Cell phone canibalism

[belgiumreporter]

I went to Mechelen for the local beer festival and i didn't bother to take a camera along. What i did have was my cell phone, nothing fancy just an average low(er) range model. Even though the city of Mechelen is only some 20Km away from Antwerp i've never been in the "old" center. Because there where some nice photo opportunities i couldn't resist to take some shots with my cell phone. The results started me to think about the nescessety of dragging a bag of photo gear along all of the time. Apparently to capture some fun memories these days a cell phone will be sufficient to tackle that job. So it seems i'm not the only one thinking that way and cell phones are now canibalising the compact camera market, but seeing what cell phone cameras are capable off these days that shouldn't be much of a surprice.











As you can see not high end photography, but good enough for some memories.

[raybar]

At the last wedding reception I attended, only two people (myself and the bride who is a photographer) had actual cameras. Everyone else took pictures with their phones. No SLRs, no point & shoots, no polaroids (except my little Fuji Instax Mini which I let the children use), no nothing. Just phones.

In fact, aside from serious photographers, I do not know anyone who still uses a camera. And almost no one even prints their pictures. They just look at them on their phones, or email them to other people who then just look at them on their phones or computers.

[belgiumreporter]

It seems like the amateur part of photographers are now getting what they allways wanted since the dawn of photography: an easy and quick way to make decent quality pictures. "you push the button and the computer does the rest!" Can you blame them? instant result, no more messy chemicals, no more piles of boxes and albums with paper prints, cheap and easy, very low threshold for even the most unexperienced to get started...we are witnessing a revolution in the way images and memories are made, kept and shared.