Digital cameras keep their focus

While most attention in the gadget world is on the breakneck pace of innovation in mobile phones, tablets and computers, another device has refused to die: the camera.Despite the onslaught of camera phones — the iPhone 4 has this year become the most popular device for posting snapshots to the photo-sharing website Flickr — cameras are still being sold.Japan, the world's largest manufacturer, shipped nearly three times as many cameras in January as it did in the same month of 2003, when the camera phone was still in its infancy.

"For several years, it has been predicted that smartphone adoption would cut into digital camera sales," said Prashant Malaviya, a marketing professor at Georgetown University. "In fact, the exact opposite has happened."Driving this is a number of factors, analysts and enthusiasts say. And, while most point to roles for cameras for both professional and personal users, the device's future is far from assured.First, photography is personal. People may be happy taking pictures with our cellphone or simple point-and-shoot camera, but it turns out that most won't entrust key memories to such basic devices.

Surveys by NPD In-Stat in November show that while more than a quarter of all American photos were taken by a smartphone, more people were buying cameras with detachable lenses or cameras with optical zooms of 10 times or more.This, says NPD In-Stat senior digital imaging analyst Liz Cutting, is because those people taking important family photos don't want to trust them to a device that isn't up to the task."Camera photography is certainly not dead," Cutting said. "We're just seeing a skewing toward what the smartphone can't deliver. People are recognizing that and are going for a higher-end camera."