cell phones making M4/3 and DSLRs obsolete

Occasionally you hear people saying that cellphones will make our cameras obsolete. I understand all the reasons for this argument and I even generally agree with some of the logic (for simply documenting a moment, the cellphone is an incredible tool).

However, I recently took advantage of a printing sale on snapfish and printed more than 2000 photos off my cellphone. Just cheap 4x6 prints, nothing special. However, I will say I was surprised by how low the quality of the cellphone photos is. There really is no comparison to the photos from my new Panasonic G7, to say nothing of my trusty Nikon. So while it's definitely true that the cellphone can't be beat for portability, for those who still care about quality, the cellphone is still not up to the task. Admittedly, I'm still working with relatively old cellphones (iPhone 6 and older).

maybe they will one day, but since i have no phone nor intend to get one a camera still makes perfect sense for me, especially because i mainly shoot telephoto

We're turning into a simplistic tech society where we view everything within the scale of cell phone screens.  Folks read texts, email, browse the web, look at photos, or what have you...all on their mobile phones.  So they become accustomed to this - it's part of modern-day living.

And granted, the images may look extremely sharp while looking at them on a mobile phone screen.

Now import most of those photos into Lightroom (or whatever you're using) to view those images on a screen - usually a 22 - 27" model PC screen.  Now things have changed, haven't they.  Many of the images have high blur levels (the product of one handed picture taking for the most part) - with some smearing of colors.  An entirely different ball game now, isn't it!!!

But I do have to be honest here - some cell phones - i.e. my Samsung models - take surprisingly excellent images, with a superb color tonality, and very sharp for the genre - even when imported into my PC for viewing on my screen.  I'm using an LG G7 now - a 16 MP model with IBIS - but I have to say, images taken with my older Samsung S5 (12 MP's) - once set to the finest JPG available within that model - can be strikingly impressive - provided you hold the phone steady while capturing the scene.

So as long as folks are intent (and content) on capturing and viewing images on their phones, then I guess there's nothing more to say.  But for those of us who mean business - which is most of us - there's nothing like a "real camera."

Now I'm banking on the reality that within the next 5 - 10 years or so there will be mobile phones released with camera systems inside that will truly compete with higher end enthusiast digital cameras.  That's technology for you - areas that never stop advancing.

With the iPhone 6 Plus,  can make quite acceptable prints, albeit rarely larger than 4x6. However I print very rarely in general, usually do it myself on Canon photo printer.

The primary advantages for me of a “real” camera is the flexibility of controlling exposure and the ability to use higher quality lenses for reach or for subject isolation using shallow DOF for example.  Also the tiny sensor in cellphones does not lend it towards significant cropping.

But since the vast majority of images are viewed on cellphone, tablets or computer screens the phone camera is going to meet the needs of a lot of folks

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I think the cell phone is extremely awkward to use as a camera. The ergonomics are all wrong. They are okay for snapshots and, of course, when you don't have a camera with you they are very handy. I still prefer the quality of the images I get from my camera as opposed to my cell phone.

... Incredible tools for how tiny they are and getting better all the time. Still even with the best cell phones, I see that when you blow up the images a little bit there isn't the kind of detail, smooth transitions and dynamic range (and several other things that I won't get into here) that you get with a bigger camera, even a 1" compact, let alone a larger format. Though some cell phones do offer a degree of manual control, the interface is never as good as a dedicated camera, especially one with lots of physical controls. Add all that to the fact that focal lengths are pretty limited on a cell phone and it seems pretty obvious to me that even though cell phones are really incredible tech and capable of really fine images within certain parameters, that there is still very much a role for dedicated cameras...

If there was a cell phone that had the image quality of say a 1" camera, had a great interface with controls that make it easy to change settings on the fly, had a zoom that went from wide to mid tele (I don't really need any more than that) with the kind of flexibility in aperture/DOF that we've come to expect from our larger cameras... so that you could shoot a formal portrait with it or shoot a band in a dimly lit club (and still not get really noisy images), I'd definitely want one! I'm not so hung up on the form-function of typical digital cameras and would love to have something that can produce really high quality images in a variety of situations that would fit in my pocket. Cell phones allow us to capture any moment as we pretty much always have these things with us... but they don't necessarily allow us to make images on par with what we can do with our dedicated cameras, so there's still some distance to go on order for cell phones to truly be considered as a replacement for dedicated cameras...

I took a picture on my phone that was as good as any I've seen from a camera.
I took a picture on my camera that no phone camera on the market could come close to matching in quality.

There have been a couple (Samsung & Panasonic) of hybrid phone/cameras on the market in the past - a mobile phone with decent zoom lens and physical camera controls, something I personally hoped would catch on and develop over the years but it seems the general public didn’t like the idea as they are no longer available.

For my needs that sort of device would be perfect - it would save me from carrying both a phone and a camera

Five megapixel Blackberry image. This prints very well at A4 size ...

Yamaha V Star

Phones have already replaced some 95% of the point and shoot camera market. Just look around you. Mind you, this is actually a good thing as more people are taking pictures than ever before.

I also believe that many potential hobby photographers will now buy better phone cameras, instead of dedicated entry level interchangeable lens cameras.

The bad thing is that this trend erodes the profitability of camera makers. With less profits they can invest less in R&D. So the gap between phones and dedicated cameras may shrink further. Prices for pro and enthusiast cameras and lenses will rise rather than fall. Olympus is probably a bit an exception, because they can benefit from their R&D in the still profitable medical and industrial imaging divisions.

But there will always (or at least for many years to come) be a demand for cameras that can take high quality pictures. By professionals, by artists, and by enthusiasts. I do not believe that dedicated cameras will suddenly disappear in the next 20 years (like typewriters did in the late 80's). Film cameras did also not disappear suddenly, it took >10 years for sensors to both improve and become affordable.

Besides, I never developed any affectionate feelings for phones. But I certainly do for my Pen-F. I can not imagine that someone would ever consider collecting old cell phones. Chris