ZDP-189
Twitter: <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/ZDP189">@Z
I am a great lover of compact cameras. There is no better camera than the one you are carrying in that fleeting photographic moment. Whereas only the truly hardcore photographer would go about his daily life with a large camera hanging about his neck, anyone can carry a compact camera that produces images of a comparable quality. However, today this role is being usurped by the mobile phone. The ubiquitous iPhone has taken over as the most popular phone on Flickr, and compact cameras are contributing less and less images. Every industry pundit and his dog have piled on the bandwagon spouting quotes like “The point & shoot commits seppuku”.
I think that’s short-sighted and unimaginative. From a compact cameras fan’s perspective, the future is dazzlingly bright. Compact cameras are not heading to extinction, they are simply evolving. In any population with no challenges, the constituents get fat and lazy. Predatory pressure from the pack of iPhone wolves improves the stock by bumping off the sick and elderly and forcing the herd to improve and diversify. So while we may soon see the demise of the generic entry level small sensor camera, we’re also seeing a flourish of exciting camera developments.
Premium digital compacts with fast zoom lenses and generous 1/1.7” sensors, like the Lumix LX series and the PowerShot G, first caught the attention of pros and enthusiasts, and now it seems every well heeled amateur carries one to their kids’ birthday parties and school event. The segment has gone from strength to strength and today has strong competition from all the major brands. Capabilities and feature sets are getting better at an astonishing pace. There is no way that these cameras will be challenged by mobile phones. A mobile phone has many components on common with a camera, but a large sensor, fast zoom lens and reasonably powerful flash take up so much room that the phone would be almost unpocketable. Take the G12 and P7000 for example. Many people resort to neck strap carry as it is.
What gets me all jiggly with enthusiasm are the new super prime compacts. These are cameras with DSLR-sized sensors and fixed prime lenses. First there was the Sigma DP1, then the Leica X1 and now the FinePix X100. These cameras seriously challenge consumer DSLRs for quality and beat some pro level DSLRs of only a generation or so ago. Their controls and shooting style is more suited to a seasoned old-school photographer than the G12’s of this world which, let’s be honest, are shot predominantly in full auto mode. Another interesting trend is none these cameras use an anti-aliasing filter and so out-resolve cameras that do. Of course, they cost more than Steve Jobs’ liver and few people own them, but competition and progress will eventually bring the price of super prime compacts down to attainable, if perhaps not affordable, levels.
The other disadvantage to the super prime compacts is they’re now no longer compact. They’ve reached the size of a 70’s rangefinder and they’re bigger than some mirrorless cameras. I can live with that. My X100 still fits in my jeans pocket and beats every camera I own bar the ungainly 5D Mark II. I can also live without interchangeable lenses which are largely a waste of time and pocket space. I can certainly live without the myriad of adapters that turn legendary film lenses into blurry teles.
Besides this trend to bigger sensors, we’re going to see a lot more niche compact cameras. There’ll be more offering stereo, high speed video, projectors and the special-effect du jour. As long manufacturers struggle to differentiate a product, they’ll be made, and as long as they don’t cost too much or take up too much room in the dry cabinet, they’ll sell.
Instead, what manufacturers should be doing is simplifying and stripping. They should make cameras that give control back to the user. Not controls buried neck deep in animated touch screen menus, not nostalgic looking but dysfunctional lens barrel control rings, but real, directly coupled buttons, knobs and dials. Open source firmware and user-settings that can be saved on SD cards would be the answer to many prayers. Imagine a digital Canonet, Olympus XA or Rollei 35, etc. and a pocket full of cards marked “Kodachrome 200”, “Velvia 50 (ISO 400)” and “Super Presto push +2”. Retro styling is strictly optional but inevitable.
In the mainstream, we can expect convergence and connectivity. I have long wished for a worthy compact camera with a phone feature, as opposed to a phone with a camera feature. Yes, Sony, Nokia and iPhone make fine daylight pictures and the new Pentax LG L-03C certainly looks the business, but these camera phones only stack up well against other phones. We have yet to see a model that excels in the company of 1/1.7” luxury compacts. I can live without pointless apps; I cannot live without a decent lens and sensor.
This doesn’t mean that a connected camera would necessarily make a good camera. A phone, especially one that facilitates image upload to social networking sites, needs not only number buttons but a keyboard or a big fat touch screen and that’s a big shift in priority away from the camera’s function. It also doesn’t mean that good cameras need to have a phone built in to achieve connectivity. Eye-Fi cards have already added some degree of connectivity, but it really wouldn’t take much for cameras to add Bluetooth connectivity and a remote control and sync-app for the phone. Some cameras already do this, but none that I am aware of are good cameras. For now we ‘serious’ photographers can make do with swapping a memory card over or waiting till we get to a computer.
If high quality camera phones really are the future, I am sure we can expect to pay a premium. I remember the original iPhone launch when Steve revealed the pricing calculation was that the new iPhone should be equal to the price of a iPod, plus a phone, plus a PDA. It needn’t be that way if they would just abandon their megapixel wars. Most internet forums and social media limit pictures to 600-640 pixels on the longest side. Flickr’s medium format is 640 pixels on the longest side. Nobody want to upload or download big images. Why not just limit the resolution to a reasonable number? A typical tiny camera phone sensor is 1/2.5”. To give an extreme example, a 640x480 resolution would give a pixel pitch of twice the area of the 5D Mark II. You could wave good bye to diffraction limits and noise. You could add a stunning 28mm or 35mm F/1.4 prime lens without it being too big. The near limit of hyperfocal focusing at a wide open aperture would be as close as six feet away. Best of all, it would be cheap to make.
It sounds like my vision of the future of compacts and camera phones has no clear direction and that’s the point of this article. We’re going to see a complete spectrum of products, with every degree of connectivity and capability, to suit every pocket in size and price. We will be spoilt for choice. The future of compact cameras remains brighter than ever.
_____________________
Dan has been a lifelong avid photographer and is a long-term small camera enthusiast. I follow Dan's daily insightful and entertaining Twitter coverage of all things photography and photo-gear related. You can find Dan on Twitter: @ZDP189. -Amin
I think that’s short-sighted and unimaginative. From a compact cameras fan’s perspective, the future is dazzlingly bright. Compact cameras are not heading to extinction, they are simply evolving. In any population with no challenges, the constituents get fat and lazy. Predatory pressure from the pack of iPhone wolves improves the stock by bumping off the sick and elderly and forcing the herd to improve and diversify. So while we may soon see the demise of the generic entry level small sensor camera, we’re also seeing a flourish of exciting camera developments.
Premium digital compacts with fast zoom lenses and generous 1/1.7” sensors, like the Lumix LX series and the PowerShot G, first caught the attention of pros and enthusiasts, and now it seems every well heeled amateur carries one to their kids’ birthday parties and school event. The segment has gone from strength to strength and today has strong competition from all the major brands. Capabilities and feature sets are getting better at an astonishing pace. There is no way that these cameras will be challenged by mobile phones. A mobile phone has many components on common with a camera, but a large sensor, fast zoom lens and reasonably powerful flash take up so much room that the phone would be almost unpocketable. Take the G12 and P7000 for example. Many people resort to neck strap carry as it is.
What gets me all jiggly with enthusiasm are the new super prime compacts. These are cameras with DSLR-sized sensors and fixed prime lenses. First there was the Sigma DP1, then the Leica X1 and now the FinePix X100. These cameras seriously challenge consumer DSLRs for quality and beat some pro level DSLRs of only a generation or so ago. Their controls and shooting style is more suited to a seasoned old-school photographer than the G12’s of this world which, let’s be honest, are shot predominantly in full auto mode. Another interesting trend is none these cameras use an anti-aliasing filter and so out-resolve cameras that do. Of course, they cost more than Steve Jobs’ liver and few people own them, but competition and progress will eventually bring the price of super prime compacts down to attainable, if perhaps not affordable, levels.
The other disadvantage to the super prime compacts is they’re now no longer compact. They’ve reached the size of a 70’s rangefinder and they’re bigger than some mirrorless cameras. I can live with that. My X100 still fits in my jeans pocket and beats every camera I own bar the ungainly 5D Mark II. I can also live without interchangeable lenses which are largely a waste of time and pocket space. I can certainly live without the myriad of adapters that turn legendary film lenses into blurry teles.
Besides this trend to bigger sensors, we’re going to see a lot more niche compact cameras. There’ll be more offering stereo, high speed video, projectors and the special-effect du jour. As long manufacturers struggle to differentiate a product, they’ll be made, and as long as they don’t cost too much or take up too much room in the dry cabinet, they’ll sell.
Instead, what manufacturers should be doing is simplifying and stripping. They should make cameras that give control back to the user. Not controls buried neck deep in animated touch screen menus, not nostalgic looking but dysfunctional lens barrel control rings, but real, directly coupled buttons, knobs and dials. Open source firmware and user-settings that can be saved on SD cards would be the answer to many prayers. Imagine a digital Canonet, Olympus XA or Rollei 35, etc. and a pocket full of cards marked “Kodachrome 200”, “Velvia 50 (ISO 400)” and “Super Presto push +2”. Retro styling is strictly optional but inevitable.
In the mainstream, we can expect convergence and connectivity. I have long wished for a worthy compact camera with a phone feature, as opposed to a phone with a camera feature. Yes, Sony, Nokia and iPhone make fine daylight pictures and the new Pentax LG L-03C certainly looks the business, but these camera phones only stack up well against other phones. We have yet to see a model that excels in the company of 1/1.7” luxury compacts. I can live without pointless apps; I cannot live without a decent lens and sensor.
This doesn’t mean that a connected camera would necessarily make a good camera. A phone, especially one that facilitates image upload to social networking sites, needs not only number buttons but a keyboard or a big fat touch screen and that’s a big shift in priority away from the camera’s function. It also doesn’t mean that good cameras need to have a phone built in to achieve connectivity. Eye-Fi cards have already added some degree of connectivity, but it really wouldn’t take much for cameras to add Bluetooth connectivity and a remote control and sync-app for the phone. Some cameras already do this, but none that I am aware of are good cameras. For now we ‘serious’ photographers can make do with swapping a memory card over or waiting till we get to a computer.
If high quality camera phones really are the future, I am sure we can expect to pay a premium. I remember the original iPhone launch when Steve revealed the pricing calculation was that the new iPhone should be equal to the price of a iPod, plus a phone, plus a PDA. It needn’t be that way if they would just abandon their megapixel wars. Most internet forums and social media limit pictures to 600-640 pixels on the longest side. Flickr’s medium format is 640 pixels on the longest side. Nobody want to upload or download big images. Why not just limit the resolution to a reasonable number? A typical tiny camera phone sensor is 1/2.5”. To give an extreme example, a 640x480 resolution would give a pixel pitch of twice the area of the 5D Mark II. You could wave good bye to diffraction limits and noise. You could add a stunning 28mm or 35mm F/1.4 prime lens without it being too big. The near limit of hyperfocal focusing at a wide open aperture would be as close as six feet away. Best of all, it would be cheap to make.
It sounds like my vision of the future of compacts and camera phones has no clear direction and that’s the point of this article. We’re going to see a complete spectrum of products, with every degree of connectivity and capability, to suit every pocket in size and price. We will be spoilt for choice. The future of compact cameras remains brighter than ever.
Dan
_____________________
Dan has been a lifelong avid photographer and is a long-term small camera enthusiast. I follow Dan's daily insightful and entertaining Twitter coverage of all things photography and photo-gear related. You can find Dan on Twitter: @ZDP189. -Amin