[buckeye_Jim]

Implicit in much of this discussion is the notion that p&s or the cell phone images are inferior to images from a more advanced dslr system with a quality lens.

If we think about this some, we can understand it is about the photographers vision and not about the camera. I have seen pleasing interesting photos, well composed, some HDR, post processing etc. from the iPhone. It meets any definition of fine art. Of course, we have seen plenty of very sharp uninteresting, boring images made with expensive cameras. I have produced more than my share.

My dslr, and my lenses, filters, etc. give me more options, make it easier to produce pleasing pictures, assuming I can foresee the picture.

Thanks for letting me get this off my chest.

Jim

[PentaxRev]

With a few notable exceptions, like the great mushroom picture earlier in this discussion, most of the pictures I see taken with a phone look like they were taken with a phone. Having said that, I'm sure better quality is on the way. For those of us who are more serious about photography, it's not likely we'll ever be satisfied with the results you can get from a phone because as the quality of the phone cameras improve so will our DSLRs. However, for those who aren't passionate about photography, they just want to capture a memory and their phone camera will do that.

[eddie1960]

With a few notable exceptions, like the great mushroom picture earlier in this discussion, most of the pictures I see taken with a phone look like they were taken with a phone. Having said that, I'm sure better quality is on the way. For those of us who are more serious about photography, it's not likely we'll ever be satisfied with the results you can get from a phone because as the quality of the phone cameras improve so will our DSLRs. However, for those who aren't passionate about photography, they just want to capture a memory and their phone camera will do that.

which is why the ps camera is going to become marginalised. We will continue to buy our DSLRs and possibly high end point shoots or bridge cameras (lx3/lx5 canon s95 ie or the upcoming Fuji x100 if it lives up to the hype) but the huge market (and it is huge on units being more than a hundredfold larger) for $79-300 p/s will disappear i have no doubt to be replaced buy cell phones. for people who want better images but not the complexity of DSLR then there will still be the mid high product like lx3/5 s90 and otehrs along with Evil systems that are designed with advance p/s clients in mind like the nex 3 for instance (not my cup of tea but i'm pretty sure it sells well)

[jolepp]

I suppose much depends on how the means of looking at the pictures develop: say, if the typical laptop display develops towards higher resolution and IQ (and Internet connections get speedier to match) the average consumer might begin to give higher value to camera IQ as well. I wonder what the current flat-panel TVs where full HD is standard are doing in this respect, other than replacing the slide projector and screen with maybe a HDMI cable and laptop for getting rid of guests that are in risk of overstaying their welcome ;-)

[gazonk]

I suppose much depends on how the means of looking at the pictures develop: say, if the typical laptop display develops towards higher resolution and IQ (and Internet connections get speedier to match) the average consumer might begin to give higher value to camera IQ as well.

That's possible. On the other hand, there's the trend towards mobile surfing, which means most pictures are viewed on really small screens (and despite the insane resolution of the newest phones, like the iPhone 4, even pictures full of high iso noise look quite nice at that size). On the third hand, surfing, and maybe especially picture viewing, may migrate towards tablet computers, and then your point becomes valid again as the screens of these obviously will improve.