Mobile Photography: The Future of Point and Shoot Cameras

The world has moved on in several spaces. As technology advances, the shift from analog to digital is becoming more pronounced in all aspects of our daily life. No stone is left unturned. This applied to point and shoot digital cameras as well. 

These compact cameras reigned well some years back but now they are almost irrelevant. The reality is, they are done having their say as consumers and amateur photographers shift their focus to mobile photography.

The transition is inevitable. Today’s smartphones are much more than a phone – they are tools armed to the teeth with the power to do a lot of things, among which is photography. What made point and shoot cameras excel back in the days were their compact form and their simplicity.

Moreover, they are cheap and can be used to take amazing pictures. Unlike DSLR cameras, their features are limited and the average Joe can learn to take a good picture with them within a short period of time.

Learning is not crucial too. Point and shoot were designed to be simple and to be easy to get along with. They are small and only have few buttons so they won’t look complicated. Some have WiFi and NFC so users can directly share taken photos to their social media profiles.

They have xenon flash for night photography and LCD screens that act as the viewfinder. All of these properties made them to be on the league of their own for many years until smartphones arrived.

Today, we have smartphones that can do better. Today, we have smartphones that have better camera features. Today, we have smartphones that can take better pictures.

Also read: Does the aperture size of a phone camera really matters?

Smartphones are getting all the attention. They have all the equipments and have become the main focus of most producers in the tech space. Mobile photography is the next bigthing (it already is!) and I don’t see it going away anytime soon.

But also I don’t see it replacing professional photography in many years to come. Mobile photography is the art of taking picture using a smartphone, and because nearly everyone has a smartphone and nearly every smartphone has a camera, it is not an art made for the professionals alone.

Huawei Mate 30 Pro quad rear camera lenses

Camera tech has evolved – today’s smartphones cameras are capable of taking clean good pictures straight out-of-the-box and they have all the features needed to make good use of the picture taken. The iPhone 11 Pro, Google Pixel 4, Huawei Mate 30 Pro, and the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra cameras are perfect examples.

Tons of features such as manual control, night mode, selective focus, portraits mode, macro mode, astrophotography mode, and more are readily available for users to select from when taking pictures, most of which you won’t find in the good’ol digital point and shoot cameras.

All of these, combined with readily available connectivity for sharing online and offline, and readily available inbuilt photo editor for advanced image editing makes mobile photography more of a better choice.

People buy smartphones today not only to make calls but to also take pictures. Having a phone with you means having a camera with you at all times. And with the rise of social media platforms like Instagram, mobile photography has become a big deal for influencers and the wannabees.

The world has shifted from offline to online, from analog to digital, and gradually all things are moving in the same direction. Point and shoot cameras can’t get us there, but mobile photography can.

And the best thing is, anyone can be involved because no special tools are required – you only need your phone and nothing else. Moreover, only little skill is required. Your phone is all the tools you need to take that amazing picture, to edit it, and to share it to the world.