Photography - dumbed down

It is said that the best selling camera on the market is the iphone. Most mobile phones have cameras built in to them. As a result of this the general public has no idea on how to take a good photograph. When you see the results from these "cameras" everything is sharp from front to back.

Fuji has bought out a camera that has a "professional" mode, all it does is blur the background. Modern zoom lenses are also to blame as the smallest aperture they mostly have is f4. As a result people are now used to seeing images with the background as prominent as the foreground.

When people see a photograph where the aperture has been opened wide, f2.4 and below, they tend to go "Wow, how have you done that?" and when you say the you opened the aperture wide they haven't a clue as to what you mean; and these can also be people who call themselves photographers!

Rant over!

Fair enough, although I wouldn't want to deny anyone the joy of photography just because it doesn't reach a standard.

It's always been this way. The enthusiasts were small in number, had their own darkrooms, made very fine exhibition prints of possibly good but possibly boring subjects. The family said, "Yes, very nice" but may have preferred the blurred picture of Aunty Florrie in front of the Eiffel Tower....

For iPhone read Box Brownie and has anything really changed that much?

That sounds a little like Apple marketing! I suspect most people buy the iPhone because it's an iPhone, not because it has a camera.

It is also worth noting that a camera phone with an f2.4 lens will still be reasonably sharp from front to back on a count that the lens is so wide angle.

Also, my phone is a reasonably capable 12MP camera with full HD video.

Fuji have obviously picked up on the Pentax Q's capability!

Why not try a positive spin on the situation?

Cameraphones are near ubiquitous and provide initial access to digital photography for many many people around the world. Some of those people will likely get the photo bug and mature into incredible, inspirational photographers regardless of the equipment they later use.

It doesn't matter what the norm is or the norm becomes, quality will always shine.

I love the camera on my Nokia lumis, best feature every photo gets uploaded instantly to my cloud storage so I never have to worry about losing them...

Cloud storage won't be any good in 50 years when great grandchildren have no suitcase full of old photos to rummage in....

Where's the 'Like' button on this forum?
Nice one John... or they finally find (and buy) an app that gives them access to this old archive and discover 2 million un-ordered snaps to wade though

More like 2 trillion.

John

One of the apps on the iphone is called "Best Camera" from the idea that the best camera is the one you have with you. I always have my phone but although its with me alot of the time my DSLR stays home.

Lots of people also love the challange of using their phone to make interesting images and as said earlier people then get the bug.
http://thebestcamera.com/

I agree, when our two reached 21 I did them both DVD's and printed bound albums of their first 21 years to keep.

For my own youth I raided my Dad's photo boxes in case they got chucked out one day.

In turn my father in law (80 yesterday) scanned all the old family albums including his fathers (covering 110 years) so all the children could have copies of their family history. Some are superb!

Sadly my mum used to have regular purges and whole decades went up in smoke. She never ever kept any negatives (who'd want another picture of your grandad/dad/grandma/me anyway was her favourite phrase), often throwing them in the nearest bin as we left the chemist.
Consequently I have a total of 8 miscellaneous snaps that go back to my childhood, including 1 of 1 of my grandads and 1 of 1 of my grandmas -who knows which one).

I now scan any pic I can find of my family and archive it for my grandchildren (I assume that jpg's will be readable in 20 years time, thats assuming the cd/dvds last that long) The originals are stored separately

regards
Bernard

Ah but cloud storage will still exist in 50 years, unlike my photos if my youth which where lost in a house move...

I won't exist in 50 years time so I'm not fussed.

And I won't have any children or grandchildren so I'm doubly not fussed!

Of course without the 'cloud' (god I hate that expression) we wouldn't have Flickr, Picassa, etc. Or the wonderful libraries of the great photographers on line.