Water resistance, size, weight and price
Additionally, the Olympus cameras have the same capabilities as a full-size SLR, but without the downsides. I thought that I stated that pretty clearly.
As for the Sonys, they have better image quality than most similar-sized camera due to their larger sensors, plus many of the controls of an SLR. You’re not stuck dealing with LCD when in conditions where it’s difficult or impossible to use one. Again, I thought that I made that case, too.
I see several major changes
First, the fact that phones have cameras has resulted in many more people taking pictures, simply because they have a camera (of sorts) with them all the time. However, phone camera image quality vs. a “real” camera is about equivalent to the difference between .mp3 audio and “real” audio. For the majority of people and purposes, it’s just fine, but if you really care about quality, it’s lacking. That said, any image is better than no image and most people wouldn’t carry a camera with them all of the time.
It’s almost free to make images once you have a camera of any type, so it’s easy and cheap to shoot and experiment as much as you like. On a recent vacation in Italy, I took nearly 1000 images. If I had been shooting film, the cost of film alone would have been prohibitive, let alone the cost of processing. That’s gone with digital imaging. For anyone who’s interested in in improving their skills, there’s nothing to hold them back.
Digital images are MUCH easier to manipulate and it’s pretty amazing how much can be corrected. The learning process for editing software, at least for basic corrections, is pretty simple and free software is readily available and almost always included with a camera. Without the need for an expensive darkroom and the time it takes to develop (no pun intended) editing skills, anyone can attempt to edit their images. Most importantly, any changes can be undone, which was not possible with film.
The automatic modes in modern cameras are so far advanced from what they were in the film age. Consequently, many more people are creating good images by default, without any real understanding of why, but does that even matter? The end result is what it is.
It’s really a whole new world, but there is also an element of GIGO (Garbage In, Garbage Out) to consider. Really horrible or low resolution images still can’t be fixed to the point that they can compete with high-quality images taken by a skilled photographer with good equipment. As with most thing, including kayaking, skill still matters.