An apple hanging from a tree in North London, England.

For the longest time I really didn’t like camera-phones.  The small sensor, the grainy results, the slow response times – sure you carry it everywhere but the image sucked and you would probably miss ‘the moment’.  Well, now I’ve changed my mind a little.  Just a little.

This shot was taken in my garden in North London with my new iPhone 4 (admittedly on a very nice summers day with lots of light).

I feel that there are areas where the mainstream camera manufacturers really do need to innovate – this iPhone has a beautiful screen (far better than any camera that I know of) GPS geo-tagging, a touchscreen display, Apps that can process the image (like the one above was edited with an app called Camera+, cost: about £1.00 !) and share it on Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, FTP (or wherever else you might want – you get the idea).

Oh, did I mention it does 720p HD video recording, editing and upload as well?

And it’s just one device.  And it does it well – the user experience is unparalleled.

I digress – this isn’t an iPhone review.

I just wonder why my DSLRs (which cost thousands) or maybe high-end compacts can’t do even some of this? And not just as a bolt-on with no afterthought to the experience.

Digital SLR cameras are huge.  There are some people who can explain why the camera body must be so big and good lenses even more so.

I just know they are bulky – even rubbish ones.  Yet you will nearly always find me with one.

The reason is simple:  They enable me to consistently produce great results.

Carrying this bulk around is a sacrifice I’m willing to make.  Saying that, if I could have something smaller – whilst maintaining the control over the quality of results – I would definitely consider it.

Lately, I’ve noticed quite a few manufacturers are bringing out what look like fantastic little cameras (Canon S90, Samsung EX-1, Panasonic LX3 to name just a few).  Great low light performance, minimal delay when taking the picture and some even have HD video too (not that I’m all that interested in video right now).

Who knows – maybe you’ll find me carrying one of these compact ones around one day.