I usually say that there are two things that did not exist in our lives less than 20 years ago, but with which, in this short period of time, we cannot do without them: one is the multi-box and the other is the cell phone. I remember that, in the early 2000s, few people had a cell phone. The few who had them, walked with them hanging in a pouch at the waist for everyone to see. At the traffic lights, it was watching them play with some of them in their ears, they said bad languages, it was just a pretense, sometimes the “telelé talk” didn't even work ...
Cell phones became even more popular when they started taking pictures with more and more quality, speed and comfort. But when they started to connect to the internet and social networks, and people acquired the ability to instantly send their photos to any part of the world, the traditional photo cameras ended. Even with the ability to take an almost infinite number of photos and with exceptional quality, even with the ability to edit the photos almost to the user's complete taste ... nothing. Digital phones threw cameras into the calendars of oblivion.
The ability of mobile phones to record images is simply extraordinary. They both function as traditional photo cameras, and can also be used as camcorders with the same quality as professional equipment. Huawei boasts that a team of professional divers uses their mobile phones to shoot at great depth with better results than normal camcorders. On another occasion, he says that a film crew from old buildings ended up recording everything with their mobile phones, instead of using conventional equipment. In both cases, the extremely high quality of the image and sound, as well as the greater versatility and mobility of the mobile phone in relation to the heavier and heavier cameras, ended up dictating the preference.
Last Sunday, I went to Golungo Alto to attend Father Manuel Jerónimo's Mass of Ordination. He has the particularity of being the first priest with albinism to be ordained in the Catholic Church in Angola, so I accepted his invitation to go up to the altar and sing the psalm at his Mass. Standing there from the altar - the Mass was pitched, in the beautiful square in front of the church - and while I sang, I was amazed by the “rain” of cell phones pointed at me. There were hundreds, if not thousands! For a few seconds, between the responsibility to play the notes I sang as best as possible and the emotion that always has me on those occasions, it crossed my mind and I was amazed at how much the digital cell phone has become “suddenly” into a mass diffusion, instead of the instrument of interpersonal communication that Graham Bell and Tomás Edison had invented. As soon as I got back to my place, I received pictures of me from minutes before coming from ... Lubango, I also marveled at the miracles that connectivity performs in communications. That about 20 years ago was simply unthinkable.
I am a photo addict myself. I bought my first camera in Praça de Espanha, Lisbon, in 1989! After that, I bought several more, one of which cost me 1.000 “uzédus” and second hand. An expatriate colleague at the end of a mission “killed me” that price. I bought and photographed Pope John Paul II with her when she visited Lubango. But today I only use my cell phone, both for photos and videos. And, advertising aside, I opted for the Huawei phone, because it is by far the one that offers me the best quality. So much so, that I once published a photo that someone sent me, and a friend asked right away if he had taken it with my phone, because he had noticed the low quality. In fact, as before with Canon, today most photography lovers converge that Huawei offers the best quality.
Nines outside the brand, the photos and videos recorded by cell phones are increasingly popular ... and sometimes inconvenient. To the point that they annoyed Pope Francis, who ended up doing an "aside" in the homily to ask the faithful to stop being with "telelés" in the air and pay attention to what he was saying. Phones competing with the Pope, imagine ...
This ability to communicate quickly and easily brings several advantages that did not exist before. It is normal nowadays to make a transfer, photograph the receipt and send it to the beneficiary, or any other urgent document. In seconds, the recipient receives a document that otherwise could take weeks if not months to arrive. Das selfies From leisure to highly sophisticated professional equipment, digital cell phones have definitely stolen the leading role in cameras and camcorders. On top of that, they send the photos and videos they produce with the touch of a finger to the whole world ...
Article written by Celso Malavoloneke , published in MenosFios with the authorization of its press office.
