See You Later, DSLR?

After seemingly seeing off the challenge of point-and-shoot cameras, thanks to the ability to shoot raw, capture 4k videos, use of wider lenses and better manual controls, smartphones are now taking on the ultimate photography device—the DSLR. But is this just marketing hype or have smartphone cameras indeed improved to such an extent? Is it time to bid farewell to the DSLR?

- Anuj Bhatia

Kirti mehra (name changed) is a final year student of IIT Delhi, and is a member of a popular photography club in Delhi. She has been into photography, ever since she got a canon EOS 500D as a gift from her father. She swears by her DSLR camera and never ever believed that a smartphone camera could ever challenge a DSLR - until one day she started using the Lumia 1020 on a recommendation of a friend, a “seasoned” photographer. “It was a 360 degree turnaround for me”, she tells my mobile. as an amateur photographer, she consistently rallied in favor of a DSLR camera, owing to its superior image quality overall. However, Mehra pointed to a gradual shift in mobile photography, with the arrival of camera-centric smartphones that could pave way for DSLR-like imaging optics into a compact form.

Lately, we are starting to see the blurring of the lines between a smartphone camera and DSLR The last few months have seen an explosion of smartphones designed for photography - the likes of Asus ZenFone Zoom, Lenovo Vibe Shot, apple iPhone 6s Plus, Samsung Galaxy S6 and the LG G4, to name a few. What’s more, there are apps being rolled out such as adobe Lightroom mobile, SnapSeed and Photo Editor by aviary for easy editing. While the battle between smartphones and point-and-shoots seems to have ceased a long time ago, a new one seems to have erupted between DSLRs and phone cameras this time. We tried to reach out to the industry to know exactly how far smartphone cameras have evolved over the years, and are we near to see smartphones replacing DSLRs?

The rise of mobile photography