Do Not Give Up Your Point-and-Shoot

It is said that phone photography is on the rise and that, very soon, the market for point-and-shoot cameras will dwindle to nothingness.


I agree that the quality of phone photography is now very high and that photos produced from camera phones can be printed in large sizes. I even love photos that I produce with my iPhone and I have even printed some up to 8x10 prints.


However, at this point in time, I don't think you should put away your point-and-shoot permanently. Why? Because the sensor size, the most important aspect of the camera (IMHO), for dedicated cameras is still bigger than the ones inside camera phones.

And yes, point-and-shoots have optical zooms, not digital zooms, so that is also a big help for the "lowly" dedicated camera.

For high-contrasty scenes, like the ones below, phone cameras still couldn't match up with point-and-shoots...

 

Oh, and some dedicated cameras can shoot RAW, so that adds to another big, big advantage over phone cameras. Shoot in Manual Mode? You have to go the way of the non-phone camera...

So, until phone cameras have a larger sensor, an optical zoom, can shoot RAW and have real Manual Mode, I will still have a dedicated camera on my person most of the time.

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Shots made with a Canon Powershot SX230 HS. My review of this camera can be found here.