Don’t try selling to us camera nerds, as we’re buying less and less cameras. The sales numbers are reflecting this trend. To grow the market, manufactures must appeal to a larger consumer group that loves taking photographs. They need to appeal to the younger photographer, and to accomplish that the camera has to be a connected device, as well as offer features that smartphones don’t have or can’t do better.
The article started strong (the virtues of Point-and-Shoot cameras) but then went sideways with a feature list that seems silly when compared to a smartphone. With exception to sensor size, the smartphone checks ALL of the boxes in Take's feature list.
- The smartphone is compact, light, stylish (hundreds of cases and other items to add bling), and FUN.
- Current smartphone models have OIS/IBIS (but my Fuji X-T2 does not?).
- A lens cap is not needed on a smartphone.
- I read "large sensor (at least 1? but preferably APS-C) as "make the camera bulkier than a smartphone."
- The selfie was invented on the smartphone.
- The smartphone app market has no dearth of photography and mapping apps.
- The photography workflow starts and ends on the device taking the photo -- the smartphone.
Imagine being able to take a photograph on your p&s camera, process it with built-in LR, and then post it directly to Instagram, Facebook, Twitter via your smartphone?
For the vast majority of people, the smartphone is a Point-and-Shoot camera.. They are doing these things already. But since we are "crazy" with requirements for this new type of Point-and-Shoot camera, I will add a requirement of my own.
- The camera needs to be small enough to fit in the back pocket of my jeans.
... the XF10 is a great little p&s camera for an old school snap-shooter like myself,
The cheese has moved. It's no longer in the frame. I think the camera Take described above, and the traditional point-n-shoot camera has no chance of financial success.
