Well, the optical zoom on a smartphone camera will definitely not overtake the conventional DLSR. However, the embedded features on the next-generation smartphones could make opting for a DSLR the thing of the past. Waiting for the next phones to do wonder like a DSLR can is not far away, but won’t be here too soon.
A Vodafone blog put up an interview with Symon Whitehorn, HTC’s camera expert. It stated Symon saying, “optical zooming in a smartphone is not too far off at all for HTC. I can’t give too much away, but within 12-18months,s we’ll see huge advances in phone optics. That’s why we don’t necessarily believe in doing a high-resolution, photo enlarging solution.”
“Everyone wants optical zooming, and that’s on the horizon. We’re trying to match the performance of dedicated cameras where one piece of glass inside it costs £3000 alone. We’re never going to match that in the short term, but we are getting towards those effects.
“Two years ago I would have said that phones will never replace DSLRs. Now I’m not so sure. I think there’ll always be a role for a dedicated camera, like for sports, etc., but I think you’ll see the gap closing. Those cameras will become more specialised out of necessity – they can’t match the brain power that we can put into a phone.”
“But I don’t think the camera industry needs to feel totally threatened,” Symon says in closing. “What we’ll see are these things working more harmoniously together. Camera companies will start to embrace the ecosystem we have in phones, and the two will start working in partnerships.”
