The end?

richarddd wrote:

Chris 222 wrote:

marksee wrote:

I don't mean to be a smartass,

Well... you are! LOL

but I wonder what you would have said about smartphone capabilities 20 years ago. My guess your words would have been verbatim. To think there are limitations is shortsighted. Technology defies limitations and will continue to amaze us in the future.

Worse, no offense meant but you seem to be one of those wide-eyed, smartass Geekheads who blindly believe that technology can and will solve everything.

Yes, tech has brought us some conveniences but it has also already destroyed much of our Life Support Systems. Just open your eyes and look around...

But back to Canon Powershots future. No tech buzzword will ever make up for the fact that there will never be a phone that even remotely approaches the overall performance of my G1X3, to take just one Powershot example.

Actual performance is a combination of the tech inside with ergonomics, usability, versatility, WR, etc. and a thin, slippery tech slab with little to no physical controls cannot even compete. It's s simply impossible with that form factor (Motorola had a very promising attachment with a 10X optical zoom designed by Hasselblad but they were bought by Lenovo, which was dumb enough to abandon development of that line... Had they kept developing it, I have no doubt that they would have the lead by now.) .

There is a small but noticeable number of phone users who want a real camera. I suspect that number will grow much larger as people get more and more aware of their phones' strong shortcomings. Will Canon respond and update their compacts? I'd say they have another year or two to wake up and smell the coffee...

Phones are much better now than in the past. The gap between cameras and phones seems to be narrowing as phones are improving faster than cameras (especially compact cameras). Phones are a very strong market and cameras are declining.

Given all that, it's hard to see real cameras as a growing market, especially compared to the phone market.

I much prefer the ergonomics of a camera, but either most people don't agree or they don't believe there's enough of a difference to matter. If nothing else, remember the old saying about the camera you have with you.

A 10x optical zoom attachment ? The newer cameras come with telephoto lenses, which have gotten rather favorable reviews.

Those who regard phones as too slippery most probably buy cases that are not slippery. That should solve the issue.

I don't have enough faith in my ability to predict technology to predict that "there will never be a phone that even remotely approaches the overall performance of my G1X3". Never is a long time. If I had to bet, I'd bet on phones.

Recent tends in camera development are likely an indication of what the manufacturers believe about the market and the future.

I'd still like to have an OVF or EVF in my phone