What is the future of cameras?

Camera phones will get better and better over the next few years but I'm certain that they will never surpass full frame professional DSLR image quality. DSLR cameras enable you to use 100's of different lenses that are specific to the type of thing you are photographing, whether it be portrait, macro, landscape, etc... They also enable you to adjust manual settings such as aperture, shutter speed, etc... all these settings give you a lot more precision to how your photo will look. Smartphones will always be more automated in terms of the camera settings so as not to confuse the user.

The cameras on smartphone need to be small so as not to compromise the size of the phone and have a lens that works well as an all-rounder for various lighting situations. In order to get higher quality images from a phone to the level of DSLR's, manufacturers would need to put larger image sensors in the phones to capture more information which would make phones thicker and larger. The recent iPhone 7 plus has a portrait setting which gives an artificial depth effect, this is supposed to replicate the smooth blurred out background you get when using a DSLR with a larger sensor, it might look cool but it doesn't look anything like the real thing.

The "compact camera" as we know it is coming to an end as smartphone camera quality is pretty much on the same level now. Smartphones won't ever replace top professional cameras but will certainly wipe out the entry-level camera market.

/r/ask Thread