Digital Photography Review is one of the best photography news and review sites and now they have a new site devoted to mobile phone photography - Connect.
Cameras in smartphones are getting to the point where they are nearly as good as some of the lower end point and shoots. They have the advantage of having a network connection and knowing where they are and and even larger advantage of always being with you. There are some fundamental issues of physics that limits their image quality, but for most people that may not matter much. As many have said - the best camera is the one you happen to have.
I'm a bit torn with sites like Digital Photography Review and Connect. They can be useful when making an initial decision, but in the end most of us don't know enough about photography to really get much out of our cameras. Time and time again I've seen good photographers take amazing photos on "terrible" cameras. And, although cameras are one of the major functions of a smartphone, I don't think I would consider camera quality an upper rung feature when looking at a new smartphone/mobile service combination.
Smartphones are in need of better camera applications and camera user interfaces, so Connect may help you wade through some of the choices. And perhaps they will have enough tips and give enough motivation to inspire people to learn how to use their cameras along with creating a bit more competition among the smartphone and app designers...
And in any case they are smart to get into this category - point and shoot cameras may become irrelevant in the next few years. Not to mention the fact that most of the photography in the world now is done using a mobile phone... (I keep wondering why I still call them phones...)
Comments