Cameras in smartphones are getting smarter, yet digital cameras have an edge, says SANGEETA YADAV
As high-end smartphones are offering higher mega pixel (MP) camera to capture that perfect picture, 92 per cent customers are preferring to buy a smartphone over a digital camera,” an Assocham report says. The report also says that people are buying those phones which have a good camera quality and they are relying on smartphones to capture moments as still photos as well as videos.
Agrees Faisal Siddiqui, country head, HTC India. “Our new technology in the smartphone sector is HTC UltraPixel Camera with HTC Zoe. HTC One Zoe offers the best-in-class f/2.0 aperture lens and a breakthrough sensor that gathers 300 per cent more light than traditional smartphone camera sensors. Multi-axis optical image stabilisation for the rear camera also help sensor video footage smoother whether stationary or on the move. The camera adds effects like enhanced 360-inch panorama, time sequencing and object removal,” Siddiqui says.
Seeing the fall in sales of high-end digital cameras like Nikon, Canon, Sony and Fujifilm, will digital cameras become redundantIJ “No matter how many features a smartphone can get you, it would never take away the industry of digital cameras.
Major features like sensor, optic, low light quality, frame per second, full height destination video feature and optical zoom are basically meant for digital cameras. That’s the reason why digital cameras continue to be relevant in the market,” Dr Alok Bharadwaj, executive vice-president, Canon India, insists.
Started from 1 MP, the number has now gone to 41 in both digital and smartphone cameras. But what comes into play is the quality of the lens and sensor size of the camera. “In the last five years, digital photography has become fashionable. The MP has been over-hyped and consumers have been misled a little. In the beginning, MP meant a lot. From 1MP to 3MP, no doubt MP has improved the quality of picture. But as MP touched above 12, it lost its meaning. What is more important is the quality of lenses and size of sensor,” Dr Bharadwaj explains.
Sensor
Sensor size of the digital cameras are larger. This gives better pixel space and can capture low light resulting in better photos. Smartphones are equipped with smaller sensor, it can’t accommodate more light.
Optics
Smartphones are equipped with tiny lenses, which means smaller amount of light is filtered through. Thus, many smartphones has built-in High Dynamic Range to improve images. It captures a greater dynamic range between the lightest and
darkest areas of an image than current standard digital imaging methods.
A digital camera’s lens is more advanced therefore more capable of getting light to its sensor and capturing sharp, clean images. It also has a telescopic lens which helps to get a good zoom. But if one zoom’s smartphone camera, the image pixelates.
Other features
Features like low light quality, and frame per second, full height destination video feature, optical zoom and many more features that makes digital camera a better option. Even the flash power is higher in digital cameras, giving a lot more options to capture light and play with the colour combination.
As compared with the smartphones, digital cameras are leaving no stone unturn to offer the best to consumers. “Connectivity is no more a problem. Many digital cameras have come up with wi-fi connectivity. One can instantly upload and share,” Dr Bharadwaj says.