There are many things that are fascinating about this YouTube video from Nokia about a ‘fashion photo-shoot’ – whatever that might be – but for me perhaps the most interesting detail is how the digital camera is controlled. Out go all of the analogue controls and everything is controlled through the screen. Now I know that is not the best way to control a camera in some circumstances – sports photography being an example – but for most ways that a camera is used it makes perfect sense.

Of course this reflects the real world of the way that cameras and photography has developed over the past few years. Photography has now become an integral part of all our lives in a way it never was before. We now always carry a camera around with us, those of us that carry any phone that is less than five years old, and they are all digital. The design of the DSLR has always been a traditional throw back to the days when these beasts used to carry film. There is no reason why a camera should look anything like the DSLR yet this is the camera type being sold as the ‘best camera’. Even the young of today still think that using a DSLR makes a difference when they are possibly the first generation who are brought up making photographs without the constraint of having to have a ‘real’ camera to do this. Hopefully in future we can forget the DSLR as the pinnacle and start just using the best camera for our needs. I suspect the marketing departments of Canon, Nikon and Sony might not agree.

Simon Marchini
www.simonmarchini.co.uk