Tonight I read an interesting piece from The Guardian which claims sales of point and shoot cameras went down by 30% in 2011. The piece discusses how most people have a phone at their fingers tips now to snap away as and when they choose. Which from my experience is true. I never ever take my Canon point and shoot with me anywhere since I got my iPhone 4.
3 years or so ago, I hardly ever left the house without my compact camera in fear of missing out catching a snap that calculates a hundred memories. Then things moved on and Apple helped me and millions of others discover what is was like to have a half decent camera connected to a phone. even in the days of my 3G with it’s not so great camera and fuzzy display screen, my point and shoot probably has an inkling that it’s demise was on the horizon, seeing as it was only bought out on special occasions.
I used the camera on the iPhone 4s this weekend and in my eyes for the purpose of everyday photography, you wouldn’t want anything better. The quality is as good if not better than most point and shoots of a reasonable price range and on your phone you have the added benefit of edit suites at your finger tips too! Carrying around a point and shoot and an iPhone would be like duplicating everything. Your images (because if you want to Instagram them you’re going to have to snap away on your iPhone anyway), the weight in your bag, the price you are paying…
In fact, I would go as far to say I would never buy a digital camera again – I’d be much more tempted to get a film one which produced pictures with a little bit of difference and takes some practice to use.
Where the turning point really lies is how smartphone apps such as Instagram have enabled photography to operate as the perfect social update tool. The beauty of instant photography today is that you can capture it and share it with a community.
On one hand social photography is the lazy person’s social calling. You can upload easily and browse pretty images to gage where your friends are and what they like at the moment and even research a particular topic purely visually without have to sift through status updates and large amounts of text.
On the other hand, once you begin to get involved and download edit suites and start really caring about the pictures you put out it can be quite time consuming indeed.
The only way the point and shoot could be revived is if they gain social connectivity and shoot at a higher quality than a smartphone without huge costs attached. Probably wishful thinking. I’m happy to stick with my iPhone for now, as are many others. So, sorry Mr Canon, I think you will stay buried in my drawer for a while yet and then one day in the not too distant future I will find you and remark what a defunct piece of kit you are (but none the less I will always love you dearly!)
UPDATE: Kodak launch cameras with Facebook connection for easy sharing. Images and video can also be shared to YouTube and email. Could this be the future?