To survive, Mitarai says Canon, which produced pioneering autofocus gear popular with professional photographers, will shift its focus to corporate customers in fields like surveillance and medical care.
“People usually shoot with smartphones,” Mitarai said in an interview with Nikkei. “The digital camera market will keep falling for about two years. In our company, cameras have declined at around 10 percent a year in the past few years. Professional and amateurs use about 5 to 6 million units. Finally, the market will hit the bottom.” More here.
Can’t remember the last time I used a real camera. I, like most others, have gotten used to poorer quality photos as a worthwhile price for the ease of use. The same applies to poorer quality music on phones.
I remember a comment I read years ago when smartphones were just gaining serious traction: “The best camera is the one you have with you.”
While a smartphone camera isn’t going to match a professional camera, it should be able to match a pocket camera, which is what most people would have had before smartphones. And for what we used to call snapshots, that’s fine for most people.