I'm not ranting. Not in the slightest. I own a smartphone or two myself. Tapping this post out on one right now in fact. They're very very handy at times, no doubt about it. But I'm also aware that they come with both pros, and cons. How much, and where you use them is entirely up to you. That's all I'm saying.
The real reason is that peeps are inherently lazy and phonetards won't give up the convenience for a compact, whether they get crap images or not. Phonetards will make up every excuse in the book to justify using one over a regular camera.
Exactly! Like everything, photography has evolved. It seems to me, it's at a point where we can safely separate photography from snapshooting. If we do, there is no issue. Phones are undoubtedly the snapshooting king. Within a minute or two, one can take a sharp, well exposed family snap in a restaurant and send it to numerous relatives around the world. So, leave that to phones and continue to enjoy your artsy photography with your expensive DSLRs etc., not a problem.
Last time I check, my phone can do quite a few more useful things than just taking pictures, so leave it at home when I take a camera with me makes no sense.
I can imagine a command center with huge screens and people wearing lab robes tracking my activities:
“He went out with her wife for tacos, then made a stop at the pharmacy to buy aspirin, and back at home he saw 2 episodes of Love and Death and one of Pretty Little Liars season 6” 😂😂😂
You have to admit, being able to share quickly is a very good use case, that's why most people take photos right? To share something they've seen with others.
Shame that after all these years, camera makers can't do anything that works well in this area.
CIPA (Camera and Imaging Products Association), the trade organization which is the successor to the Japan Camera Industry Association (JCIA), has statistical data on camera and lens shipments from the 1950s to present day. The CIPA data for total digital still camera shipments (All Types) in 2010 was 121,463,000 units. Over ten years time, annual digital still camera shipments of all types fell to 8,886,000 in 2020.
The compact camera market (cameras with built-in lens), as tracked by CIPA, has gone from 108,576,000 in 2010 to 2,085,000 in 2022. A reduction of more than 98%. The compact camera market hasn't been killed off completely by phones, but it's been beaten to a pulp and is in intensive care on life support.
In other words from 2010 thru 2020, nearly 93% of their total reported digital still camera market disappeared — 121.46 million cameras per year reduced to 8.89 million in just over a decade. In 2022, that figure was down to 8.01 million total units. Compact cameras accounted for 106.49 million of the 113.45 million reduction in annual digital still camera shipments reported from 2010 thru 2022.
DSLR camera shipments have plummeted from 16.2 million in 2012 to 1.85 million in 2022. Mirrorless interchangeable lens camera (MILC) shipments have been up and down from year-to-year, but are essentially flat over the longer term, going from 3.96 million in 2012 to 4.07 million in 2022. Interchangeable lens digital cameras as a group (DSLR and Mirrorless combined) declined over 70%, from 20.16 million in 2012 to 5.93 million in 2022, due to evaporating sales of DSLR cameras.
If you consider the large and rapid decline in camera sales over the past 10 years, you may see some correlation with: the rise of Instagram, which was initially released in Oct. 2010 around the same time that the iPhone 4 introduced the "Retina Display"; the decline of photo news sites and forums; and the move to close down DP Review. Any camera manufacturer that has survived until now should be congratulated for their fortitude and endurance, in my humble opinion.
And, I think that the next 10-years will be as challenging. I see some kind of “consolidation” in the camera industry not unlike what occurred with the rise of Digital where brands were merged/sold/whatever, Product lines streamlined, etc. IMO the market will look very different in a decade.
121+100+80+65+55+40+30+20+10+8
Imagine that as the real numbers for a total of nearly 551.000.000 cameras sold between ten years 2010 to 2020 - Add the same sum for the previous decade.
You get around 1,1 billion cameras - less than 20 years old - still working around the planet. Over an 8 billion population.
I call that saturation.
Add:
you have another electronic device on you - as an aside it can do the same things, better or not - It's as well connecting you.
And in the last ten years, you are online in most parts of the planet: Easy isn't it ?
You rise and shoot - 30 seconds later people at home are participating - see what you are seeing from the top of Mount Everest or in Capri Faragliones, or Ayers Rock and you can voice chat with them in real-time. Ditch the Gran Canyon - everybody goes there - not any more interesting.
And don't forget
THAT >>>>>> My 1.000$ NIKON Z30
is not able to draw power from a USB C when turned on
has no WIFI capability to connect to an existing LAN
no OTG capability ( !! What's that !!!) No OTA as well
main BACK & OLD technology from the top quality camera Brand.
That's is what a modern buyer will NEVER expect for 1,000$ - boomers excluded
Next time somebody speaks about dropping sales I will spit in his eyes!
(I'm not a Boomer - 1956 was excluded in that count)
When your unit sales drop to less than 2% of what they were 12 years earlier (digital compact cameras) or to less than 7% during the same time period (all types of digital cameras), you can call it a buggy whip or a black rhino and it won't affect the situation. So, it won't matter to me.
Do whatever you think is right, but I'm not posting bail.
Over the course of 10 to 20 years, a lot of digital cameras will end up in electronics recycling bins with working models forming an ever shrinking percentage of those circulating and in use.
I hope nobody will feel offended...
...it's just a way to demonstrate a point of view using "absurd reasoning" instead of maths !!
I agree some will stop to work, one reason or the other.
But 90% are still in a drawer in working or even near mint condition: A psychological brake to any buying impulse on the owner.
Now suppose everybody under 40 may have seen or tested one in his own house hold when a kid.
What important feature that devices were missing??
What one of the most modern device from the highest Brand in the market is missing even today
Sorry if I've reiterated this point.
I think there resides the true problem nowadays
( a 1000€ phone will have them all - that is an everyday important use )
Yes. After working professionally and using canon dSLRs for 20-years with pro glass, a Leica M9, an Olympus Pen, and several fujis, my “excuse” is that I like my smartphone as a camera. I think that it’s great for me. Calling folks a “Phonetard” because they are using a tool that they wish to use displays a level of emotional intelligence that speaks volumes. Enjoy your stew. i’ll enjoy the lovely 48mp images that I create with my iPhone.