Digital photography

Microcosm wasn't working previously, and now it is.

More sophistiated sensor?

Yes, smartphone CMOS sensors get all the r&d. This is how they manage to perform better than the sensor size would suggest.

Yeah, I'm sure the big camera manufacturers are just sitting on their hands wondering how the phone people do it. Especially given that most of the sensors for cameras and phones are made by Sony - am sure the two business units never talk to each other, or technological advances in wafers affect both of them - that'd never happen.

@miro_o not wrong in this, at the moment an increasing number of people are using their phone as a camera than carrying another camera, I wagers that the sales of digital camera will start to slow down in the near future (not completely as there are still a market), why would you buy a compact digital camera when your phone is ample enough to take photo with?

@edscoble have a look at the petapixel link on the previous page (it shows this is already in effect).

Wow, me saying that I prefer taking a picture with a camera has turned into 'but the world uses camera phones so YOURE WRONG'

I prefer taking pictures with a camera. I don't think phones are as good. Yes, everyone uses phones. This is a fucking tedious conversation. You two keep patting each other on the back there though.

Rhineland

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Sony make the vast majority of phone CMOS sensors, including the one in the iPhone. It's an economy of scale thing - I'm pretty sure they developed EXMOR on-sensor analogue to digital conversion for mobile and then applied it to the larger formats to greater affect.

That's why Sony sensors (used by Fuji, Nikon, Ricoh/Pentax) have had such a massive advantage over Canon for the last few years in terms of low iso dynamic range; they were using processes and designs scaled-up from very small, efficient sensors.
Canon have only just now implemented a similar ADC architecture, having always done it off-sensor previously.
Now it looks like Samsung have licenced some stuff from Canon so phones are absolutely the main driving force behind technical progress in 'proper cameras'.

Beautiful. I never get bored of plane window shots.

It's more that you appear a little defensive when talking about it as if it fucked your grandmother and not offer breakfast in the morning after.

Thanks! Me either, I've been obsessed with them since I was a kid.

WTF are you on about?

Camera sales are already down because of phone cameras. You're not telling anyone anything new or insightful. The ergonomics of dedicated cameras are better and there's still a market for them, it's just not as big as before. Some people prefer cameras because, shock horror, they're designed for taking photos and hence are better for that specific job than a phone part-timing as a camera. Yes, a phone can be good enough for a lot of people, but the handling is completely different. Which was and remains my point. All this crap about sensors is a red herring as they generally progress at the same rate across both platforms.

Another one from yesterday. Never been close to these big turbines before, pretty mad bits of kit.

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Love the composition of this

Thanks man, it required a rather dicey scramble along a steep slope above a drop to get the angle.

Like that. Would be great for the comp.

That's really good.

Wish I was on a work trip this week, given I write about energy... Would have been great for this week's theme

^Nice.

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Wow, me saying that I prefer taking a picture with a camera has turned into 'but the world uses camera phones so YOURE WRONG'

That's not quite what has happened.

You said your experience is typical. I showed how it probably isn't. No need to get sarcastic or excited.

Pointing out that many people use something that is suboptimal for a given purpose doesn't make it magically optimal. It just means that most people don't care enough to use something better.

Both last B/W shots are very nice.

The evidence says otherwise.

..like h2o just said it's hardly "evidence" that everybody and their mother is taking pictures with their iPhone now.

As I said: I think for some tasks phones are very suitable - for a lot of others they are not.
Aside technical limitations - what you call "traditional handling" is actually pretty important for people who are photographing seriously.
Some really want a camera with focus / aperture rings, dials at just the right places etc. - this is very very different to tapping around on an iPhone screen.

Just had a look how this tedious argument started in the first place -
it was you stating that compact cameras are all of a dated concept now that phones are so good.
Which is true, from the standpoint that a lot of people today do not buy a compact camera anymore as they're happy with their phone.
There are fewer and fewer people who need / want / appreciate the advantages of a real camera, even if it's just a compact one, so yeah.

Only you care about your definition of 'suboptimal'. Pro, amatuer and casual camera users are increasingly using phones instead of pro-compacts as production and usage stats show.

I receive iPhone files alongside D4 / 5D files regularly from the same professional photographers and have no problem preparing them for 300dpi print. These are pros who would have carried a GR1, GRD or similar and now use their phones.