Evolution of the mobile camera phones into our lives
Text by: Bilakshan Santosh Harsh
The mobile camera has taken a major leap with its design and qualities. The first mobile phone camera is said to be launched by a Japanese Company, Sharp which was named J-Phone, followed by Samsung and a year later launched by the American Company Sanyo in the year 2003.
According to the report published by the IDC Report Firm, 80 million camera phones got sold during that time and it gave tough competitions to the DVD players that were much into a trend in the ’90s. Today there are 5.11 billion mobile users globally according to the Global Digital Report in 2019.
Understanding such wide usage, there is a growing mobile manufacturing industry with Samsung and Apple in a neck to neck competition followed by Google and Chinese mobile companies like Oppo, Xiaomi. The inbuilt mobile camera is one of the driving forces and the important feature behind this phenomenal popularity that smartphones have achieved in the electronic consumer market compared to other digital devices.

Understanding the Mobile Camera
A mobile phone camera is just like a DSLR consisting of a lens, image sensor, aperture, sensor, shutter and it more or less function like any digital camera. The only difference to a regular digital camera is its image quality, price and size. What we wish to see through the lens as the light enters and falls onto the tiny image sensor, that gets converted into digital data which we call as a digital image. With the growing popularity, all the leading mobile manufacturers are paying special focus to the camera features and moving from single camera to dual camera to triple camera that offers better image and resolution to the consumer with a beauty lens to click better selfies.
Rise of Mobile Phone Photography
This is one of the many reasons that mobile camera phones have sustained and grown so huge owing to the demand for better selfies and images to share by the users on social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook which has made mobile photography now a purpose. According to the website, Wordstream almost 95 million photos are shared every day on Instagram.
Companies like Apple, Google, Samsung and One Plus have thrived on this popularity claiming their mobile smartphones to be the best through their ad campaigns like Shot on iPhone, Team Pixel, Shot on One Plus to get the sales of their product going. The design and size have made it popular among professional photographers who are now opting for the mobile phone over DSLRs. There is altogether a new genre of mobile photography that has come up now. Some of the world’s renowned mobile photographers are Linda Stokes, Katie Cowden and Jania Mistry.
Drawbacks to the Mobile Phone Camera
Technologically, the phone camera falls below the standards of professional practice as compared to DSLR. The image quality is still low when compared to the image quality produced by the standard digital camera. The mobile camera doesn’t permit manual control like a professional DSLR camera and also the image sensor size is small. Mobile applications in the new camera allow that feature, yet the results are not up to what the standard cameras can produce.
Thus mobile phone camera has taught people to see and appreciate the moments of life and given a creative wing to explore new dimensions of this world and record it for life.
“The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.” Dorothea Lange, American photographer
About our writing program student:

Bilakshan Santosh Harsh
Harsh holds a Bachelors Degree in Social Work and TV Broadcast Journalism. After a successful stint as a TV producer with NDTV, he’s on a sabbatical to study law in Delhi. His interests include photography, film making, fine art and music and culture.
The Lifestyle Portal Online Writing Program:
Would you like to empower yourself with the simple yet effective tools of writing? Learn to write better with our online writing workshops. Sign up for The Lifestyle Portal Online Writing Program and fine-tune your writing skills with us. Write to us at contact@tanyamunshi.com to know more.
Reference links:
https://deviceatlas.com/blog/19-mobile-web-predictions-for-2019?page=4
https://www.creativebloq.com/features/best-camera-phone
https://www.creativebloq.com/features/best-camera-phone
https://www.androidauthority.com/smartphone-cameras-explained-767029/
https://www.androidpit.com/smartphone-cameras-explained
https://www.dxomark.com/multi-camera-smartphones-benefits-and-challenges/