Point-and-Shoot Plus
That Rumored iPhone 7 Plus Camera…
One year in high school, I took a photography class. As ridiculous as it seems to write — I don’t feel that old — there were no cameras on mobile phones yet. In fact, there weren’t a ton of mobile phones yet, period — certainly not in high schools. A few of us had pagers at that point, I believe. Those definitely didn’t have cameras. Anyway, my point is simply that to do photography in those days (the 1990s), you had basically three options:
- Disposable cameras
- Point-and-Shoots
- Professional cameras
Yes, Polaroids were still around — my father had one and it was awesome — but everyone I knew stuck to one of the three options above. And overwhelmingly, most people went with option number one. Disposable cameras weren’t especially cheap, but they were cheap (at least in a one-off purchase for a teenager) compared to buying a point-and-shoot, let alone a professional camera. More importantly, they were very easy to use. You could buy one, unwrap it, and start shooting. When you were done with a roll — you got a whole 27 pictures, which seems beyond comical today¹ — you could drop it off at any drug store to get the prints (actual prints) back in as little as a few hours, or at most a few days.
I was a huge disposable camera user. At events with friends, I would usually be one of the people who had a camera on them. But that one year in high school I decided I wanted to go deeper into photography. So I skipped the point-and-shoot movement and I signed up for the photography class.
The main thing that still stands out to me wasn’t necessarily any of the lessons — though working in a dark room remains a truly unique experience — it was just how expensive the camera I had to buy for the class was. Well, I think you could rent one, but I convinced my parents this would be a big new hobby of mine. So we opted to buy — the cheapest option available, mind you, but it was still several hundred dollars, perhaps even north of a thousand when you took into account the lenses and a few other accessories. I think it was the most expensive device I owned in my life up until that point.²
I found myself thinking about that camera while reading the latest rumors for the forthcoming iPhone 7. More specifically, I’m interested in the iPhone 7 Plus which will be the first iPhone to feature a dual lens camera system. The whispers suggest it’s great. Next-level great. While previous iPhone models have all-but wiped out the point-and-shoot market, some of the hype here suggests that the iPhone 7 Plus could be the first smartphone camera to take on today’s professional cameras: DSLRs.
We’ll see. That seems like an almost impossible amount of hype to live up to. And yet, I’m also sure that eventually this will be the case — or the case for most people. This will be blasphemy for camera lovers, I know. And thank god Medium doesn’t have regular comments. But simmer down now.
Undoubtedly, the reality we’ll get a glimpse of this week will be more nuanced. But I’m not certain it’s crazy to suggest that just as the first iterations of the iPhone negated a need to buy a point-and-shoot, this new iPhone may be good enough for some would-be DSLR buyers.
Even before the iPhone 7, I’ve sort of been in this camp — which was the point of my prelude above. I seem like the type of person who would be all-in on the DSLRs. Many of my friends are. And I really enjoy photography. I’ve often thought about making the jump, but with each passing year, as the iPhone camera gets better and better, the need feels like it strays further from me. This latest iteration may kill that desire for good.
This sounds almost like a bad thing. But I don’t believe that it is — it’s just progress and preference. The quality and precision that DSLRs (and the Leic-a — see what I did there?) afford is great for some. Many, even. But having watched the profound effects of a large percentage of the world’s population having a camera — a connected camera — with them at all times, feels more powerful to me.
And yet, image quality absolutely matters. For most, the iPhone hit the “good enough” threshold long ago. Apple clearly knows how to do cameras the right way. For some of the would-be DSLR folks, it may hit that threshold with the iPhone 7 Plus.
One final aside. After my photography class, my use of the professional camera didn’t stick. It was simply too laborious (this was also the age before DSLRs, obviously) to use on a regular basis. And shortly thereafter, I bought one of the early digital cameras.³ The picture quality was pretty bad — something like 16-bit JPGs, if I recall correctly. But it could store something like 50 or 60 pictures (depending on the image quality setting). And you could see what you shot right after you took it (though it had no screen, so you had to do this via USB on a computer). A true revelation. An amazing step forward for the camera.
¹ And yet, they still sell these!
² I still didn’t have my own personal computer at this point, instead, I used my father’s, which eventually was upgrade to a machine for the whole family (so, mine, 95% of the time).
³ I believe I bought it on uBid. Back in the day, it was my preferred place to get cheap stuff, versus eBay. I have no idea why.
