Optical Zoom and More Lenses We've read about new technology like that from Pelican Imaging that uses multiple lenses on a smartphone to provide optical zoom but so far you have to buy a "real" camera to get optical zoom. Many point and shoot cameras offer 10X optical zoom while new mirrorless cameras like the Sony NEX offer interchangeable lenses. We realize there are aftermarket external lens attachments for iPhones like this telephoto lens from Photojojo and this one from Ollo which provides fisheye, macro, and wide angle capabilities but so far you can't beat the long optical zoom in compact cameras.
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Better Low Light Sensitivity It's true that smartphone image quality and light sensitivity is getting better all the time. Nokia's Lumia smartphones use high quality Carl Zeiss lenses and we read about new CMOS sensor technology from Sony that includes new imaging technology that adds white pixels (RGBW) to enhance low light sensitivity and could possibly make its way into the next iPhone. That said, currently no smartphones that we're aware of can compete with most compact cameras with their larger sensors, wider apertures and "faster" lenses and manual controls.
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Battery Life and Ability to Use Spare Battery As smartphone battery life continues to improve there are still very few phones with replaceable batteries. Not only has camera battery life improved along with smartphones, a third party battery can be so cheap, it's almost a given for camera owners to carry and extra battery and charger along on a vacation.
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Memory, Built-in and Expandable Unfortunately, Apple chose to leave an SD Card slot off the iPhone. Although other smartphone vendors do offer the ability to use SD Cards, virtually every compact camera uses one. A 32GB SDHC cards can be purchased for under $20. Not only can you carry extra cards with you but you can also take them out of the camera and use an inexpensive card reader to speed up the transfer to your computer.
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Flash, and We Don't Mean Adobe's Many smartphones now come with what passes for a flash. Unfortunately smartphone flashes are typically weak and only effective at short range. We've read about new LED technology like that from Oslux that offers a low-profile LED that provides 150 lux with no hot spot generated. Even still, compact cameras can offer larger flashes with longer ranges and more options.
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Camera Manufacturers need to do more As good as the Nikons and Canons are at keeping one step ahead of smartphones in image quality and tech specs there is one area where they have really missed the boat. With no built-in connectivity and no built-in apps like Instagram, camera vendors make it cumbersome for consumers to process and share the photos on their cameras. As smartphone vendors give their phones the same features as cameras why aren't camera vendors "appifying" their cameras with fun photo apps and connectivity to move photos and videos to the web? Why is Kodak going out of business while Instagram gets sold for $1B?
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