Why the Smartphone Killed the Point & Shoot Camera

Point and shoot cameras have been steadily declining over the years to the point where multiple camera companies have said they are no longer making them. And it all comes down to smartphones. But why exactly have smartphone camera replaced our point and shoot cameras? Here's how the smartphone killed the point and shoot.

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LETS CHAT:

[elektrobix]

I use a Sony RX100 Vii for action shots of animals and I have yet to find a smartphone that comes close to the focus on that thing. Smartphones also tend to flatten the image much more than a camera I’ve found. I love my phone for snaps and night time shots but for when I want something a bit nicer I use a point and shoot or bigger camera.

[BryanzHAn]

I still use a Sony RX100 Mk III because I absolutely DESPISE the over-processing on the photos coming from those smartphones. It makes the photos look unnatural. I want a bit of contrast. I'm not trading control over convenience.

[everythingwithanirudha]

SMARTPHONE have pleasing colours for eyes but not quality when you zoom in

[todberry]

I like that pointandshoots have less processing than my iPhone camera. There's this vague sense of photographic authenticity, that's lost in smart phone cameras.

[kicyiu]

I have an iPhone 13 and a Sony RX100 mark IV. The iPhone photos with all the over processing can match the RX100 and even better in some situations, but it feels so boring. Anyone can take a good photo and it’s not even challenging. That’s why I still prefer to shoot with the camera. For me control the aperture and press the shutter button is a lot more enjoyable

[charles]

A couple of years ago my wife and I spent the afternoon taking photos in a very picturesque water, mountain and old village environment. My wife used an iPhone and I used an Olympus tg6. After editing on the computer I deleted all but about four of the iPhone photos because they were so far behind the compact camera quality it wasn’t funny. The iPhone photos that I kept was because of the good framing of the scene and the beauty of the environment which compensated for the lesser quality. Robin Wong who has great content on his channel, won’t have it that the smartphones are as good as the compact cameras after doing many comparisons. The camera manufacturers realised back in 2012 when the big crash in compact camera sales took place that the consumer was more interested in convenience than quality.

[Javadamutt]

My wife would get a new point and shoot camera each year for work.

She is an art teacher so it is incredibly useful for getting reference images for students to work with. While using a personal phone works they have found transferring images a major pain due to messaging service compression, lack of sd card slot, disabled USB ports on school network and not wanting to encourage pupils to have their phone in school.

While not quite disposable they usually need replaced by the end of the year as something usually breaks, normally the zoom and strangely there is noticeable slowdown when processing images.

I'm honestly surprised that point and shoot haven't received the same love from manufacturers. With the software and image processing hardware available they could design a fairly cheap camera that doesn't have the weaknesses of a budget smartphone camera. I reckon demand has fallen like you said to people have a good enough camera on their phone but a small portion because they haven't put any effort into point and shoot. I speculate doing so would eat into both their smartphone sales as well as lower end DSLR. I would he a person that would be happy with a cheap Poco M series phone but the reason I'm looking at the Oppos at double or 5-6 times the price is that cameras suck on anything under 400

[Jezee]

One of these camera companies should make a DSLR that has a ISP or some kind of processing chip, give it access to wifi so it can run algorithms and what not. I know some already do have stuff like that but I'd like to see one use like a Tensor chip or something haha. Just to see what it could do if it had a massive lens and sensor.

[SilentAce]

Camera phone addict here but also use my Sony RX100 for more formalized/professional settings. The biggest advantage is having the performance of your best sensor at any zoom length within the range. Sure, I can have 10x zoom on an S22 Ultra but it’s using a far less capable sensor than their headlining main sensor. Or I can use the main sensor on Sony’s Xperia Pro I but I need to step back for portraits to avoid distortion. Well, that means I’m now cropping in on an already cropped sensor if I use the main lens or I can switch to the zoom lens where the sensor is far less capable.

Here’s hoping that Sony’s variable optical zoom solution from the Mark 3 & 4 make it to the main sensor of phones and then I can stop using my Rx100.

[emilielaudie]

It's true, cell phone cameras take nicer basic pictures. I just hate using my thumb for everything! In a few years we'll have an entire population with major arthritis in our thumbs because we've worn those joints clean out. lol. I much prefer the mechanical orientation of the traditional point and shoot.

[abhijith_mb]

When you said zoom shots, I thought you would use that Oppo phone, but you didn't. Coz Oppo Reno 8 Pro doens't have a telephoto lens, instead it comes with a meagre 8MP ultra wide and 2MP macro combination, which is honestly stupid. No one should buy that phone. Oppo cleverly paid a lot of creators to make them think that this was a good camera phone, but only the main camera is good.

[greydog]

For point-and-shoot, you are right. That is recording. But photography is about playing with light and playing with time. Adjusting apertures to create different depths of field, adjusting shutter speeds to experiment with time and motion. Exposure compensation to intentionally fill shadows or burn out highlights. A camera like the Panasomic LX100 has analogue dials (not submenus inside of menus), click stops where are all simultaneously visible at a glance. CLICK STOPs instead of endless menus. How satisfying. It's similar to how stick shift on a sports car allows you to feel the road, the engine, the car itself. You need to make a YouTube piece in which you intentionally play with photographic image making by pushing to the edges of the default settings.

[jean-roberthunterdeuling]

I have a Canon G9x and G7x. Use them to take photos. But use my phone for daily quick photos. I just like using a old fashion camera

[christiankeil]

Have an Rx 100 and the pictures look much better and natural then those of my pixel.
Also the experience with a shutter button etc. is just beautiful
I have no use of nighttime photos that don't show what my eyes are seeing.

[RodolphosTechchannel]

Depends which cameras you get. You can get an used compact camera for 400 dollars that has photos miles better than the latest Samsung or iPhone

[jackkraken]

Good video but I feel the bigger reason is that smartphone cameras technology is moving far faster than point and shoot. What developments can you think of in the point and shoot world at the top of your head? I'll wait. Heck even DSLR and Now mirroless while they are improving I also see a lot of lag especially in the software department, the user interfaces are still clunky and I still don't understand why computational photography hasn't entered the DSLR world when it's making a killing in the smartphone world with absolutely tiny sensors and extremely limited space.

[unclekim]

Lens size is the only reason for me why i keep using point shoot cam.

[breathtakingblue]

And... Video cameras. I bought a Sony Ax53 a couple of years back. I bought an iPhone 13Pro Max. I shoot a mixture of scenes and the iPhone is absolutely out of this world. I filmed a 3 minute production from footage filmed on my iPhone. Now it's my go to device for most of the work I do.

[rickvale]

I bought a Panasonic Lumix in 2017. I was going to Japan and wanted something portable enough to fit in an oversized pocket with a significant optical zoom to ensure I was able to get the shots I wanted. My phone, and more specifically NO phone at that time could touch the immense optical zoom capabilities of that PAS. Now, it's basically useless.

[jackjackdom]

I always wanted a point and shoot, and finally last year i bought one. I was sure that there is no way that my iphone 11 can take better photos than a dedicated camera. Boy was i wrong. The processing is so important and i sold the camera a week later. Tech is amazing!