This was part of a tour bus load of Japanese tourists. The lady on far left is using a smart phone while the other three are using tablets. While I do not and have never owned a cell phone myself, I understand why people use them for photos. They are small and convenient and always with them. But the electronic tablets are completely baffling. They are not more convenient than a conventional camera, they are less convenient and far more cumbersome. I just don't get it.
Agree with both of you. It seems they're emotionally attached to their pads and will use it for everything regardless of suitability. It's as though the recording of events (I can't imagine most of these people watch them back to any great extent) is more important than experiencing it -to my consternation it's like a virus at some gigs I go to (though it's not unusual to witness people very close to me throwing empty plastic beer receptacles towards them).
My first instinct was to cringe. This is really truly hard to look at. I can never imagine comfortably carrying this around a zoo and taking photos with this.
There was a period of a few months (which actually coincided with me joining ZC) when my tablet camera was the best I had. So I used it.
I think people have different priorities in life and although I would agree that living the big moments through a small screen is quite a disastrous choice I'm sure many would say the same thing about spending large chunks of your free time visiting zoos by yourself....
@FunkyGibbon I wholly agree with you here - if people want to take slightly rubbishy photos on IPads, let them! I’m glad that these tourists chose to visit - and thus fund- the zoo. And the criticism above - that many of the picture or films will never again be looked at - could just as easily apply to those who use “proper” cameras.
However, where I do get grumpy is when people using this equipment are oblivious to the impact they have on others. Someone wielding an iPad takes up quite a lot of space, and this can be irritating. But the zoo irritation is nothing in comparison to that at gigs, as mentioned by @Shorts above. There is a special ring of hell reserved for those who stand at the front of a gig recording everything on their smartphone, the screen’s glow hypnotically pulling in the eye of everyone behind.
My first experience with this was at Sydney Aquarium watching the dugongs. There were a few people in front of me which didn't matter much as the dugong was drifting up and over us, when an Ipad was thrust up above everybody's heads obscuring the view.
