Lay Techs: Tech for Laypeople

There was a time not so long ago when average consumers would jump on SLRs because we've been needing the awesomess of walking around with one of these professional-looking babies but never had the balls to own one because we didn't know how to use them. But when they went digital, everything changed. People were able to shoot, view and reshoot on the spot, and there was absolutely no need for expensive films. In short it brought stupid to professional photography.



Regular consumers look at photography as nothing more than a method to document our every day lives and memorable times. And oh yes, also looking cool. Our demands are, in the following order, trend, photo quality and convenience. Yes, in that order. Regular consumers are not very objective people, we know because we are them.


The Trend

Proof that trend precedes the other 3 criteria is the consumers' move to buy DSLRs even though they are clunky and expensive, and most of us won't use any function other than Automatic and Program. We probably never venture any further than stock lenses anyway. While some may try very hard to admit, many just love the idea of hanging it around their necks like an accessory and walking around their local malls. Kind of like huge-ass Beats headphones wrapped around their necks connected to nothing. It's trendy.

Then there were times when some of us hipsters would collect and use Lomography cameras, some of the most crappy plastic toys without metering capabilities and using near-extinct 120 films; all in the name of trend. I know, I have a few tucked in a drawer somewhere. These cameras produce the most horrendous looking photos with light leakages and washouts, but they were artistic in the eyes of the connoisseur.


The Quality

Regular consumers have only this much demand for photo quality. This is mainly because we never develop films much bigger than 5R, if at all even, and there is a threshold to the acceptable size of a photo. Also because we do not know the difference between Black + White and Desaturate. Also because we don't know what the ISO does and that higher Megapixels will contribute to higher noise levels. Also because we can never understand the concept of Aperture vs Shutter Speed. Also because we've never heard of the Rule of Two Thirds. Shall I go on?

If we were to draw a graph on photo quality and place Demand on the y-axis and Supply on the x-axis, the line would grow proportionately to a certain level and then flat out afterwards. This shows that past the maximum demand point, extra supply of photo quality will not yield any additional return. So what else after this? Convenience, of course


The Convenience

Imagine a line drawn with one end The Action and the other end The Result. The Action is by itself the action of shooting the photo, while The Result is the photo in final finish. Over the years camera makers have been working to shorten this line, first by eliminating photography skills, film developers and finally cables. The definition of The Result has also changed over the years, and camera makers ought to recognize and react to this change else be eliminated from existence.

People used to develop films and keep them in their private photo albums for occasional visits. Now we use online platforms like Tumblr, Flickr, Picasa and Instagram as our photo albums not only for private consumption but also public viewing.


The Direction of Photography, Based On The Three Criteria

Now we know how we as consumers consume cameras (cross-eyed yet?). Next we will see how our consumption patterns are changing the photography scene so drastically the LX-7 you got 3 months ago will be an obsolete machine today.

Because uploading photos onto Instagram is the trend today, any machine unable to perform this feat will almost immediately be eliminated. So there goes DSLRs, Mirrorless and Lomo toy cameras. No point using Lomo cameras anyway because filters that aim to destroy otherwise high quality photos are readily available in all app stores.

And past 15 Megapixels every photo looks the same (especially again because we tend to like reducing photo quality using filters anyway) to everyone, clunkier Point-And-Shoots begin drawing less and less attention. Then there was this punchline everyone seems to be holding on to these days: "The best camera is the one you have with you." What better one to be using other than the one that's constantly attached to your phone right. Bigger megapixels with more processors mean bigger bodies. And big bodies can never fit into your jeans pockets. So you end up not bringing them out and instead using your camera phones instead.


The Future of Cameras

So there you go. Based on the points given up there, DSLRs will only appeal to real professionals from now on, and everything else other than camera phones will go extinct. I will now note that there is a difference between phone cameras and camera phones. But that will have to be discussed at a later time.