THIS week, the Eye is going to stay away from the doggone topic that has been flooding social media and news portals and instead take a look at how phone cameras have changed the world.
Phones and cameras, if anyone recalls, came about when Sony Ericsson first came up with the concept of having a clip-on camera that could be attached to its mobile phones.
Not many would probably remember that right? That clip on phone? It was back in year 2001, if Eye recall correctly. Back then, many would have thought “now why would anyone want to attach a camera to a mobile phone?”
Back then, we did not foresee that mobile phones would advance so rapidly as all-in-one devices. Even the thought of having our laptops incorporated into little hand-held devices seemed so far away. No one even conceptualised the possibility of PDAs (personal digital assistants) back then coming together as one with phones and cameras.
Sony Ericsson was definitely onto something there, and for a while, the brand was at the forefront, producing mobile phones with the best cameras and resolution. When smartphones came about, Apple and Samsung bulldozed their way to the top.
According to Samsung, there are more than 2.5 billion people around the world who have a digital camera – be it in the form of a smartphone or in the form of a point and shoot digital camera, which has the capability to connect with smartphones.
The advent of the camera phone has revolutionised the way we communicate and take photos these days. Remember the days when we used film in cameras? Remember the times that we were so cautious about taking photos just because we did not want to waste film?
Yes, back in the day, amateur photographers like you and Eye were always thinking about the number of shots we had left on a roll and how much each print would cost. We could not see the immediate results of our photography and had to make sure each shot was worth it.
Today with phone cams, we sing to the tune of a no-frills airline – now everyone can take photos! We can snap away to our hearts content. Snap it, view it and keep it. Don’t like the snap? Hit delete and snap away again.
Gone are the days where the utmost concern for many of us was getting the lighting and exposure right, so that we do not waste away limited film. These days, snap and click. Exposure not
quite right? Never mind, there’s the Camera 360 app, which can make night seem like day and vice versa.
Blemishes on your skin? Do not want them to show on the photo? No need to go through the hassle of setting up proper studio lighting and hours of make-up. A couple of clicks using photo altering software or applications and there, that pimple in the middle of your forehead never existed!
These days, you can even make your face look slimmer, skin tone fairer and eyes larger (like anime characters), all thanks to the camera in your smartphone and a myriad of applications.
Our behaviour in public has also changed, thanks to the advent of phone cams. Walk along the streets and even in shopping malls and you are bound to see people shamelessly taking selfies of themselves in front of shops, buildings or iconic landmarks with all sorts of expressions, from the duck face to the gwiyomi facial expression. If you are of the same generation as the Eye and have not idea what duck face or gwiyomi are, ask your teenage child.
Back when the Eye was a teenager, such behaviour would have been deemed gila (crazy). Who in their right mind would take photos of themselves posing with such weird expressions?
Speaking of behaviour changes, thanks to the phone cam, diners now greet the arrival of food in a restaurant, not with appreciation for the beautiful plating or a few comments on the aroma or preparation of the dish, but with a few clicks of the phone cam and immediate uploads on social media.
Back in the day, taking photos of food and sharing what you were having for lunch or dinner (unless you were a food critic who wrote for a lifestyle magazine), would have raised a few eyebrows.
At events, say a concert or sports competition, it is now the norm to see arms held above our heads to capture the moments of the event.
A cartoon depicting how times have changed at rock concerts from hands up in the air waving to the rhythm of the music to hands up in the air holding phones with cameras has been going around on social media and hits the nail on the head.
Phone cams have also turned the ordinary person in the street into journalists and vigilantes. Yes, anyone with a phone that has a camera and social media account can now take part in what is known as citizen journalism.
We here in Sarawak have seen how this works. Remember the cases of the thieves going around Kuching? Videos and photos of these scums were posted all over social media with citizen reporting. Some of these posts actually led to the arrests of these scumbags.
Thanks to phone cams, citizen reporting has also extended to traffic offences and inconsiderate road users. You had better be careful these days and not park inconsiderately, or commit a traffic offence.
You’ll never know when a nice clear photo of your vehicle with its license plate will appear on a traffic offence wall of shame such as on the Facebook page Kuching Roadblock.
Phone cameras have also revolutionised the world of media and reporting. Big news agencies are even buying (most times using without acknowledging) photos and videos taken using phone cams from members of the public at the scene.
Remember the looting during England’s summer riots? And the tsunami in 2004? Many photos and the video footage broadcast and printed worldwide came from the phone cameras of people who happened to be there at that point of time.
So phone cams, good or bad? With any technology, there are good points and there are bad points. Good things that come about from phone cams? We can capture more memories without having to invest in a camera and yes, be careful about wasting film. We can reach out to more people around us should there be an incident that we should all be concerned about.
The bad? Be sure to back up those precious memories every way possible, as there is no telling when your memory card or phone may fail to work.
Of course, another bad thing about phone cams is that we get so engrossed in trying to capture everything around us that we forget to really immerse ourselves in our surroundings and learn the history and significance of places around us. Take as many photos as you want, but remember there is more to just being trigger happy and snapping away at things we see around us.
Comments can reach the writer via [email protected].