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Long as it isn't like this:

220px-Quicktake_200_front.jpg


A dedicated point and shoot that is top end would be nice, especially with WiFi and iCloud capabilities along with geotagging.

I can believe Apple would do something like this. I'd never use my iPhone if I was planning to go out and take lots of photos.
 
I hope this never happens. Leave the cameras to companies like Nikon and Cannon please.

Every good photographer knows that if you want the shot to come out good, you set it up yourself. Even decent DSLR bodies sometimes have a hard time correctly choosing settings in auto mode. For example, my DSLR has a pretty hard time getting the exposure correct in some pretty straight forward situations. I really don't know how they could expect to beat muti-thousand dollar equipment in a PS package.


This would be targeted at consumers - not pros/umers. IE People who do not know how to properly compose a picture.
 
I'd be surprised to see Apple do this, but I have been waiting for the camera companies to get their heads out of the 90s and make an Android camera with optical zoom lens. Nothing can beat the simplicity of having apps on a phone that can edit/share, etc. But most phone-cameras are still limited by poor flashes and no optical zoom. Create a point and shoot that has the benefits of a smartphone camera, but with an actual camera lens, sensor and flash on it and you could demolish the point and shoot camera market. Especially considering how the camera industry has been so slow to adopt any new tech like GPS, wi-fi sync, instant sharing, touch screen, etc. Someone needs to shake up the camera industry and innovate and Lytro's focus-free cameras aren't going to do it.
 
No.

Confuse users? WELL YOU GOTTA LEARN SOMETHING!

Math is confusing for people just learning it, you know what... just don't learn it! Life daily life with a calculator on hand (well that is happening sadly)
 
I don't know about a standalone P&S camera. We already have tons of those.

I could see continuing to improve the built-in camera on iPhones. Imagine one day pulling out your cell phone and taking a picture that's every bit as good as the one you took on your Nikon DSLR.

Obviously there are laws of physics to overcome, but that's where I think the improvements and applications should focus on. I have a DSLR and a Micro 4/3 camera that both take FAR better photos than my iPhone 4 does, but often the iPhone 4 is the only device I have handy.
 
A very large part of consumer-level photography these days is sharing it. Look at Facebook, instragram, flickr, Twitter, etc. Mobile phones with cameras allow you to more or less immediately upload the photo you just took.

A regular point-and-shoot camera would be a step backwards.

A point-and-shoot consumer-level camera that allows you to upload photo and video instantly...that has potential.

The only drawback is that it would be yet another device to carry around in your pocket or purse in addition to your phone, your wallet, your keys...

I don't doubt for a minute Apple is evaluating and developing this. I do doubt they will release it anytime soon.
 
Short of some breakthrough must have technology for photography its hard to see this playing out in big enough numbers for Apple to want to have a go at it. Apple creates and tests all kinds of things internally many of which do not see the light of day.

A standalone camera? As the population is slowing purchases of standalone camera's for better and better phone camera's (which they take everywhere they go) - because the photo's of the phones are good enough and getting better with every generation.

Doesn't add up, short of some must have technology for cameras that can't be integrated into the iPhone, IMHO.
 
When I clicked the RSS headline, I really expected a one-word article.

This seems like something Apple would toy with but not actually decide to get into. They already make the most popular camera on Flickr, after all:

http://www.flickr.com/cameras
 
Interesting, but

Interesting for the consumer, irrelevant for the enthusiast or pro.

Why would I want a camera with intentionally limited options?

:confused::confused::confused:
 
they might want to start manufacturing some condoms too, they are going to need them if they dilute their brand name so much...apple the tv maker... omg...

...btw I can't think of anything more confusing than a camera...you have to first point, then shoot, man is this complicated...
 
Why not? No matter how good the iPhone camera gets, it will always have major limitations as a camera.

Imagine a camera that is always-on and ready to take a picture at a moment's notice. Imagine a really smart camera that knows how to set up shots that look really good, without having to know anything about ISO, etc. Make it have only internal storage and iCloud and a sealed battery.

A lot of people use their smart phone cameras and still realize they need a "real" camera. Why shouldn't that camera come from Apple? Why do we have to put up with the same interfaces that mechanical 35mm cameras had?
 
Thom Hogan - the camera redefined

Seems highly unlikely that Apple would do anything close to one of today's DSLRs or point-and-shoot cameras.

Thom Hogan might have the best suggestions. He highlights 3 areas: modularity, programmability, and communications.
The world could move from 'photo ops' to 'photo apps'.

These ideas are described in detail here:
http://www.bythom.com/design2010.htm
 
Not going to happen, they'll just make the iPhone camera better. (the 4S already has a camera compable to most point and shoots.)

The quality of cellphone cameras is increasing to the point that point and shoots are becoming an endangered species, but DSLR and DSLR-like cameras will still have a place for some time now, even with the advancements of the camera phones.

For instance, we have a young child and my wife originally tried to work with just her iPhone 4S camera but quickly found that it was insufficient. Too many blurry shots and missed shots from trying to quickly grab an action shot of the kid doing something adorable. Then there's the whole lack of a real zoom (digital zooms don't count).

Improvements like this will all but kill off the point and shoots, but it will take something like better Light Field technology to get rid of DSLR and DSLR-like cameras.
 
No way this happens.

Point and shoots are dying off because of camera phones. Why would Apple go backwards?
 
I hope this never happens. Leave the cameras to companies like Nikon and Cannon please.

Replace...

Camera with Phones
Nikon with Nokia (heck you can almost move the letters around there =P)
Cannon with Motorola

...just realize that Apple has the ability with their technology, expertise and $$$ to get into this if they want and revolutionize it.
 
They should just buy Nikon

A pure camera company, with proper lens designers and pretty much the best cameras on the market.

It's going to be difficult to create a lens family from scratch, and it's the optical quality that sets apart camera phones from high-end cameras.
 
Point and shoots are dying off because of camera phones. Why would Apple go backwards?

What if it's more then a point and shoot...and can fill the 'Prosumer' niche of not only point and shoot, but professional and even DP's, etc.
 
It would be cool if it was wifi-enabled and automatically uploaded everything to iCloud / iPhoto without hooking anything up.

As cool as that would be, I feel like that isn't enough to sell an Apple product.

If/when Apple releases a standalone camera, expect it to cost $400-$600.

There will be a killer app that will make the camera vastly better than anything you've ever seen before, and you won't see it coming.

My only guess for a feature that would make a camera must have that's never been seen before would be some kind of past-picture capability. What do I mean? Well... imagine you're trying to get the perfect picture of a subject that's noncooperative, like a baby or animal... while you're approaching them, they're going to get spooked and run away. But what if the camera knew when you had a perfect shot (or the best possible, anyways?) What if hitting the button that traditionally would take the picture would instead be a button that says "That was it. The perfect shot was just in frame, but on account of my slow human reflexes, I couldn't press the button fast enough." The camera has some kind of memory of amazing pictures you should have taken which it's constantly writing over with new ones, and it takes the most recent picture out of memory.

Kind of weird idea, and probably requires an incredible AI... face recognition is a start... but it would have to couple in the ideas of composition and stuff so that it could judge whether a picture is as good as it's going to get.
 
Is this really what its come to? Don't learn anything? Don't understand how anything works? Start insinuating that a skills based task is actually bad? This is the one mentality Apple has brought to the table that I loathe.

I loathe the mentality that computers and electronics should be hard to use.
 
Improvements like this will all but kill off the point and shoots, but it will take something like better Light Field technology to get rid of DSLR and DSLR-like cameras.

Please tell me 1 non-video situation that would require a consumer to shoot 24fps. I have the ability to shoot a whopping 3.5fps on my camera, and even as someone who shoots mostly extremely fast aircraft and car races, I very rarely use the capabilities.
 
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