There is life in digital cameras yet ...

While more opt to use smartphones as cameras, there's still a market for dedicated imaging devices

04:45 AM Jan 25, 2012

 

LONDON - Smartphones are tempting more people away from cameras but digital compacts still have a few tricks that phones cannot match.

Kodak filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States last week, in what seems like a symbolic moment for the photography industry. Though Kodak is credited with building the first digital camera, in 1975, it never really capitalised on the digital revolution. Meanwhile, the cameramakers are facing another threat, this time from smartphones.

Sales of point-and-shoot cameras fell by 30 per cent in value last year as people opted instead to use the camera on their phone. "We see the decline coming into the bottom end of the market," said Ms Zhelya Dancheva, senior account manager for photography at GfK Retail and Technology. "The threat from smartphones seems real and people do take more pictures than they have ever done."

When Apple launched the iPhone 4S last autumn, the company emphasised the improvements to the camera. It has an 8-megapixel camera compared to the 5-megapixel version in the iPhone 4 and Apple has made considerable improvements in its lenses and photo software.

The Samsung Galaxy S II and the Nokia Lumia 800 offer 8-megapixel cameras too, while the flagship BlackBerry handset - the Torch 9860 - offers 5-megapixels. The iPhone 4S and the Galaxy S II both shoot full 1080p HD video, while the Lumia and the Torch offer 720p.

Having decent cameras on hand is increasing people's appetite for photography. They are not rejecting digital cameras, just low-end digital cameras.

Ms Dancheva adds: "The fact that people are exposed to more pictures is making them want better quality cameras."

While digital SLRs offer photo quality that is better than that of a smartphone or a digital compact, they also come at a price. At around S$1,000 for an entry-level digital SLR, these are products for serious photographers, not casual snappers.

However, quality compact digital cameras still offer plenty of features to set them apart from even the best smartphone camera. Digital cameras that offer more than 10-megapixels are still seeing sales growth and some of the top digital compacts offer as many as 16-megapixels.

Though counting megapixels is not a perfect way to measure image quality, these cameras will provide more flexibility if you plan on printing images out. Smartphone images are more likely to end up in a Facebook album than in a frame.

In video too, digital compacts can outperform smartphones. The iPhone 4S shoots highly impressive full-HD videos at 30 frames-per-second, but there are digital compacts that will shoot HD videos at 50 or 60 frames-per-second. That means sharper-looking, clearer videos.

A good digital compact will perform better in low light than a smartphone, which means you will notice the difference if you regularly take pictures. They also tend to offer better zoom and wider angle pictures too, which makes them more versatile than the average smartphone camera.

Mr Richard Trestain, of Canon Europe, says: "We welcome any devices that make people more passionate about photography. Smartphones are helping to do this, but good quality compacts do offer added benefits that contribute to higher levels of image quality. For example, our compact range features the HS System for enhanced performance in low light, and Canon lens technology, which has been developed over decades to offer the highest levels of accuracy."

The manufacturers are constantly adding new features in the race to stay ahead of smartphones. Most quality cameras will now have facial recognition, for example, which means better group shots. Some cameras are even offering "smile" recognition. The next must-have feature could well be Wi-Fi, allowing you to upload directly from your camera to a social network site such as Facebook. This is an area where smartphones lead. However, Ms Dancheva says Wi-Fi enabled cameras "have not had a huge impact on the market".

Despite the benefits that compact digital cameras can offer over smartphones, the handset makers are catching up every year. The challenge for manufacturers is to convince consumers that the extra features they offer make it worth buying - and carrying - an additional gadget. The Daily Telegraph

Source: www.todayonline.com/TechandDigital/Digital/EDC120125-0000010/There-is-life-in-digital-cameras-yet-,,,

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iPhone battery fault linked to iOS5

06:03 PM Nov 03, 2011
CUPERTINO (California) - Owners of iPhones plagued with short battery life will get an update from Apple "within the next few weeks", the company said on Wednesday as it began testing a new version of its iOS software with developers.

The move follows reports by a number of customers using the new iPhone 4S, released a month ago, and also some who have updated their iPhone 4 or iPhone 3GS phones to iOS 5 (released on Oct 12), that they have seen surprisingly short battery life, in some cases lasting only a few hours from a full charge.

Apple issued a statement on Wednesday night in which it said: "A small number of customers have reported lower than expected battery life on iOS 5 devices. We have found a few bugs that are affecting battery life and we will release a software update to address those in a few weeks."

Apple has also provided developers with a new version of the iOS software for testing at the same time. The patch is applicable to the three iPhone models and also for the iPad and the iPad 2, as well as equivalent versions of its iPod Touch device.

In the description for the update, according to news site Apple Insider, it notes that it "contains improvements and other bug fixes including ... bugs affecting battery life".

The version will undergo wider testing with developers to find any outstanding problems or bugs before it is issued more widely.

The Guardian reported on Friday that Apple engineers had begun contacting individual users to try to pin down the causes of their problems.

One who had been contacted said that they had been asked to enter specific keypad codes which appeared to allow Apple to download diagnostic information directly from the phone. One told the Guardian: "I am getting around 10-12 hours standby (without using the phone), and then when I am using the phone for browsing, the battery percentage drops one per cent every minute."

Some users found that turning off certain system location services improved the battery life. But so far no clear reason has emerged for the problem.

Developers who used the iOS 5 "seed" over the summer after it was unveiled did not report any problems with battery life draining - but when the product was finalised and issued, the problems emerged.

Apple's engineers are still actively working with customers on finding the source of the problem, in some cases accessing customers' systems with permission to retrieve log files from the systems.

The new version of iOS5, developers said, also will include upgrades such as adding multitasking gestures for the iPad, resolves bugs with documents in iCloud, improves voice recognition for Australian users using dictation as well as security improvements.

The application of the "security improvements" is not yet known but could be related to the voice assistant Siri, which can be used to dial phone numbers and do other actions even when the phone is locked. THE GUARDIAN

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