Camera Phone

[expatinasia]

Just curious, but if Canon, or any of the other camera manufacturers came out with a good quality compact camera such as the RX1 or RX100, that could also make and receive calls, even use apps like whatsapp etc. Would you buy it?

What I mean is, a high quality compact camera designed primarily for photography but which also has the ability to make calls, whatsapp etc., rather than a phone that can do a little of everything, but which is primarily a phone.

What are your thoughts?

 

[jdramirez]

I'm an SLR guy... I use my phone when I don't care about photo quality but want to capture a moment... there is no chance that I'm willing to care about a better quality camera phone. My Galaxy does a more than sufficient job, but the camera is rarely used... maybe to put up picture for Craig's list sales.

 

[dmills]

Nope, wouldn't care. I don't want a phone that's mainly for taking pictures, and has "some phone features thrown in too". I'm fine with the picture quality on my iphone 5 and 5d3, and am happy to keep them separate.

 

[nebugeater]

Ya add a phone feature to your P&S camera and where does it stop? Next thing you know they will be adding GPS, a touch screen and wifi or something else crazy.

 

[Dpickup]

Samsung have tried this and not sure how many they have sold but general feedback I have seen is its more a Galaxy than a camera, so as always depends where you want your compromises :

http://www.samsung.com/global/microsite/galaxycamera/

main issue for me would be my phone is so small it goes everywhere and if I NEED a camera the one in my iphone is "good enough"

I would like the camera in it to be better but would not like it to increase the size of my phone to compensate

 

[rs]

To be a compelling replacement for a phone, for me it'd have to be very compact - much smaller/thinner than any large sensor compact, and smaller still than pretty much any small sensor compact. That means the picture quality is greatly compromised anyway. Therefore, what's the reason for me to buy it unless it can also compete head on with the best smartphones in all other areas that they're good at?

The Nokia PureView 808 is a good example of a failed attempt I could image a camera company coming up with - a camera verging on great due to its large sensor, but simply awful in every other respect, largely due to the OS - so next to no-one bought it.

 

[2n10]

Samsung have tried this and not sure how many they have sold but general feedback I have seen is its more a Galaxy than a camera, so as always depends where you want your compromises :

http://www.samsung.com/global/microsite/galaxycamera/

main issue for me would be my phone is so small it goes everywhere and if I NEED a camera the one in my iphone is "good enough"

I would like the camera in it to be better but would not like it to increase the size of my phone to compensate

Saw this camera phone the other day and thought 'OK cool concept but it doesn't quite fit right in jeans pockets and probably doesn't have better quality than the iPhone'. But like the rest of the posters it doesn't fall in my usage zone.

 

[robbymack]

I think the lines between camera phone and dslr are already being blurred. I definitely see a time in the future that your phone will be capable of similar images as your mid to high end dslr. Heck it's already happening. There is a very accomplished local photog who speaks very highly of his iPhone as a work tool. He says its loosens up subjects and allows them to have fun allowing him to capture images the big camera won't. In fact he even went so far as to submit his iPhone images for a recent cover shoot and had the iPhone image the art director liked not had an ever so slight blur that would have been the cover shot for the mag.

 

[Jim K]

I definitely see a time in the future that your phone will be capable of similar images as your mid to high end dslr.

But why wouldn't the improvments that made the future phone camera equal to a mid/high end DSLR be applied to the mid and high end DSLRs making them even better too?
Large Format quality from my new 5D Mark VI

 

[dmills]

I think the lines between camera phone and dslr are already being blurred. I definitely see a time in the future that your phone will be capable of similar images as your mid to high end dslr. Heck it's already happening. There is a very accomplished local photog who speaks very highly of his iPhone as a work tool. He says its loosens up subjects and allows them to have fun allowing him to capture images the big camera won't. In fact he even went so far as to submit his iPhone images for a recent cover shoot and had the iPhone image the art director liked not had an ever so slight blur that would have been the cover shot for the mag.

While it's a good story, and i'm sure it's true... to me it's sad that a "pro" photographer is missing cover-worthy shots because he's shooting with a sub-standard tool. If the shots from the tool aren't good enough to be used for the job he's doing, to me, he's just wasting time and money.

 

[jdramirez]

what I do want is the ability to send and image to my phone so I can share it via email or Facebook or whatever. Bluetooth in a camera should be easy... so I don't know why it isn't in there.