[Slackwise]

> Manufacturers of point-of-shoot cameras can pack up and leave if this is a trend.

My friend brought a cheap point-and-shoot camera to last New Years Party. He had pictures from a family get-together with kids throwing leaves up in the air, taking multiple snapshots during. With the fast shutter mode, you could see individual leaves and zoom in on them. I'm certain the iPhone 5 nor any other camera phone cannot come even remotely close to that.

Then there's the low light pictures I tested during the party. None of the cameraphones could get a decent shot, but the point-and-shoot was amazing.

Sure, if you take pictures in ideal conditions with a cameraphone, it starts to get hard to tell, but the reality is most pictures are taken with low lighting, or too much motion, and I've yet to see a single cameraphone be even minimally useable in these conditions.

[russgray]

I agree that the new iPhone camera will be no substitute IQ-wise for a half-decent point-n-shoot, and it probably will not be enough to convince me to upgrade from my 4S. On the other hand, I am very impressed with the path Apple are taking regarding automatic modes. Automatically bracketing exposure and shooting in burst-mode, then analysing the results in real time for highlight/shadow clipping and sharpness, and then presenting the 'best' photo to the user? Automatically combining twin tinted flashes for tone without mucking about with gels? That's great stuff (assuming it works), and orders of magnitude more advanced than the 'auto' modes on pretty much all other cameras.

It's not going to replace good cameras used by enthusiasts who know their aperture from their ISO, but it has the potential to make huge waves in the snapshot category. I'd love to see that tech make its way to, say, the successor to the Canon S110 or the next Ricoh GRD.

[seanmcdirmid]

The ability to low light pictures was the one thing that surprised me about my Nokia 920. It really does have a great camera, I guess the 1020 is even better.