“Many of today’s leading smartphones offer not only high megapixel counts, but astounding software that lets them shoot in a wide variety of different modes,” Eric Zeman reports for InformationWeek. “The appeal of camera-equipped smartphones has led to a decline in point-and-shoot camera sales for some time. Now it appears that these uber-devices are impacting sales of high-end, professional cameras, too.”
“Research firm IDC predicts that shipments of what it calls ‘interchangeable-lens cameras’ (or dSLRs) will drop 9.1% from 19.1 million last year to 17.4 million this year,” Zeman reports. “At the same time, Canon and Nikon, the leading dSLR makers, have been forced to lower forecasts for the year. Further, Tamron, a third-party maker of lenses, saw shipments slump by as much as 22% during the first three quarters.”
“Tamron knows it is in trouble. “Smartphones pose a threat not just to compact cameras but entry-level dSLRs as well,” said general manager Tsugio Tsuchiya. Nikon and counterpart Canon blamed the slower shipments on a weak global economy, but that’s not the only factor at play,” Zeman reports. “Last month, Apple introduced the iPhone 5s with an 8-megapixel camera. Apple took pains to improve the camera with a wider aperture and more sensitive sensor. The same is true of the HTC One, Samsung Galaxy S4, LG G2 and other top smartphones. Many of these device manufacturers pitch their phones as replacements for stand-alone cameras.”
Zeman reports, “With dSLRs, this often involves removing a memory card, putting it into a computer, downloading the images and then sorting through them before posting them online. The immediacy offered by smartphones is compelling.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: dSLR cameras should have become iPhone docks by now.
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If you were to go through this excellent piece and substitute “PC” for “dSLR” and “tablet” for “camera phone”, would you not get a strong sense of déjà vu? Power users of any technology will never accept the obvious compromises needed to utilize a less powerful, albeit a much more convenient device. But that is not the question .
The question is whether camera phones are impacting dSLR sales. I believe so, and in a big way. I think a significant percentage of low and middle range dSLR sales have always been to new “photographers”….. i.e. those that are curious and want to take better pictures. Some of them continue in the hobby, learn the craft, and buy camera stuff the rest of their lives. But a significant percentage buy one entry level camera, play with it, put it in the closet, and forget it. Camera phones are good enough now that I think the casual purchasers are disappearing, and I think that was a large market.
Camera phones: No learning curve, always with you, instant sharing, and “good enough”.
I invite anyone who thinks their iPhone camera is a replacement for a DSLR to join me tomorrow evening on the sidelines of the football game I’m shooting. I’ll be the one with the 300mm f2.8 shooting at ISO 6400.
Oh, and I’ll be wearing a red jacket.
Regarding MacDailyNews Take: dSLR cameras should have become iPhone docks by now.
This sounds really compelling at first, especially for those who aren’t “pro” photographers… I’m using the word pro to describe actual professionals as well as enthusiasts… the general demographic to whom DSLRs are targeted.
DSLRs benefit greatly from placement and feel of physical buttons dedicated to the task of taking photos. That interface is horrible for say being a Facebook machine one second and a Photoshop device the next. The iPhone of course excels at being Facebook, Photoshop, Twitter, email, and everything else, but at the expense of not having very good tactile feedback, which is critical when you want to interact with an interface while keeping your eyes on something else (like looking through the viewfinder).
There are other problems with this concept as well. Apple seems to be in a habit of significantly altering the iPhone body every couple of years. The docking DSLR would require upgrading your DSLR in sync with your iPhone. DSLRs have a much longer lifespan for the average user than the average iPhone. Worse, pros tend to keep their old DSLRs as a second unit often alternating between two tiers.
Pros also like to keep things as simple as possible with fewer points of failure or issue. They don’t want to rely on both the camera and the iPhone to be in working order, or deal with getting phone calls on the camera in the middle of a shoot (I know, Do Not Disturb mode, but again, one more thing to worry about).
Finally, docking the iPhone really accomplishes nothing beyond what can be done today. Today, one can easily use Eye-Fi and other means to transfer photos as well as apps on the iPhone or iPad to control the DSLR or process images.
Really, it’s the wireless iOS connectivity with cameras that’s the most compelling use case. Look at what people are doing with GoPros for example.
Having used a high end dSLR and an iPhone 5s for taking pictures and editing thgem I can categorically say you are talking out of your rear end MDN.
MDN didn’t write this piece, Eric Zeman from InformationWeek did.
Gosh you’re quick!
No offense, but I really find the new editions of these phones vastly overrated-and I love Apple. I don’t think the 2013 models of cell phones (or virtually anything else) represent a huge upgrade in performance. It’s more along the lines of showmanship, and being able to say that you’ve got a newer piece of junk than the next guy. And I say, who cares? Both will end up in a landfill within 12 months.
I think the author of this article has gotten things totally wrong. It is not smartphones that are responsible for the decline in DSLR sales but the smaller interchangeable-lens cameras known collectively as “mirrorless cameras”. Smartphone are little more than clever toys compared to “professional cameras”. The suggestion that a significant number of expert photographers are abandoning DSLR’s in favor of smartphones is ridiculous!
Yea, iPhone and Nokia (mostly iPhone by shear volume) may be putting a small dent in “high end” DSLR’s but the real bite is being taken out of point-n-shoot cameras. (DSLR just makes a better headline)
Sigma and Tamron are the companies (in the DSLR lens market) that cater mostly to the “Android” type of market and the ones that should be most worried.
Undoubtably true. But there are likely some people buying DSLRs in the recent past who didn’t really need them. Now they are satisfied enough or distracted enough by the iPhone that they won’t buy another DSLR.
C’mon people, smartphones can’t compete with entry level DSLR’s, it’s not even a close contest.
Not even Nokia Lumia 1020 with it’s 42mp camera can’t compete with even cheaper dLSR’s + the phone runs Windows so it’s useless anyhow.
This is like comparing apples to oranges..just stupid IMO.
This is really good news for photographers.
One of the optical truths is that depth of field on a small sensor, small lens combination is near infinity.
So already I have lots of clients taking great quality pictures with their smart phones, which is good.
But when they see the images I can produce with my high-end Nikon gear (D3 and pro glass), they value my work all the more.
The same will be true for most professional photographers.
Our customers are appreciating high-quality images already, and now they are realizing that there is value in having a photographer who understands and can capture artistry in photography: shallow depth of field and good bokeh being two visual aspects of artistry that are not possible with small sensor/small lens photography.
(I actually expect consumer-grade DSLRs to see a rebound because if this on-going “education” of consumer photography.)
Smartphones have only a few limitations before they take over for DSLRs.
1 manual control
2 interchangeable lenses
3 Variable f stops
4 Variable flash sync
5 Good optics
6 Resolution
7 Optical viewfinders
8 Variable shutter speed.
9 Multi frame Shooting
More on the way. My hands hurt
My 3 year old Canon s95 which is was a $400-500 high-end mini “point and shoot” blows away the iPhone cameras. iPhone photos only look great under ideal / bright conditions.