Every picture tells a story

This year, I spent several days in Puerto Rico. While there, I visited the Arecibo Observatory and its gigantic radio telescope. There I noticed prominent signs from about a quarter mile away saying to turn off all radio sources; cellphones or otherwise. So, I tucked away my trusty Nokia Lumia 920 Smartphone and relied on my compact Canon PowerShot camera while at the Observatory. I noticed that a great number of fellow tourists had no traditional cameras and were sneaking their cellphones out to take photos … and trying to hide them from the guides. They could have switched their phones to airplane mode, but even then Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and even NFC could be enabled and the GHz and faster application processors are pumping out measurable radio signals. There's a lesson in this experience. After leaving Arecibo, I took stock of my own photo experience. During the entire trip, I took at least five times more photos with my 8.7Mpixel Lumia than with my 10Mpixel Canon for three reasons; the Lumia was always handy; it took wider angle pictures that were more pleasing to my taste; and its low light performance was far better. The obvious demise of the compact camera in favour of the smartphone camera is probably why traditional camera makers are now pushing their SLR type devices. Will Strauss is president and principal analyst with Forward Concepts.