4 ms·

To be fair, at the time phones were not seriously used to make a lot of photos. If you wanted photos you would have a separate camera with you and phone was use

To be fair, at the time phones were not seriously used to make a lot of photos. If you wanted photos you would have a separate camera with you and phone was used only as a last resort and maybe when you needed to send an MMS with the photo.

The_Colonel 6y ago
Not true, there were phones with much better cameras - as other user pointed out Sony Ericsson made phones with decent cameras (e.g. K850i) and they were actually heavily marketed (and bought) based on its camera quality. See e.g. https://www.gsmarena.com/sony_ericsson_k850-review-165p5.php#image17 https://www.gsmarena.com/sony_ericsson_k850-review-165p5.php...
- kalleboo 6y ago
  Sony Ericsson had much more success in Europe and Asia and as such most Americans don't realize they exist - their memory of the dumb phone era is centered around crappy Motorola flip phones like the RAZR. And Americans get to write most of the tech history online.
- lmilcin 6y ago
  Just because there existed phones with much better cameras does not change the fact that almost everybody had a phone that had shit camera that was barely usable. Today it would be inconceivable to create a flagship phone without matching bleeding edge camera, but at that time, it was true (regardless of the fact that there were some phones with good cameras) that most people did not use phones for photography on a daily basis. This means there was no immediate expectation the phone will have best camera. I just went through the original unveiling of the iPhone and the focus is completely on UI and form factor and there is very, very, very little about the camera (basically, yes, it has a camera).
pmontra 6y ago
Even today if I really care about pictures I use a camera. A compact camera with x30 optical zoom at a $200 / $300 price point is far better than any smartphone. You can take pictures from far away, the lens is better, the sensor is larger. You don't capture the pupils of a bird on a tree with a smartphone. Of course I get out with my phone in a pocket and I bring my camera with me only on special occasions and long journeys so I shoot many more pictures with my smartphone than with my camera so I agree that smartphones changed how we think about pictures.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]

The_Colonel 6y ago

Not true, there were phones with much better cameras - as other user pointed out Sony Ericsson made phones with decent cameras (e.g. K850i) and they were actually heavily marketed (and bought) based on its camera quality. See e.g. https://www.gsmarena.com/sony_ericsson_k850-review-165p5.php#image17 https://www.gsmarena.com/sony_ericsson_k850-review-165p5.php...

kalleboo 6y ago
Sony Ericsson had much more success in Europe and Asia and as such most Americans don't realize they exist - their memory of the dumb phone era is centered around crappy Motorola flip phones like the RAZR. And Americans get to write most of the tech history online.
lmilcin 6y ago
Just because there existed phones with much better cameras does not change the fact that almost everybody had a phone that had shit camera that was barely usable. Today it would be inconceivable to create a flagship phone without matching bleeding edge camera, but at that time, it was true (regardless of the fact that there were some phones with good cameras) that most people did not use phones for photography on a daily basis. This means there was no immediate expectation the phone will have best camera. I just went through the original unveiling of the iPhone and the focus is completely on UI and form factor and there is very, very, very little about the camera (basically, yes, it has a camera).

pmontra 6y ago

Even today if I really care about pictures I use a camera. A compact camera with x30 optical zoom at a $200 / $300 price point is far better than any smartphone. You can take pictures from far away, the lens is better, the sensor is larger. You don't capture the pupils of a bird on a tree with a smartphone. Of course I get out with my phone in a pocket and I bring my camera with me only on special occasions and long journeys so I shoot many more pictures with my smartphone than with my camera so I agree that smartphones changed how we think about pictures.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]