The chaos of last year's terrorist bombings in London was seen on television screens across the world soon after the attacks. The unfocused, dark, grainy photos of tunnels crowded with commuters were taken by amateur photographers.
Just a few years ago it would have been unlikely for these photos to be captured at all and, had they been, it would have taken days to release them. But the increasing popularity of camera phones and 3G mobile networks means there are now cameras on hand to capture every event and send the photos directly to the media.
The darkness and lack of focus perhaps portrayed an atmosphere of fear and confusion, but were certainly not the design of creative photographers. Cameras in phones are simply bad.
The convergence of telecommunications technologies and cameras will broaden the areas that the media can cover. But until the quality of camera phones improves, the benefits of having cameras everywhere all the time will be limited.
Hong Kong-listed Johnson Electric promises to change that with the introduction of NanoLens and NanoZoom, which offer faster and more accurate focusing and zooming.
Jim Dick, senior vice-president of Johnson Electric, said: 'When people always have a high-quality camera with them, you are going to see photos you could never get.'