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Smartphones vs real cameras
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Here's an approximately four month late response to a post by Alex 
Schroeder[1], which I stumbled upon while catching up on what's been
happening on the small internet while I've been offline.  Alex
commented on an article which "argues that the camera industry is
done for, and that photography is moving to smartphones".

In grand internet tradition, I haven't read the article in question 
(boo, hiss - fair enough).  I just wanted to say that, from my 
perspective, every single discussion of smartphone cameras vs "real 
cameras" that I've ever read focused on entirely the wrong things.  
The conversation is always dominated by talk of sensors, lenses, 
zoom, image quality, etc.  I grant that these things matter to some 
extent, for sure.  But IMHO the differences between smartphones and 
real cameras along these dimensions are totally insubstantial 
compared to those on another dimension which I also feel is very 
important: the machine-human interface.  In a word, ergonomics.

Real cameras, at least the better ones, are typically designed by 
people who have actually acknowledged and faced up to a fundamental 
ground truth: that the things are going to be used by real, 
three-dimensional human beings, with wrists and hands and fingers and 
thumbs.  As a consequence, they are things you can hold comfortably 
and securely in one hand without thinking about it.  The good ones 
can be *operated* one-handed by touch alone, because they have actual 
physical buttons and knobs you can feel and whose placement has been 
dictated by at least some rudimentary consideration of human anatomy. 
 And actually sticking an honest to God optical viewfinder up to your 
eye and looking out the lens offers a kind of immersion in the 
photo-taking experience which nothing else can get close to.  But 
these days that's not even a smartphone vs real camera issue, so 
let's leave that last point be.

In contrast, it's been decades since any phone designer gave a 
second, third or even fourth thought to ergonomics, truly.  Today's 
smartphone is optimised to look sexy on billboards, and to fit into 
pockets - including really small, really tight pockets on clothes 
which were themselves optimised to look sexy on billboards instead of 
being comfortable or practical.  The result is a thin, slippery, 
smudgy, poorly balanced usability disaster.  This is why there's a 
thriving aftermarket for ugly bits of collapsible, self-adhesive 
plastic you stick on the back of the things so they can be operated 
by real world humans under real world conditions.  It's why so many 
people without those things stuck on there have shattered screens - 
because smartphones are literally *hard to hold*.  A little part of 
my soul dies every time I try to hold a smartphone such that the 
following things are all simultaneously true:


	
The camera lens is pointed at the thing I want to photograph
	
The screen is pointed at my face, at a shallow enough angle that 

  it's legible

	
One of my digits is in a position to be able to hit the virtual 

  button to take the shot

	
None of my other digits are in front of the lens
	
I have a firm enough grip on the whole thing that I'm not about to 

  drop it and the shot is not likely to be blurred

	
The camera is braced enough in the right places that the act of 

  tapping the virtual button to take the shot isn't likely to move the
  lens around too much

I'm not saying it can't be done.  Of course it can.  But it's not 
easy, or fast, or natural, or graceful, or elegant.  It sparks no 
joy.  It feels like a sad parody of what using technology is supposed 
to be like, at least to me.  Maybe I'm unusually bad at it, who 
knows.  I can't and won't deny that the resulting image quality is 
entirely acceptable, that it has been for years, and that it will 
only get better.  Of course it is/has/will.  I suspect it is indeed 
true that the consumer market for "real cameras" will continue to 
shrink year after year.  I just wish we weren't kidding ourselves 
that something important isn't being lost in the process.  I 
certainly don't think professional photographers will ever make this 
shift, because professionals use their equipment all day, every day, 
and in those circumstances the level of usability offered by a 
smartphone is just completely out of the question.  Even if the two 
were perfectly matched in every single other regard, any sane pro 
would happily pay more for something actually designed to be used 
first and foremost as a camera.

[1] gopher://alexschroeder.ch:70/0page/2021-06-17