iPhone Xs camera – 12 mpx
Toronto. Most of the title was the motto of Benson and Hedges’ new (1960s) brand of cigarettes “Virginia Slims“. By the 1960s cigarettes were at their height of fashion and popularity but clouds were on the horizon. A key demographic not yet reached by the mainly male oriented tobacco industry was the young female newly empowered to vote, work, and dream.
Virginia Slims by design were thinner diameter and longer than other brands subconsciously suggesting a slim figure for their target female customers.
Like cigarettes in the 1960s, photography today has come a long way too. When first announced, the process was slow, monochromatic, and highly technical limiting its use to a select minority of practitioners. Nevertheless, the new art took the world by storm and photographic studios began popping up everywhere. Some were operated by very competent people, others by outright charlatans out to make a buck from the newest trend. Over the decades the proportion of photographers grew and the new art sprouted a variety of specialized skills – studio, war, news, street, scientific, medical, amateur, etc. By the turn of the last century some colour processes appeared. But to the very end film was slow, fussy, and generally low resolution.
Colour became standard by the 1970s and prints or slides could be processes rapidly by so called one hour machines. Studio/professional work became more specialized and began to struggle in the face of relatively cheap amateur work. Digital technology looked to be a saviour. Sadly plunging costs in concert with rapid improvements in speed, resolution, and automatic everything accelerated the pressure on studios and professionals. Then came smartphones and their ubiquitous cameras.
As I sit on the TTC subway today, nearly everyone has a smartphone, all of which have cameras so no one leaves home today without one. Simple for anyone to use, a typical high end smartphone like the iPhone Xs shown above, has a 12 megapixel camera (this smartphone actually has two – one wide angle and one telephoto plus a third lower resolution camera for selfies). With automatic stabilization, white balance, flash, exposure, ISO, etc. even the dullest, slowest-witted owner can shoot technically correct images. The art and talent come into play in the framing and composition of the image.
Photography has come a long way indeed!
