Camera Phones: Will they replace your DigiCams and Camcorders?
Camera Phones have made it big in the cellphone market in the past 2 years. Such that they outsell the number of Digital Cameras sold in the last few year. While a decent 2 Megapixel camera phone is common, the 3MP's and 5MP's have made a bold entry aswell (not to forget the upcoming Sony Ericsson 8.1MP).
Now lets get a little more deep in these figures that we read above (I really hate these numbers but need to mention them here). How many of those camera phones that outsold DigiCams were of 2MP or above? The fact remains that most mobiles sold today are the low-end ones which offer a basic VGA cam (some with 1.3MP or a simple 2MP). No I don't mean to say that good camera phones won't (or haven't) outsell the proper Digital Cameras or Camcorders, but the food for thought lies in "Have these camera phones taken away the Digital Camera market by attracting the Real DigiCam users? By making them sell their DigiCams and go for a good camera phone?".
Now lets get a little more deep in these figures that we read above (I really hate these numbers but need to mention them here). How many of those camera phones that outsold DigiCams were of 2MP or above? The fact remains that most mobiles sold today are the low-end ones which offer a basic VGA cam (some with 1.3MP or a simple 2MP). No I don't mean to say that good camera phones won't (or haven't) outsell the proper Digital Cameras or Camcorders, but the food for thought lies in "Have these camera phones taken away the Digital Camera market by attracting the Real DigiCam users? By making them sell their DigiCams and go for a good camera phone?".
The fact that I have noticed is, 8-10 people around me haven't even turned on their mobile camera in the last 7 days. Though I don't have any official figures, I would love to conduct a survey to see how and how much do people use their cellphone cameras. But what disappoints me is the competition put up by the DigiCam makers. Today a 5MP Digital Camera is available for $100 (Rs 4000) in India, but this came at a serious compromise of quality.
(An old 2005 study) "according to a study recently released by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), which found that some 91 percent of digital camera owners consider their digital camera to be their main photography device." - read
Though I don't know how many of you reading this are serious about photography but anyone who has used a decent Digital Camera with a Optical Zoom would agree with me. Till recent I used to have a really Old Sony T-3 (5MP with 3x Optical Zoom) and none of the camera phones still impress me for 1 basic reason: There is no OPTICAL ZOOM offered! Another misconception is 'higher MegaPixel = Better Camera'. But as Mr Mahaveer (of SAPL) always mentions to me, "The quality of the image depends on the lens, not the Megapixel". This is probably why My good old Treo 650 with a old VGA camera beats all the 1.3MP phones in the market in terms of quality.
If these popular camera phones are to really capture the REAL Digital Camera market then manufacturers would need to really UP the competition. Xenon flash and high resolution is the first step, but the sugar coat would really be the Optical Zoom.
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Tags: camera digitalcamera debate mobilecamera photography megapixel
If these popular camera phones are to really capture the REAL Digital Camera market then manufacturers would need to really UP the competition. Xenon flash and high resolution is the first step, but the sugar coat would really be the Optical Zoom.
Image Source
Tags: camera digitalcamera debate mobilecamera photography megapixel
