Saturday, July 20, 2013

Which Is Better, Smartphones Or Digital Cameras?

By Mike Thompson


Since the advent of smartphones, these devices have cause a major overhaul of digital compact cameras. Flickr, one of the most popular photo sharing websites has surveyed its members and has found that the most popular cameras used were the Apple iPhone 4S, the Apple iPhone 5 and the Apple iPhone 4.

It appears as if smartphones have eliminated the need to ever own a digital camera, however, there are a multitude of reasons why this is not the case. The simplest reason is higher quality of photos. A low illumination test against 2 popular smartphone brands, the Apple iPhone 5 and the Samsung Galaxy S4, and an average run of the mill point and shoot digital camera, the Canon Powershot G15, has shown that the digital camera is superior by a long shot.

Not like the smartphone, with a digital camera, you will able to shoot photos from a fair distance away because of the larger zoom factor. There are other benefits as well, including better metering, white balance and superior subject tracking. You may also crop photos at 300% zoom and use that to show off to your friends on Facebook or Instagram simply because the quality is still really great at that crop level. With a smartphone, this is just not possible.

Keep in mind that your smartphone is exactly what it says it is, a phone that has multiple functions and taking many pictures can be quite taxing on the battery. It is definitely not advisable to to do this as you might not be able to make phone calls or text messages afterwards because of this.

In response to the smartphone invasion, camera companies have taken the bull by its horns and have developed competing versions of their own cameras. This has led to the rise of 'smart cameras' which allow you to share your photos wirelessly via Wi-Fi or your smartphone's mobile connection.

To illustrate this, Canon has recently released their latest digital camera model called the Powershot N. This tiny, square-shaped digital camera looks and feels like a smartphone but has the same shooting power as a digital camera, has Instagram-like filters and also has Wi-Fi built into for all your social sharing needs.

Generally speaking, compact cameras are becoming more and more complex to the point that they can produce quality shots as good as their DSLR counterparts. For example, the newest Nikon Coolpix A has the 16.1 megapixel sensor of the Nikon D7100 and the image processor of the Nikon D7000.

In the end, smartphones should not be dismissed as totally inferior to digital cameras. It just depends on what you want from these cameras. Would you take pictures to only just share photos with others? In this case, you would be better off with a smartphone. Would you take pictures because you would like them to be picture-perfect? In this case, you would be more satisfied with a digital camera.

The best compromise between these two is to think of it this way - smartphones should be complementary to digital cameras rather than replacements.




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