Why It's Still Worth It to Buy a Digital Camera

Digital Photography, Multimedia
Why It's Still Worth It to Buy a Digital Camera
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With all the improvements in smartphone cameras (take Nokia’s Lumia 1020 for instance, with image stabilization, zoom and 41 megapixels), it’s easy to see why many people are completely doing away with their digital cameras and solely relying on their mobile device for photo and video taking. After all, you’re already bringing your phone with you just about anywhere you go, so it’s convenient and easy to pick it up and snap a shot of a memorable moment. You can also easily download editing apps and upload photos immediately to Facebook, Twitter or other social media sites.

So with all that being said, is the digital camera dead?

No!

Why Digital Cameras Beat Mobile Phones

It’s no secret that mobile phone cameras have come a long way in recent years, but most digital cameras still trump smartphone cameras in terms of photo quality, zoom, performance, storage and editing ability. Let’s face it - not every smartphone camera can compare to the aforementioned Lumia 1020. In fact, the sensors, lenses and flashes on phone cameras are usually of the cheaper variety and simply unable to compete with the quality types you’ll find on digital cameras.

Generally speaking, photos that you take on your mobile phone are soft, possibly blurry and only look good on a small screen. And that’s before you even try using the zoom function, which only further subjects your image to distortion.

The digital camera isn’t dead. Here’s why:

Performance: Trying to photograph a moving object from your smartphone? Good luck. Digital cameras are better able to focus on a subject, allowing users the ability to take much better overall photos of subjects on the go. Digital cameras have better shutter speed, startup times and shot-to-shot times than smartphones to permit this. Not to mention zoom. Many smartphones don’t even have a zoom feature and those that do only offer a weak 3x zoom in most cases. Digital cameras offer up to 26x zoom, a drastic improvement.

Shooting Variety: On a smartphone, you basically decide whether you want the flash on or off and snap a picture. On a digital camera, there are a variety of different shooting modes so you can get the shot you want. There’s modes for low-light conditions, for sunsets, for scenery, for panoramic shots and for rapid fire burst shots, which take several photos at once. With all these different modes and settings, it’s likely that you’re going to get the shot you want on a digital camera.

Storage: Not to be overshadowed is the amount of photo storage a good memory card allows. You can take thousands of photos with a digital camera and there’s no competing with apps, music, movies and other files that often soak up storage space on a smartphone. For example, a standard 4G memory card can hold some 4,000 photos. With a smartphone, your storage space is much more restricted, which is why smartphones are better for one-off photos, rather than complete galleries.

So while many people have been spelling doom and gloom for the digital camera, they’re far from dead. And just as smartphone manufacturers are improving the capabilities of their in-phone cameras, the same thing is being done regarding digital cameras. Yes, using your phone to snap a pic is convenient and handy, but few smartphones can compare to the quality photo you’ll get form a digital camera.

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