The rise of smartphones has seen some ringing the death knell of compact cameras for, well, years now.
Despite the fact that Apple isn't the producer of the world's biggest selling smartphone, and, it hasn't been, by some stretch, the producer of the best camera phone, it is always the launch of the new iPhone which gets us questioning if there really is any point in the compact camera anymore.
The Apple iPhone seems to be the smartphone of choice for those who consider themselves "photographers". It remains the case that Flickr's most popular "cameras" are the iPhone 5, iPhone 4S and iPhone 4. Compact cameras don't even get a look in. Other phone manufacturers also even get a look in.
But, what is interesting, if we exclude cameraphones from the equation – and that's not to say that Flickr is by any means a definitive measuring stick, then we can see that the most popular "point and shoots" (i.e. what it calls compact cameras) are highly specced, advanced premium compacts. The Sony RX100 tops the charts, followed by the Canon G12 and the Canon S95. These are cameras with full manual control and a high price point.
Meanwhile, sales of low-end compact cameras are definitely on the wane. Who wants to carry around an extra device that your smartphone can easily compete with and has the added advantage of being able to instantly share to Instagram? (other social networks are available). We've even seen some camera manufacturers, such as Olympus, announce that it will be concentrating its energy on the higher end of the market – probably a smart move.
True What?
As we might have expected, the iPhone 5S has taken a reasonable leap in terms of specs – at least on paper anyway. Despite rumours of a 12-13 megapixel device, Apple is sticking with its trusted 8 million pixel resolution, but it has made the sensor 15% larger than the one found on the iPhone 5.
It's also got some other interesting specs that you probably won't find on the average point and shoot - namely 10fps shooting, and a panorama mode which captures 28 million pixel images and adjusts exposure as you're panning. Nifty.
With everybody banging on about low light, it's only natural that Apple has not only made the sensor size and pixels bigger (they're now 1.5 microns), but it's also included what it's dubbing TrueTone flash - that is two LED flashes, one which is amber, one which is white - supposedly for more accurate colours.
Even bearing those new specs in mind, smartphones of course, don't offer everything that a dedicated imaging device does. It's here, where the latest batch of devices are desperately trying to compete. So far, there's nothing that truly meets that mark and makes the camera dispensable.
Headline grabbers include the Nokia Lumia 1020 with its "41 million pixel" sensor and Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom, with it's unwieldy 10x optical zoom (it's basically a camera that can make calls). Meanwhile, the Nokia Lumia 925's all out advertising strategy is all about highlighting its low light capability.
Sony, on the other hand, is also being incredibly innovative. This month has seen the launch of the Sony Xperia Z1, with a 1/2.3 inch 20.2 million-pixel sensor. That's the same (physical and pixel count) size sensor as you might find in a pretty decent compact camera, and much larger than those found in the standard smartphone. It's also an Exmor R, which means it's backlit and should be pretty able to deal with low light scenarios.
Not only that, but the Sony QX100 and QX10 have just been announced – fully featured compact cameras that don't have a screen, instead using your smartphone or tablet to compose. Right there is an example of a company attempting to fight the smartphone onslaught head on by working with them, rather than against them.
Putting aside any of these specs, which are undoubtedly improving, one pretty crucial area where smartphones still struggle badly is battery life. Having an amazing camera is only as good as the battery life that allows you to use it, after all.
Conclusions
So, can we answer this article's headline? The answer, sadly, is remaining obstinately on the fence. It's probably true that within the next few years, the lower end of the compact camera market will dwindle even further.
That said, there are still some people (we don't know any of them) who don't have smartphones, for those people, the budget compact camera market is still a pretty interesting. It's also true that the dodgy battery life and the zero optical zoom of the average smartphone puts the kibosh on using it as a decent holiday snapper, so that market also still remains firm.
What we think will happen though, is that budget compact cameras, or at least, what we think of as budget compact cameras will start to change, offering more and more than your smartphone can't. We're talking high zooms, large sensors, low light capability, a decent battery life and more. This mid-range and above seems safe ... for now at least.
Join us for the next iPhone launch to no doubt ask this question all over again.
Source : techradar[dot]com
