The Future of Photography

In Gavin’s most recent podcast, he briefly touched on the future of photography.  It had me wondering…

In an earlier post, Gavin gave us the news of the new Better Light, large-format digital scanning camera.  At a price tag of $23,000 and a sensor that can accommodate 416 megapixels, it brings the term MEGA-pixel into a new light.  The specs on this camera are truly unbelievable and had me thinking about the future of digital photography. 

It’s a future that can be both intimidating and exciting.

First, a quick look at the past.  It’s a lot of fun to read about the early digital cameras, when manufacturers bragged about “a whopping 4.0 megapixels”.  Digital cameras have grown exponentially in a short period of time and there is room to grow even more. 

ANTI-SHAKE

In many ways, the future is here NOW and it begins with anti-shake technology.  It was originally introduced for lenses alone, but it’s now being incorporated into body styles.  I am still amazed at how this technology works and the more – the better!  There will always be a need for a tripod, but there is no doubt that anti-shake technology will be a staple in future camera bodies.  Personally, I hope manufacturers don’t abandon the technology on lenses, in favor of bodies, as it’s nice to use an anti-shake lens on an older model camera.

DIRECT EMAIL

Nikon recently introduced a feature that will get refined and perfected over the next few years. 

The new COOLPIX S7c offers wireless LAN support, and when used with Nikon’s COOLPIX CONNECT service, you can take a picture and wirelessly email it to any email address.  This technology is very exciting.  Soon, the air will be filled with invisible images floating from cameras to email servers. 

What a great back-up idea! 

Imagine coming home from a wedding to all your images properly stored on your PC in its proper folder (or in Gavin’s case, three separate hard drives!)  The sky is the limit for photojournalists, as they will have no problem meeting deadlines.  In fact, in today’s digital news environment (all the news fit to post NOW!), it’s almost a necessity. 

PREVIEW MONITORS

For the longest time, preview monitors have been reserved for point and shoot models.  While shooting through the lens is the preferred method, there are advantages for a preview monitor and several DSLR’s will be offering preview monitors – Canon being the first. 

You can expect many more to follow suit.  This makes sense from a marketing standpoint.  I will never forget handing my brand new DSLR to my wife.  She stared at the back and asked, “where do I look?”  I told her to look through the viewfinder and she asked, “I thought it was digital?” 

While most of us professionals cringe at the idea of using a preview monitor, there are just too many “everyday” photographers who are accustomed to the monitors, so many that it’s becoming hard for manufacturers to ignore them.

SIZE

Now to what matters most in life – size!  I found this article where Nathan Myhrvold of the New York Times makes an excellent point: 

“You’ll own a 16- or even a 25-megapixel point-and-shoot in a few years, and it will not stop there. By some estimates, your eyes have an effective resolution of more than 500 megapixels. If you can see it, why shouldn’t a camera record it? “

Wow – we can debate how much is too much at another time!

What would you like to see?  I know it’s physically impossible, but how awesome would it be to carry around a 70-200 2.8 COLLAPSABLE lens?  Or how fantastic would it be to fire a shot and push one button for automatic HDR processing? 

The future is now and it’s changing everyday.

Todd Rossnagel
www.keepyourphotos.com