As smartphone cameras get better and better, camera companies that
compete on the lower end of the camera market are seeing their share
erode away. In fact, so many people are giving up buying cameras because
their smartphones are good enough that one Credit Suisse analyst told Reuters that he expects only Canon, Nikon, and Sony to survive
Less than a decade ago, the digital camera market was split largely
into two categories: point-and-shoots and DSLRs. While they varied
widely in price (and there are smaller segments in each), DSLRs have
always catered to pros, who need the best photo capabilities possible,
and enthusiasts who want higher image quality and more control.
Point-and-shoots, meanwhile, were largely bought by average consumers to
take snapshots of their family, their dog, their vacations, whatever
Until recently, people took pictures with their phones, but they'd
tend to avoid it. People who frequent camera forums love to repeat "The
best camera is the one with you" ad nauseum, but camera phones
used to suck. Even people who couldn't care less about photos would buy a
cheap point-and-shoot, because there was no other option. That market was a fairly natural evolution from the film days, and camera companies got along fine. (Aside from Kodak, that is
But as smartphone cameras got better, suddenly there wasn't much of a
difference between a point-and-shoot and the camera on your phone.
Sure, you might get a better flash or zoom, but the calculus was simple
for many people: If your phone camera is good enough, why spend more
money on a point-and-shoot, which is just another device to carry around
for marginal benefit
Back in 2011, the iPhone 4 became the most popular camera on Flickr,
while point-and-shoot cameras largely began to disappear. The iPhone
4's camera only has 5 megapixels, a paltry score for the spec camera
companies best love to advertise. Yet its ease of use, quality, and
ubiquity was enough to get a whole lot of people to ditch the idea of
having a discrete camera altogether
Today, the point-and-shoot is all but dead. In the first five months of 2013, point-and-shoot camera shipments dropped a whopping 43 percent; the four most popular cameras on Flickr
are now iPhones. Many point-and-shoots may still have more capabilities
than an iPhone. (That's definitely debatable though, especially
considering an iPhone's connectivity.) But the type of person who buys a
point-and-shoot—someone who just wants to take pictures, and isn't
really concerned with photography—now has everything he or she wants
built right into their phone
Camera makers saw this coming, and about five years ago created a new
mid-market camera segment to cater to people who wanted more capability
than a phone could offer, but didn't want to spend the money to carry
around a huge, clunky pro DSLR. The mirrorless segment, largely
dominated by the Micro Four Thirds format,
tends to feature cameras with plenty of manual controls and
interchangeable lenses in smaller, better-looking packages than an
entry-level DSLR
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