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Comment by bprater | Hacker News Reader

I think we've finally came to the place where consumer-grade digital cameras will quickly begin to fade out. The images and video coming from the 4S are mind-blowing -- I'm still dumbfounded such a small lens array can produce such clear photos. (Check Vimeo's iPhone video channel.)

The only thing my 4S lacks that my point-and-shoot has is an optical zoom. Beyond that, the phone's ecosystem of photo apps plus the ability to drop photos into Facebook in seconds makes warehousing my old digital a no-brainer.

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As for still shooting, you may want to take an inventory of the places that people use their point-and-shoots.

In my surveying, they're almost only used in places where macro, low-light, flash, speed (image stabilization) and zoom performance are very important: birthdays, landmarks, weddings, kids events, zoos.

And those are features where the known solutions just do not fit into the physical constraints of smartphones.

It seems to me that there's still a place for a well-designed point-and-shoot. And certainly a place for one with better software and integration.

You're right on the high end.

On the low end, I went into a store 8 months ago and compared time to photo-snap from finger-press as well as blur on non-steady targets and none of the sub 500 dollar digitals stood up well. My iPhone 3g consistently captures better images than our 2 year old Cannon Powershot.

You must be exaggerating. I have a SD960 and it kicked the crap out of my 3G, and I'm no photographer to speak of. I can set a custom white balance, aperture and focus off-center if I want. With my 3G there isn't much control at all.

My 3G was handy if I forgot my P&S at home, but it was just a fallback, nothing more. I don't know if I'll replace my Canon with my 4S, but we'll see.

I'm not. My criteria are different.

I'm not looking for control. I'm looking for non-posed shots of my children to be 1-captured in time before the moment is over and what I'm photographing is gone, and 2-not blurry. With most low end digitals, you can take a nap between when you press the button and the actual picture is snapped.

Don't forget drunken photos. The iPhone is relatively unforgiving when it comes to mashing what I think is the button - with my camera, I know where to put my finger and press, and I get tactile feedback.

As of iOS 5, you can now use the volume-up button as a way to take pictures, so you get that tactile feedback.

One thing smartphone cameras still don't do for me is minimize the time between wanting to take a shot and taking a shot. This is one area I think consumer cameras could also be improved. Ideally I'd like one button for pictures, one for video -- mash it down, the camera powers on and figures out what to do as fast as possible.

Compact cameras are still terrible in that regard; you can only get that 'off to photo taken in 0.3 seconds' with SLRs today. It's thus not really a valid argument for compact digital cameras still having relevance.

Imagine that your customer is drunk.

Digital cameras win hands down. Slam the power button, slam the photo button, and you have at least a blurry blackmail-worthy shot of your friend dancing with a hobo.

With a mobile phone, by the time I get the app up and running, the hobo is gone and my friend is left with nothing but hobo sweat.

On my Galaxy II, whenever I want to have the camera functionality ready, I open the camera app and press the power button. The screen turns off, and I simply need to wake the phone back on to be immediately ready to take a blackmail picture.

This is even quicker with the "NoLock" app that disables the lock screen.

My Finger DNA has already memorized "Double Click + Camera Icon" from the lock screen, and then hit the shutter release/+ button on the iPhone like mad.

Even on the relatively poor shutter speed iPhone 4, I'm usually taking pictures within 2-3 seconds. Supposedly the 4S has significantly reduced the shutter-lag to first picture - looking forward to seeing the truth of that.

Double-click and Camera Icon? For me, double-clicking just brings up the iTunes/iPod interface.

Update to ios 5

(I loved the example, by the way)

How is that sequence so significantly different from (in iOS 5) double pressing the home button from the lock screen, touching 'Camera' then taking a photo? I'm not suggesting that camera phones are as good as compact digital cameras yet, but it's getting much closer.

The iPhone 4S has made great strides in this regard.

In iOS 5 you get instant camera access from your lock screen. This lets you quickly pull out your iPhone (or iPad and iPod touch of course) and take pictures without having to unlock the iPhone or clicking on the camera app. Here’s how to do this:

http://osxdaily.com/2011/10/14/camera-lock-screen-ios-5/

And once you are in the camera app, you can use the Volume Up button as a shutter to take pictures.

I've also noticed that the camera records what the action was at the time the shutter button's pressed, perhaps even a moment before the button was pressed, as though it's recording a continuous buffer and reaching back into it a few frames.

There are also a couple video apps that record a continuous buffer, and when you "start" a recording, they start it retroactively, so you can press record after something neat happens and not miss video of the event itself. The one I use has the great "Philip K Dick"-esque name Precorder:

http://www.airshipsoftware.com/precorder

The Galaxy Nexus has zero-shutter lag, which means you take pictures instantly once you're in the camera app. You can also reach the camera from the lockscreen, too.

Either that or the consumer-grade digital cameras will start to evolve in new directions. I think we're already seeing the beginnings of this with Lytro's light-field camera, for example. I wouldn't be surprised if we start seeing light-field cameras from the major manufacturers (Canon, Nikon, et al) in a few years time. And given the physical constraints of the microlens array, it'll before you get one of those in a mobile phone!

Agreed. A place standard PnS cameras might still be desirable is in conditions where you don't want to risk destroying your phone, e.g. in water, caving, etc. But that's gotta be something like 5% of the size of the original market.

I agree. I am the furthest thing from a pro photographer and always take blurry shots.

But with the 4S they're all focused and crystal clear.

learn to leave the dial on 'automatic' on your camera.

and take the 2nd pic with the manual settings.

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