The fast-slow death of the pro-camera

Hardwear was the first bell to ring. The move from mirrors to digital.

Smartphones were the second bell: ubiquity, ‘good enough’ quality, hyper convenience and integration with sharing platforms.

Advanced computational photography is the third bell. The smartphones arms race is being fought with the camera, (and recently perhaps with form-factor). The resources Google, Apple and Samsung, can throw at innovation in this area dwarf that of traditional photography companies because the incentives for them are not in better photographs, they are in the selling you ongoing services and the collection of data. What we can do with a phone will, for most people, before long, rival and eclipse ‘pro’ cameras.

The DSLR will be our generations vinyl.