[shuttertalk]

According to some "research data", i.e. Flickr metadata, point and shoot cameras are on the decline, being replaced instead by smartphones with built-in megapixel cameras.

Statistics published by Flickr listing the camera models that members of the public used to post images to the popular photo-sharing platform are even more telling. They indicate that most of the images in its huge database were taken with an iPhone 3G.

Not only that, but almost every single one of the most popular point and shoot models on Flickr recorded a decline over the past four months of this year.

The trend reflected in the Flickr statistics indicate a market that is polarising towards smartphones and higher-end DSLRs - with the most commonly used cameras on Flickr (after the iPhone 3G) a selection of Canon and Nikon branded DSLRs.

http://www.theage.com.au/digital-life/ca...18r5d.html

I must admit that our own household has followed the same trend. My wife's point and shoot camera has fallen into disuse - I seriously can't remember the last time it was actually pulled out and turned on. For snaps, my wife and I pull out our iPhones that are always on us, and uploading and sharing is only a tap away. For serious stuff, my faithful DSLR simply can't be beaten on image quality so it's indispensable.

I wonder what the data will look like if we fast forward say another 12 months? Will M43 / EVIL cameras be on the increase?

[Zig]

Hmmm.
Just because more people eat fries doesn't mean that fries have started to have more nutrition, just that more people are content with less; I'm sure that the same amount of quality-buffs are still there...it's just that the World and His Dog suddenly have access to point and squirt with less effort.
A diamond is still a diamond, and will always need mining!


I think i understand myself :|

[Toad]

I wonder what the data will look like if we fast forward say another 12 months? Will M43 / EVIL cameras be on the increase?

Thats the $64,000 question, isn't it? I don't believe that we will ever see just 2 classes of camera again (i.e Point & Shoot and DSLR). I think that the market will continue to iterate on basic themes: compactness, image quality, high ISO performance, feature bloat, etc. After all, if you don't manufacture interest in your products by introducing new variations, how do you stay in the business of selling cameras? We have just made it a lot easier to rapidly iterate on "user requirements" by using the internet...

How the heck did camera manufacturers stay in business when people only replaced their camera every 10-20 years?

[Don Schaeffer]

My experience is that obsolence is more a feature of the camera market then the car market. I hate cell phone cameras myself.

[NT73]

. I hate cell phone cameras myself.

But they are improving with technology. If they had a good EVF then they would be even better. Maybe surpass the P&S.

Star Trek is nearly upon us. :|

[Don Schaeffer]

That just makes me mad.

[matthew]

Looking at the charts, the iPhone has been the most popular camera for a very long time. Flickr's fine print also says that only about two-thirds of cameras can be identified from the EXIF data, and it's mostly phones that are under-represented as a result.

The phones that I've seen produce photos that range from terrible to acceptable for a snapshot; as cameras they have lousy low-light quality, bad colour fidelity, no dynamic range, little ability to differentiate focus, bad controls, and low-quality fixed-focal-length lenses. Sound familiar? Give them a 3x zoom, and they'd be P&S cameras.

… Except that a smartphone is genuinely useful enough that there's a reason for non-photographers to carry them everywhere.

But there's something else here as well. Just imagine for a second the vast number of people who use a cellphone as their primary camera who don't have a flickr account. After all, flickr is only a rite of passage for people who think of themselves as photographers: it's not something that the average person would bother with. No-one else in my family has one, but most of them have accounts on Facebook. I'd love to see what those camera stats would be.

[matthew]

After all, if you don't manufacture interest in your products by introducing new variations, how do you stay in the business of selling cameras? We have just made it a lot easier to rapidly iterate on "user requirements" by using the internet... How the heck did camera manufacturers stay in business when people only replaced their camera every 10-20 years?

And on the other hand, how do manufacturers stay in business by constantly producing overly-complicated and under-performing devices?

I recently looked for a little P&S camera for the wife, and gave up. There were only a couple that could reliably fulfil their basic requirements, and in the end none of them were better-enough than her iPhone to be worth the extra expense and hassle of having a second gizmo.

At least in the days of compact film cameras there wasn't the need to constantly tend to rechargeable batteries, and their 'sensor' performance was just as good as the big SLRs. Sure, their options we more limited, but that was the whole point. Compact digital cameras are frequently more complicated and more difficult to use than a "pro" camera, but are nowhere near as good. How is that not a scandal?

[Don Schaeffer]

Related question: What is the future of the photo album and the box of snapshots that grandchildren want to look at when you are gone?

[NT73]

But will the grandchildren want to look at photo's, or a 50" plasma screen to view digital pics.
The kids today all seem to have some electronic gadget fastened to their hand, wether sitting on a bus or walking down the street.
If the photo's are good enough (i.e. interesting rather than boring,) they can be scanned/digitised onto DVD's.

It is called progress for better or worse.

As to the future, I think it is approaching much faster than in my parents days.

[Toad]

I have to say that I love looking at old photos - but it isn't the box full of yellowing paper that I like - its the images themselves. Its just that most old photos currently only exist on paper..