Goodbye Point and Shoot Cameras?

This weekend I attended a wedding of the son of a good friend of ours. It was a beautiful wedding held on the grounds of the bride’s father’s home in Solebury, PA.  If you’ve never been to Solebury, which is 10 minutes from New Hope (a major antiquing town), it is an impressive town with large homes, most of which sit on many acres of land. This particular home, built in the 1800’s, had two ponds, rolling hills, a farm silo and well preserved rustic remains of several small, stone farm buildings. It could be right out of the pages of Elegant Country Homes magazine.

As in all weddings, many guests were taking photographs throughout the event. From the bride walking down the aisle to the lavish cocktail party and all through the dinner reception. There was one thing though that I noticed immediately, other than some older-aged guests using typical small, digital point and shoot cameras, none of the younger guests had cameras. Instead, they were all using their cell phones.

I too took some photos with my iPhone, but just to capture a few moments to remember,  not intending to make photo-quality prints. After all, a cell phone can’t take the same high quality photos like a good digital camera can, right? Wrong. Most of the newer cell phones today produce the same quality images that most cameras offer. So, according to several people I talked to at the party about this (most of them under the age of 30), why would anyone need both a camera and a phone? Add to that the ability to immediately share photos via email, text messaging and social media with a phone, why would anyone buy a camera? Sorry camera manufacturers.

How disappointing for these brands who have spent millions of marketing dollars and invested years of research and planning time to position themselves in this highly competitive market.

My guess is that starting now, and increasingly so into the future, there will be a major decline in camera sales.  Sure the need for professional-quality 35mm cameras may still be there, but the small point and shoots will soon be a ‘thing of the past’.

– Fred Candiotti, partner