Smartphone News

About four years ago, Alvanas, a photographer, filmmaker, educator, digital artist, and postproduction retoucher, was attending a week-long advanced printing workshop at John Paul Caponigro’s studio. “The first day of portfolio review featured lots of prints of grand vistas from big film cameras—4x5s and 8x10s,” Alvanas says. “I showed on the second day, but I digitally projected my images.”

Olympus just announced that it is bringing its compact and wireless Olympus Air A01 camera device to the U.S. in July and Canada in August. The Olympus Air A01, which was introduced in Japan earlier this year, is a small, cylindrical gadget with a 16-megapixel Live MOS image sensor that can wirelessly connect Micro Four Thirds lenses with mobile devices such as smartphones.

It was the talk of the photokina show last year but it wasn’t available in the United States…until now. Panasonic has just announced that the Lumix DMC-CM1 smartphone with its photography-friendly, 20-megapixel, 1-inch image sensor and 4K video capabilities is coming to the U.S.

Yes, we’re all pretty sick of selfies but one clever photographer has created a hilarious photo series that appears to show ancient statues taking these now ubiquitous digital self portraits.

Photokina 2014 in Germany has been covered widely on the Internet already—including our own extensive reporting on the show on Shutterbug.com—so there’s no need for me to rehash the major announcements from the event, such as the latest full-frame cameras from Canon and Nikon and the like. My photo report here is aimed at sharing some wider ranging thoughts and perspectives on this important biennial show and what it told us about photography today and where it might be heading tomorrow.

On a Sunday morning not long ago I turned on the radio and by chance heard the legendary, Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist David Hume Kennerly say that his iPhone had made him a better photographer.
 

How much do I hate smartphones? Let me count the ways. But seriously, they aren’t going away anytime soon and many photographers, although not moi, have found clever ways to harness the power of these mobile devices. That said, I do own a smartphone albeit an older model and am on many social media platforms.