With even the most basic cellphones able to snap photos, camera makers are launching a new campaign to convince buyers that a cellphone is no substitute for a good camera.

Faced with sliding sales, makers of digital cameras are fighting back with marketing campaigns and new features that take on some of the functions of smartphones, such as easier photo sharing on social networks like Facebook and the ability to shoot high-definition video for sharing as well.

Industry-wide, digital-camera sales are projected to fall 11% in 2010 to $5.6 billion, from last year, according to the Consumer Electronics Association. That's down from a peak of $7.8 billion in 2006.

Colleen Lerro, a CEA spokeswoman, says that may be largely because 81% of households already have a digital cameras. Camera makers say that a smartphone is no replacement for a digital camera because it doesn't produce shots people want to keep and is a complementary product. Digital cameras are tied with high-definition TVs as the top consumer electronic product that U.S. households plan to buy in the next year, according to CEA research.

A cellphone industry group, the CTIA, says camera sales are declining due to competition from cellphones. One in five wireless users take pictures with their phones at least once a week, according to the Internet marketing research firm comScore.

Camera manufacturers are counting on their products' advanced features-- such as zoom lenses, flashes, light sensors, facial detection technology and panoramic capabilities -- to give them the edge over smartphones, says Steve Hoffenberg, an analyst at Lyra Research, a digital imaging consulting firm based in Newtonville, Mass. He says most consumers still prefer those features for situations when they know they'll take a lot of pictures, such as vacations and family celebrations.

Panasonic Corp., which sells 64 models of digital cameras, recently launched a major ad campaign for its high-end Lumix camera with the slogan: 'If it has a ringtone, it's not a camera.' Ads for the campaign, the cost of which the company declined to disclose, began appearing in New York subway cars and billboards in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

'With cellphones, the truth is they don't do everything,' says Vic Carlson, Panasonic's vice president of consumer marketing. 'We think consumers are finding that there is a time and a place for different devices.'

In a survey by InfoTrends Inc., a Weymouth, Mass., consulting firm for the digital imaging industry, of people who own both camera phones and digital cameras, 30% said they see a day when their phone will become their primary camera, but only 7% said that day had arrived. Almost 60% said owning a camera phone hasn't changed how they use their digital camera.

Tommy Williams, a Microsoft programmanager and recreational photographer who lives in Bellevue, Wash., says he never uses his cellphone camera, preferring instead his Canon digital SLR. 'When I'm making photos I'm very contemplative -- the last thing I want is for it to start ringing at me,' he says.

Digital cameras still have the upper hand in terms of image quality, at least for now. Most have at least 12 megapixels (between eight and 14 on Panasonic Lumix models), large light sensors and lenses, optical zoom, and sophisticated software for processing photos.

Cellphones are quickly catching up: The iPhone 4 has a five-megapixel camera, while Sony Ericsson's Satio, which was designed with photography in mind, has 12.1 megapixels and many other features typically reserved for digital cameras.

Satio is aimed at consumers who want advanced photography capability in a cellphone, says Steve Walker, Sony Ericsson's head of product marketing, but that's not necessarily to the exclusion of other devices. 'I'm not sure many people are saying it has to be one device and it has to do everything,' he says.

Digital cameras may not be far behind on the social-networking front. Panasonic, for its part, has made social media part of its new campaign, highlighting the Lumix cameras' high-definition videos and ability to upload to YouTube. Starting this year, all of Eastman Kodak Co.'s digital cameras will allow users to designate photos directly on the camera to upload automatically to social networking sites once the camera is plugged in to a computer, the company says.

And more than 1,000 models from 16 manufacturers are now compatible with $49.99-plus memory cards from Eye-Fi Inc. that allow them to wirelessly upload photos to the Internet, the company says. 'The camera guys have to be able to provide the same level of convenience as the cellphone guys,' says Jef Holove, Eye-Fi's chief executive officer.

Even so, InfoTrends analyst Carrie Sylvester says camera makers don't need to go on the defensive, as she thinks Panasonic is doing with its campaign. 'Yes, there are going to be camera phones that give cameras a run for their money, but they can coexist,' she says. 'We're finding that people do want both.'

Isaac Arnsdorf

• convince [kən´vins] vt.使确信；使认识错误 (初中英语单词)
• substitute [´sʌbstitju:t] n.代理人 v.代替，取代 (初中英语单词)
• ability [ə´biliti] n.(办事)能力；才干 (初中英语单词)
• competition [,kɔmpi´tiʃən] n.比赛；竞争 (初中英语单词)
• research [ri´sə:tʃ] n.&vi.调查；探究；研究 (初中英语单词)
• advanced [əd´vɑ:nst] a.先进的；高级的 (初中英语单词)
• survey [´sə:vei] vt.&n.俯瞰；审视；测量 (初中英语单词)
• primary [´praiməri] a.主要的 n.居首位的 (初中英语单词)
• program [´prəugræm] n.说明v.为...安排节目 (初中英语单词)
• manager [´mænidʒə] n.经理；管理人；干事 (初中英语单词)
• device [di´vais] n.装置；器具；策略 (初中英语单词)
• computer [kəm´pju:tə] n.计算机；电子计算器 (初中英语单词)
• executive [ig´zekjutiv] a.行政的 n.行政官 (初中英语单词)
• campaign [kæm´pein] n.战役；行动 vi.从军 (高中英语单词)
• billion [´biljən] num.万亿 (高中英语单词)
• consumer [kən´sju:mə] n.消费者；用户 (高中英语单词)
• disclose [dis´kləuz] vt.揭露；透露；泄露 (高中英语单词)
• finding [´faindiŋ] n.发现物；判断；结果 (高中英语单词)
• necessarily [´nesisərili] ad.必定，必然地 (高中英语单词)
• saying [´seiŋ, ´sei-iŋ] n.言语；言论；格言 (高中英语单词)
• convenience [kən´vi:niəns] n.方便；适当的机会 (高中英语单词)
• subway [´sʌbwei] n.地铁；地道 (英语四级单词)
• chicago [ʃi´kɑ:gəu] n.芝加哥 (英语四级单词)
• designate [´dezignit, -neit] vt.标明；任命 (英语四级单词)
• automatically [ɔ:tə´mætikli] ad.自动地；无意识地 (英语四级单词)
• defensive [di´fensiv] a.&n.防御(的) (英语四级单词)
• facial [´feiʃəl] a.面部的，脸部的 (英语六级单词)
• slogan [´sləugən] n.标语；口号 (英语六级单词)
• exclusion [ik´sklu:ʒən] n.拒绝；逐出，排除 (英语六级单词)