如今手機拍照功能已不遜相機

Smartphone cameras traditionally have been better in theory than reality.

智能手機的拍照功能歷來是“理論美過現實”。

Start with the shutter lag: Nearly every phone camera I've ever used has had an annoying split-second delay between the time you hit the button and the time the shot gets snapped.

首先說一說快門時滯問題：我用過的幾乎所有的手機攝像頭都有一個令人不快的問題，那就是按下快門後，需要隔零點幾秒的時間照片纔會拍下來。

The lag is just long enough for your kid's adorable smile to turn into a nightmarish frown.

但就在這短短的一瞬間裏，你的孩子燦爛的笑容可能就變成了可怕的皺眉。

Then there's the DMV-like photo quality. When you reach for your phone to take a picture, you're almost always settling for a less-than-stellar image.

然後再說說如同車管所現場拍攝駕駛證照片時的成像質量。當你用手機拍照時，你幾乎總是不得不接受質量不是很高的照片。

Even late-model, high-end phones like Apple Inc.'s iPhone 5 and Samsung Electronics Co.'s Galaxy S4 were just good enough as cameras.

即便是像蘋果(Apple Inc.) iPhone 5和三星電子(Samsung Electronics Co.) Galaxy S4這樣的最新款高端手機，其成像質量也只能說是差強人意。

But suddenly, with Apple's iPhone 5s, all that has changed. I've taken it on an international vacation, to a wedding, to a water park, trick-or-treating and to a couple of parties.

但突然之間，隨着蘋果iPhone 5s的推出，情況發生了變化。我曾帶着這款手機到國外度假，參加婚禮，去水上樂園遊玩，萬 節拍攝孩子們“不給糖就搗亂”的畫面，還參加了幾個派對。

The other day I realized something amazing: While I carried a 'real' camera to most of these events, I barely used it. Instead, I used the phone to snap about a billion photos of my 3-year-old son, my 9-month-old daughter, my [age redacted] wife and about two billion pictures of myself. (Slide-show night at my house is endless.)

有一天，我意識到了一件有趣的事：儘管我帶着一部“真正”的照相機參加了大部分這類活動，但幾乎沒有用到，反而是用手機爲我三歲的兒子和九個月大的女兒抓拍了大量照片，還爲我太太（經過修片）和我自己拍了數不清的照片。（晚上看照片時幾乎看都看不完。）

Lost in the hype and hubbub around the 5s's gold option or fingerprint sensor is that it marks a turning point in camera phones. There was a time when it would have been crazy to suggest that a phone camera would ever approach the speed and quality of a stand-alone camera. Now, that day is over.

在iPhone 5s的土豪金顏色選擇或指紋識別功能引發的喧譁騷動之外，人們沒有意識到這款手機是拍照手機的一個轉折點。過去，如果有人說手機攝像頭會達到照相機的速度和成像質量，人們會認爲這是一種瘋狂的想法。而如今，人們已不再這樣想了。

Sales of point-and-shoot cameras have been declining for years and, according to research firm IDC last week, sales of more expensive SLRs are also set to plummet. That makes sense. Today, taking a picture with a phone simply isn't a subpar experience. For most people, most of the time, a phone is all you need.

多年來傻瓜相機的銷量一直在下滑，據研究公司國際數據公司(IDC)上週說，更加昂貴的單反相機的銷量也將下滑。這是合情合理的。現在，用手機拍照不再是一種次優選擇。對大部分人來說，大部分時間一部手機就能滿足你的一切拍照需要。

What the phone did to the camera isn't an isolated incident. The story behind the death of the stand-alone camera is a history of the future of almost everything.

手機給照相機帶來的影響並非孤立事件。照相機之死背後的故事可以說是一切事物未來的縮影。

The iPhone 5s's triumph over the camera offers a lesson in how smartphones and tablets will co-opt most other devices in our lives, from PCs to videogame systems to even our wallets and our keys.

iPhone 5s對照相機的大獲成功使我們認識到：智能手機和平板電腦將如何把其他大部分設備擠出我們的生活，從個人電腦到視頻遊戲系統，甚至是我們的錢包和鑰匙。

Right now, all this might sound impossible. Just wait.

眼下，所有這一切聽起來似乎都是不可能的事。但且慢。

First, about the 5s in particular: What I like best is its 'burst mode, ' which can take 10 shots a second, thereby eliminating shutter lag.

首先，尤其是就iPhone 5s而言：我最喜歡的是其“連拍模式”，在這種模式下，使用者可以在一秒鐘內拍攝10張照片，進而消除了快門時滯的問題。

The camera's pictures are also fantastic, especially in low light. (Apple improved the phone's image sensor to make this possible). As a result, the 5s is the fastest, best phone camera I've ever used -- even better than Nokia Corp.'s 41-megapixel Lumia 1020.

照相機的成像質量也非常棒，特別是在光線較暗的拍攝條件下。（這是因爲蘋果改進了iPhone 5s的圖像傳感器）。iPhone 5s是我所用過的最快、最好的手機攝像頭，甚至比諾基亞(Nokia Corp.) 4,100萬像素的Lumia 1020還要好。

The 5s is far better than my point-and-shoot, and because it lets me edit and share my pictures, it is often superior to my expensive, interchangeable-lens SLR (whose battery I haven't had reason to charge in weeks).

iPhone 5s比我的卡片相機好多了。而且，由於iPhone 5s還讓我可以編輯和分享照片，這部手機還常常替代了我價格更高的可換鏡頭單反相機——數週來我都沒有找到給這臺單反相機充電的理由。

I don't mean to suggest Apple has a camera monopoly here. Though the 5s is ahead now, I suspect most other high-end phones will soon catch up with Apple's device. But I can't see how dedicated cameras can beat smartphones now.

我並不是說蘋果公司在相機市場佔據了壟斷地位。雖然iPhone 5s目前處於領先位置，我猜測大多數其他高端手機很快就能趕上蘋果的設備。但我卻無法看到目前相機何以能趕超智能手機。

Sure, big cameras with zoom lenses will always be useful for professional or semipro photographers, or for times (like at sporting events) when you are far from the action. Yet there are several reasons why smartphones often beat conventional cameras. Phones are small and nearly ubiquitous -- you're more likely to be carrying a phone than you are to be carrying a camera or anything else.

誠然，對於專業和半專業的攝影師來說，擁有變焦鏡頭的大相機總是有用的。而且，在諸如運動會等場合，如果你距離拍攝對象很遠，這些相機也是很有幫助的。不過，仍有一些原因可以解釋智能手機爲何可以經常取代傳統相機。手機體積不大，而且廣泛普及。你隨身攜帶手機的可能性比你攜帶相機或其他物品的可能性都要大。

According to tests by the review site AnandTech, the iPhone 5s's processor is 100 times as fast as that of the original iPhone, a speed gain that surpasses most other parts of the tech business.

據評測網站AnandTech說，iPhone 5s的處理器比最初的iPhone快100倍。這一變化速度超過了大多數其他科技領域。

Finally and most importantly, smartphones are connected to the Internet, and they run software that can be constantly improved and augmented.

最後也是最重要的一點，智能手機可以連接互聯網。它們運行的軟件可以經常更新和改進。

Cameras and most other gadgets, by contrast, are offline, and their software is often static.

相比之下，相機和大多數其他設備都無法接入網絡，而且它們的軟件通常是一成不變的。

It's no wonder that the most important innovations in photography over the past few years -- things like Instagram and Vine -- happened on the phone, not on cameras.

這也難怪過去數年攝影領域最重大的創新都出現在手機上而不是相機上，比如應用軟件Instagram和Vine。

What other gadgets are similarly vulnerable to the march of smartphones and tablets?

還有什麼其他設備也容易受到智能手機和平板電腦的侵蝕呢？

Portable videogame systems seem doomed. Soon you will be able to connect game controllers to your iPhone that -- given the popularity of Apple's App Store with game developers -- will undercut the main reason to buy a dedicated games device.

移動視頻遊戲系統似乎前景黯淡。很快你就可以讓遊戲控制器與你的iPhone相連，鑑於蘋果公司的應用軟件商店App Store頗受遊戲開發商歡迎，專門購買一個遊戲設備的主要理由將不復存在。

I'm also quite optimistic that phones will one day replace our wallets.

我還很樂觀地認爲，手機有一天將代替我們的錢包。

And, really, I don't see how laptops survive the onslaught either. Today, tablets like Microsoft's Surface are close enough to replicating PCs.

此外，我認爲筆記本電腦可能也難逃一劫。現如今，像微軟(Microsoft)旗下Surface這樣的平板電腦已經接近能代替個人電腦了。

At the rate that mobile processors are improving, it won't be long until our tablets become replacements for 90% of what we use computers for today, and will give us astonishing battery life and portability too.

從移動處理器的發展速度來看，用不了多久，我們現在使用個人電腦做的事情有90%都可以在平板電腦上完成。不僅如此，平板電腦還有更長的電池壽命並具備便攜性。

Some readers might not believe this. But nobody believed smartphones would run cameras out of town, either. The lesson, here, is to never underestimate how greedy mobile devices are: As much as they do for us now, they will always keep trying to do more.

一些讀者可能不相信這些。但之前也沒有人相信智能手機會擠佔相機的地盤。應該從中吸取的教訓是，永遠不要低估移動設備的野心：雖然移動設備目前能爲我們做很多事情，它們還會一直嘗試做更多事情。

Today your phone is your camera, game console, TV, music player, e-book reader, alarm clock, fitness log and notepad. What's next? Everything.

如今，你的手機同時還是你的相機、遊戲機、電視、音樂播放器、電子閱讀器、鬧鐘、健身日誌和記事本。接下來呢？它會變成你的一切。