When friends ask me to recommend a camera, more often than not they say they`re looking to take better pictures than what they get from their phone. But what does `better than my phone` actually mean?
One of those key differentiating factors has been the `pretty blurry background` effect that an interchangeable lens camera is capable of producing. Whether you know the word `bokeh` or not, you know what a nice portrait looks like: sharp focus on the subject, a soft blurry background. And you know that your phone can`t do it (until now - more on that in a second). In my experience, that`s often part of what people mean when they say `better than my phone.` But those days are quickly coming to an end, and it`s the iPhone 7 Plus leading the way.
It`s not even a question of if the $500 ILC becomes obsolete, it`s a matter of when
The iPhone 7 Plus offers Portrait Mode, which uses depth information from the device`s two rear-facing cameras to mimic shallow depth of field. Apple sure didn`t invent it, and it`s far from perfect, but that doesn`t matter: they`ve made the effect very convincing and put it in the hands of millions of users.
The item-level ILC is dead, long live the item-level ILC
It`s not even a question of if the $500 ILC becomes obsolete, it`s a matter of when. And when may actually be right now. Ex-Google SVP Vic Gundotra spelled it out in a recent Facebook post.
He pretty much hits the nail on the head right there. As it functions now the effect isn`t perfect, but it`s likely already good enough for most people, and it`s only going to keep getting better. And that phrase, `good enough for most people` is exactly how we talked about smartphone cameras just as the compact camera was dealt its final blow.
Computational photography killed the $500 DSLR
I know what you`re thinking. `But zoom! Pixel-level resolution! Low light image quality!` I`m here to tell you that smartphones are already well on their way to solving those problems, ...
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