Mark Geller

Happy new year, I hope everyone had a great holiday. I am getting back into the swing of things after returning from a week in Colombia and a brief Disney Cruise to the Bahamas with my family–as well as recovering from the various illnesses one might associate with: a) a trip to South America; and b) a cruise with 800 kids under the age of 10. Business is starting to heat up for KlickFu as well as a few consulting projects, so I have been posting less frequently the past month or so. I will try to write more frequent, shorter posts as we get ready to launch!

One thing that struck me during the trip was this will probably be the last time I bring or use a point-and-shoot camera, even while traveling. In the past year, I had already gotten to the point where I use only my iPhone for a camera when I go out to parties–even with the severe limitation of having no flash–due to the excellent convenience and the fact I always have it with me. I have a fairly nice point-and-shoot camera, a Sony Cybershot that is quite small and takes nice pictures (and which I am now giving away, see below), which I have taken with me on previous trips to Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe. However, on this trip–even though I had the camera in my bag and fully charged, I still did not use it to take pics because I simply did not want to have to carry another device. (I already had my iPhone with me to use as a clock and for occasional wifi.)

The iPhone camera is not perfect, there is the previously mentioned no-flash issue, plus the light sensor is pretty bad and the optics/image quality are mediocre at best. Although for me, the convenience trumps everything else. Plus whatever my next phone is, iPhone or Nexus, the camera will be significantly better, including having a flash. So I can’t really see why or when I would use a point-and-shoot camera again.

Not that there needs to be a causal agent in this, however if I had to name one it could be Facebook. By demonstrating the major power of sharing photos as elements in a social conversation, as opposed to for the beauty/emotion of the images themselves, Facebook has made many users (including me) comfortable with the idea that taking lower resolution/lower “quality” images, even while traveling, is “good enough.”

In a related story, since I no longer need the above mentioned Sony Cybershot camera, I am giving it away now. If you’re looking for a point-and-shoot, it’s a pretty good one. Free to the first person who requests it and lives here in L.A.

UPDATE: The camera has been claimed now… 15 minutes after posting at 11pm–not bad! Since that went so well, I also have a few extra suitcases and an end table I am selling, cheap. Just kidding.