Complaint After Complaint

Unless it is a momentus occasion (ie. Your friend and you find out her last name is also a street name and you need to take a picture of her jumping up and pointing at the sign), there is no reason why you should be using your phone as a camera.
Andrea and I were at the zoo last week feeding the giraffes and we saw some woman taking pictures of them with her phone. It’s not like, “Holy shit. I’m in a location where giraffes normally are not seen. I should take a picutre of this because no one will believe me. But I did not bring my camera with me today because I did not forsee anything crazy awesome happening. I’ll just use my camera phone because I have no other options!” I packed my camera. I knew that I wanted to take pictures of animals, and I knew I was going to see them at the zoo. Duh.
I was buying a new cell phone, and the Verizon guy said the only downside to the phone was the picture quality is not as great as the other phones. I responded with, “If I need to take pictures, I’ll use a digital camera.”
It’s not like you can’t afford both. Teenagers can afford both. People also have birthdays. Ask some friends or relatives to pool together for one. A nice 7 megapixel one is around $150. Furthermore, you don’t need to upgrade your phone or camera every year so it’s not an unnecessary waste of money to have both.
Cameras are also smaller than wallets. It’s not like they are awkward to carry and a huge hastle to tote around. You bring newborns to the zoo—but that’s a complaint for another entry.
At the very least, buy a disposable camera. They are cheap, small, and when you get the pictures developed you can tell what you were trying to take a picture of. Unlike your camera phone. “I think that blur in the background is my friend’s new puppy.”