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Smart Phone Cameras a Threat to Traditional Cameras

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Traditional cameras threatened by smartphones
Cartoon by Bitstrips
As I get closer to a trip "home" to New Zealand my mind is mulling over whether or not I will take my Canon 5D and lenses with me. First of all my equipment is heavy and its another piece of hand luggage to be concerned with. Second, I am not going anywhere I haven't already been in New Zealand; this trip will mostly be about catching up with family and friends. So I wonder if I should just leave my gear at home and use the camera on my smart phone.

As good as smart phone cameras are getting, they are still not a patch on my Canon 5D. And when I go somewhere new and scenic I take my camera for sure. But the rest of the time I am relying on my phone and find myself taking my camera with me less than in the past.

It seems like I am not the only one. Canon, the biggest maker of camera equipment is being hit hard as people spend less on cameras, relying instead on their cell phones. Canon even lowered its profit forecast in the middle of 2013 because of declining camera sales. (Canon hit by rising popularity of smartphone cameras).

How about you? Do you find yourself leaving your gear behind sometimes now and simply relying on your smart phone?



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Taking Photos in RAW DNG Format with Mobile Devices

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Note: This post was originally published on January 16, 2017, as the second part of a three-part series on RAW format mobile photography. Some details — particularly the apps' feature sets, Android versions, and the state of mobile RAW photography — have changed considerably since then. I've left the original text in place as a record of where things stood at the time. Following on from yesterday's post ( What is RAW photography format? ), today I am going to share with you some ways you can take RAW DNG (digital negative) files using an Android device such as a smartphone or tablet. Currently I am using a Google Pixel XL smartphone running on Android 7.1.1 (Nougat). If you haven't yet read yesterday's post, I recommend that you take the time to do so to give you an understanding of the advantages of taking your photos in RAW format. Android Apps That Allow You to Take Photos in RAW Format Currently, these are the two apps I use on my Google Pixel XL ...
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Young at Heart: The Active Seniors Collection + Massive Redbubble Sale!

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Ollie Grandpa Stepping into the freedom of retirement after a long, 45-year career completely shifts your perspective. You finally have the time to let loose, hit the road, and truly embrace the fun side of life! That joyful, unrestrained energy is exactly what I wanted to capture in my newest Redbubble collection. I'm so excited to introduce my new " Active Seniors " series, featuring designs that perfectly embody the "young at heart" spirit. The series features a vibrant, adventurous little old lady tearing it up, and a matching active grandpa catching some serious air on a skateboard or cruising on a bright orange motor scooter. Complete with flower-adorned helmets, flying striped scarves, and big, beaming smiles, these characters are a tribute to everyone who refuses to slow down. These make fantastic graphic tees, travel mugs, or stickers for your own "Fa...
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Adjusting Levels and Curves with Photoshop

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When I was working with this photo of the sunset over the Grand Canyon last night, I realized that it was a perfect photo to demonstrate the power of the two quick Photoshop adjustments that improve almost any photo. They are adjusting the levels and curves. Almost all photos benefit from an adjustment to both of these elements. I opened the photo of the sunset which I shot using Canon's raw format (CR2). A "raw" file is actually not an image file; it's a data file that has to be opened with a program that can read it and process it as an image file. Photoshop has plug-ins for handling the raw files for all the common brands of cameras. Here's the before and after of the image: The original unadjusted photo has an orange cast. A lot of photos have casts, and especially wide-angle landscape photos. You can think of the cast as something like a colored mesh or filter over the entire surface of the photo. Adjusting levels will remove the color cast. So let's sta...
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