local botantical garden puts on every year. Anyway, the place is packed, what I noticed of the folks taking photos (and there were a lot) was that a majority of them were mainly using either their phone or a DSLR..I saw very few P&S's in the crowd. Heck I saw more phones than DSLR's..
A few of us there were toting tripods (allowed, but with that many people a pain-in-the-butt sometimes) but most were using the on-camera flash. (Yep saw the requisite stoffen being used outside at night.. )

All that being said, it really was interesting to see the sheer number of camers phones being used, at night no less..and so few P&S's...

[SwissJon]

Not sure what your point is about on-camera flash, but it's no surprise people use their phones.. My phone camera is 8Mpix and takes pretty good photos if you don't compare it to a DSLR..

Most people don't carry their P&S's with them, but they do have their phones with them.

Interestingly, I hear whispers that some of the major camera manufacturers are talking about putting SIMM cards in their cameras to encourage people to carry them.

[digirebelva]

Originally Posted by SwissJon

Not sure what your point is about on-camera flash, .

Christmas lights at night with on-camera flash at basically point blank range...kind of defeats the purpose of the picture doesnt it...washed out lights...

[Bruce A]

Originally Posted by SwissJon

Interestingly, I hear whispers that some of the major camera manufacturers are talking about putting SIMM cards in their cameras to encourage people to carry them.

Now I understand why that fellow was holding a D3x against his ear the other day.

[SwissJon]

Originally Posted by digirebelva

Christmas lights at night with on-camera flash at basically point blank range...kind of defeats the purpose of the picture doesnt it...washed out lights...

Ah, ok.. I thought they might have been taking pictures of their family in front of the lights or something.

[qadkins]

Originally Posted by digirebelva

My family and I went to see (and shoot ) some lights that a local botantical garden puts on every year. Anyway, the place is packed, what I noticed of the folks taking photos (and there were a lot) was that a majority of them were mainly using either their phone or a DSLR..I saw very few P&S's in the crowd. Heck I saw more phones than DSLR's..
A few of us there were toting tripods (allowed, but with that many people a pain-in-the-butt sometimes) but most were using the on-camera flash. (Yep saw the requisite stoffen being used outside at night.. )

All that being said, it really was interesting to see the sheer number of camers phones being used, at night no less..and so few P&S's...

I think the time for the p&s has come and gone. My cell phone has a better camera then my older p&s. I do use my dslr more than my phone.

[OsmosisStudios]

Originally Posted by qadkins

I think the time for the p&s has come and gone. My cell phone has a better camera then my older p&s. I do use my dslr more than my phone.

This. So much this.

I hate to say it, but the iPhone camera has come so far and is so good nowadays, there's literally NO reason to have a P&S. The only reason, really, to have a dSLR is if you're doing more than just snapshots; anything more serious and it's warranted.

Besides, theres no camera on the market right now with WiFi, 3G (or 4G) network integration, and apps for Facebook, Twitter, et al. all built in. Hell, the other day I thought about bringing my P&S camera with me but decided against it because I have a camera in my phone and it does a decent job for what I'd use the P&S for, and it doesnt require a memory card reader and uploading.

[UlpilotSC]

Originally Posted by qadkins

I think the time for the p&s has come and gone. My cell phone has a better camera then my older p&s. I do use my dslr more than my phone.

I disagree. The point and shoot has some distinct advantages... Longer optical zoom being the biggie. My wife's $100 p&s runs rings around the quality of our cell phone cameras. The flash is a lot better on the camera than that stupid LED light on the phone. Plus you don't look like some a-hole that couldn't be bothered to at least bring a real camera to some event.
I'm picking up backpacking as a hobby, and don't want to take along a dslr (weather and weight...). No way I'm going to depend on my phone as a camera either, it's going to be off, in a waterproof box in my pack. Even lowly p&s batteries hold up better than cell phones. On our last Disney vacation I had a p&s go six days of intermittent use (nikon 3100), without needing a recharge.
I think the p&s will continue to evolve, and their options will decrease, but until you get a cell camera that zooms optically instead of that digital BS, With a real flash, some people are still going to want one. There still needs to be an in between choice between cell camera and $600 entry dslr. For $100-$150 there are some very nice, small, p&s cameras.

[SwissJon]

Originally Posted by UlpilotSC

I disagree. The point and shoot has some distinct advantages... Longer optical zoom being the biggie. My wife's $100 p&s runs rings around the quality of our cell phone cameras. The flash is a lot better on the camera than that stupid LED light on the phone. Plus you don't look like some a-hole that couldn't be bothered to at least bring a real camera to some event.
I'm picking up backpacking as a hobby, and don't want to take along a dslr (weather and weight...). No way I'm going to depend on my phone as a camera either, it's going to be off, in a waterproof box in my pack. Even lowly p&s batteries hold up better than cell phones. On our last Disney vacation I had a p&s go six days of intermittent use (nikon 3100), without needing a recharge.
I think the p&s will continue to evolve, and their options will decrease, but until you get a cell camera that zooms optically instead of that digital BS, With a real flash, some people are still going to want one. There still needs to be an in between choice between cell camera and $600 entry dslr. For $100-$150 there are some very nice, small, p&s cameras.

I think you're looking at this from the point of view of a photographer. My iPhone 4s has an 8mpix camera, and that's one of the worst on the market. I use it far more often than I use my p&s for snapshots, which is, after all, what most people use p&s cameras for.

Im not sure the time for p&s is over yet, but unless they innovate, theres going to come a time when they go. At the moment they seem to be trying to nudge into dslr territory, which is crazy, because they're then fighting for a piece of ever decreasing pie while the mobile phone steals the edges

This is why they're talking about turning cameras into phones, to fight back. I wouldn't be surprised in a few years, to see wedding photographers putting a pair of headphones on and taking a call on their camera.

[OsmosisStudios]

Originally Posted by UlpilotSC

I think the p&s will continue to evolve, and their options will decrease, but until you get a cell camera that zooms optically instead of that digital BS, With a real flash, some people are still going to want one. There still needs to be an in between choice between cell camera and $600 entry dslr. For $100-$150 there are some very nice, small, p&s cameras.

This is how the P&S will die; low-end camera models are no better than cameraphones. The only difference, and you said it yourself, is other features like long zooms that you just cant fit on a phone. Eventually the only P&S cameras on the market will be the long-zoom and travel segments, and they'll be called "Compact Fixed Lens" cameras.