Smile, you’re on candid iPhone

Posted by Suzy Vitello Soulé on December 6th, 2010 at 05:01 AM | | Tweet

The other night, at a party, I realized that all the cameras being whipped out were not, in fact, cameras. I actually had a hard time recollecting the last time I saw someone yank a point-and-shoot from their handbag and aim it at an unsuspecting bystander. Sure enough, I just came across this article in the New York Times that backs up my assertion that smartphones are the new pocket camera.

According to the article, while smartphone sales have experienced meteoric soaring, sales of point-and-shoot cameras fell nearly 16 percent from 2008. That corresponds to a decline of 24 percent in dollars, from $2.4 billion to $1.9 billion.

As ubiquitous as smartphone picture snapping has become (and, likewise, the instant placement on a Facebook profile wall), there are still a few technical disadvantages.  Mainly, if you’re trying to capture the moment on a dark and stormy night, or at a fast-motion sporting event, you’ll most likely fail.  A few months ago, while attending an outdoor Willie Nelson concert, I remember noticing all the iPhones poised and waving.  Where once there were cigarette lighters, now all of us were trying to catch the perfect shot of the old guy banging away on Trigger, his famously battered guitar.  The problem with the iPhone-as-visual-recording-device is that mostly what you’ll get at an outdoor concert, in the rain, is blurry, black nothing.  At least that was my experience.

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