By Amber Burg–Every second someone in the world is taking a picture, sending one, or posting it. Photos are everywhere we look. With all these pictures being snapped and sent it would seem logical that camera sales would be higher than in the past.
However, death may be knocking on the door for point and shoot digital cameras.
Why would death be creeping up on cameras? According to NBC New’s chart of camera sales, the last peak in point and shoot camera sales was in 2010. After that the lines starts decreasing. In 2011, it plummets even faster. The cause of this trend: new technology in smartphone cameras. Making them more appealing which leads to them controlling the camera market.
Why would people prefer their phone camera to a digital point and shoot? Convenience is one of the major reasons. Everything can be done on a smartphone: the editing, cropping, special effects and sharing. On a digital camera, the photos sit in the memory card until put on a computer. It’s a hassle to grab the card, turn the computer on, find the right connection cord depending on the type of computer, scroll through the photos and drag the right one onto the desktop screen.
That’s not even including editing the picture or sharing it. On a smartphone, everything can be done with a swipe or click of a button. Posting a photo to Facebook or Tweeting a picture on Twitter can be done in under a few minutes depending on the phone and the user. In addition, the quality of some smartphones has surpassed the point and shoot cameras. New smartphones like the Windows’ Nokia Lumina 1020 are built for both phone and camera usages. It has a remarkable 41 megapixels. The Canon PowerShot has 12.1 megapixels.
Smartphones crush most point and shoots in megapixels. The Nokia Lumina 1020 also has features like Full HD videos, Optical image stabilization and High resolution zoom. It’s no contest; smartphones can give a better quality picture on the go.
As technology improves at fast rates, point and shoot cameras are either going to have to beat the competition with new technology or join the film cameras in the grave of cameras past.
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