the up volume button controls the shutter when in the camera app.

And that's not dedicated, so you have to launch the app any time you want to take a picture, so you miss photo opportunities doing that. Dedicated is like Windows Phone where pressing the button takes a picture, regardless of the app you're in.

I'd call this an antifeature. Generally, I want to decide when to use the camera. (Also, I have children.)

I guess he misspoke. Regardless of which app you're in or even if the screen is switched off, pressing the camera button for a couple of seconds opens the camera app. Whether you take a picture or video is up to you. It's much faster than fiddling around for the power button and then tap the camera button on screen.

right, for all those times i want to take a picture without being able to tell what it is going to be of.

Well you do know what it is, you just want a pic before it passes. Otherwise, it's just easier and more efficient.

And since iOS 5 there's a shortcut that takes you to the camera directly from the lock screen.

Which has me turning my phone off, and then unlocking to the camera because it's quicker than swiping 3-4 times to get to my camera app.

or you could hit the home button. surely camera app is important enough to make it onto page 1?

The volume up button doubles as a hardware camera button.

In android, at least on my phone, dedicated camera buttons will take you to the camera application whenever you press them. It is quite nice, honestly I never bothered figuring out how to take a picture with it otherwise. In iOS I assume the UI is sufficiently less dreadful that this is not as necessary.

Not that this is a real solution, but you can lock and swipe up. Two motions instead of one.

No, I mean't like Windows Phone, the camera button takes a picture automatically regardless of the app your in.

There is no phone which has everything you need. Everyone has different aspects of things. Maybe the iPhone doesn't fit you. Why don't you buy an WP7/8 if it has those features?

I don't understand what this discussing is helping. It doesn't have one and I'm pretty sure it will never have a dedicated button. I can understand why Apple is not going the way others are going. This is a phone not a dedicated camera, so why would you mix these things? I know the camera these days are pretty good and a lot of people are using only their phones to point-and-shot but I think it would and it is (on different phones) feels wrong to have dedicated button for camera.

This is all my opinion. Others do different views but this mine. I respect every other view.