Monday, July 8, 2013

Which Is Better, Smartphones Or Digital Cameras?

By Mike Thompson


Ever since smartphones have entered the technology scene, it has caused a serious slump in compact camera sales. One of the most popular photo sharing sites, Flickr, has cites that the most popular cameras used by its members are 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.



Unlike a smartphone, you will also be able to take clear pictures from afar since you will have a bigger zoom with a digital camera. There are other advantages too, such as better white balance, metering and subject tracking. You can even crop a 300 percent zoom of a photo taken by a digital camera and can use that to flaunt yourself, or others, on social networks like Instagram or Facebook because the photo quality is still good at this zoom level. On a smartphone, this is simply impossible.

You also have to take into account of the fact that your smartphone is still really just a phone that happens to be fairly versatile and that taking lots of photos can be a cause of a massive battery drain. You definitely don't want to be struggling to be making a phone call or a text message later on because of this.

As a matter of fact, the big camera vendors have decided to compete against smartphones and not just let them achieve a monopoly. This has resulted in the creation of 'smart cameras' which are digital cameras that allow you to send photos online via Wi-Fi or your mobile phone's connection.

For instance, Canon has recently developed the Powershot N, which is a small square shaped digital camera, designed to have the similar size as a smartphone as well as having built-in Instagram-like filters and built-in Wi-Fi for instant photo sharing.

In general, digital compact cameras are becoming increasingly sophisticated so much so that it even rivals the DSLR versions of themselves. Take the latest Nikon Coolpix A for example, it has the same 16.1 megapixel sensor found in the Nikon D7100 camera as well as the image processor found in the earlier D7000 model.

All in all, smartphones shouldn't be totally disregarded as a viable camera alternative. It really comes down to shooting preferences. Are you someone who would ever shoot photos for the sake of social sharing? Then smartphones are your best bet. Are you someone who would like near-perfect shots everytime regardless of lighting conditions? Then using a digital camera is more suitable for you.

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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