At a certain point, the output would match or exceed film and aside from professionals, normal users would not need to print anything approching those sizes. So will camera companies eventually adopt an "industry standard" (e.g. lets say 16megapixels is >= 35mm film resolution) or will we see 120megapixel cameras in the next 10 years?
2006-06-16 17:39:17 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous in Consumer Electronics ➔ Cameras
Actually, the relative resolution for film is approximately 20 megapixels? This was determined by both Kodak and HP.
But for 4x6 we reached the plateau ALONG time ago. The reality is 2-3 megapixel camera produces excellent 4x6 prints. As a camera specialist, I made a 4x6 print for an image taken at 10 megapixel, and one at 2 megapixel. Of the hundreds of people that I have asked (many of them being customers)... none of them could tell the difference. A 5 megapixel camera can already make HUGE 20 x 30 prints.
With that in mind, where are cameras headed? Well for the point and shoot, low budget cameras. They're slow... Lag time is an issue with digital cameras. Yeah... if you spend $300+ for a camera the lag time is going to be excellent. However most consumers buy cameras in a much lower price bracket. Those camera are getting faster and faster. Even the top of the line has room for improvement.
Also detail oriented marketing. Film camera can't do things those digital cameras can do. White Balancing? Digital Zoom? Video Capture? These additional features on digital cameras (at the moment... in my oppinion) are far from decent. Not only is there room for improvement, there is a HUGE gap for improvement.
And finally improvement in the fundamentals. Smaller, more rugged design. Longer usage time through improvements in battery design, and improvements in censor (CCD, CMOS), flash, and LCD viewfinder design.
To get back to your question (sorry about that), we may have already reached a plateau in resolution. Having anything more than 6 megapixels is turning out to be absolutely needless for the average consumer. However the american people are so driven by the power of marketing, that they're going to actually believe that owning that 300 megapixel camera makes them superior.
In reality... they will just be the dumb fool that got pulled into the jackel of marketing.
2006-06-16 23:27:59 · answer #1 · answered by Henry L 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I think the technological evolution will slow down significantly for the size of pictures. Indeed, 12 MP is a huge amount of information for a single picture. I think that future evolutions will rather work on ISO, anti-blur and other features.
Digital cameras will see a significant evolution in the size of the video files it can do. Nowadays, 640x480 is a good size for a film done by a digital camera, but far from good enough to watch on TV - it rather looks like an old VHS tape....
So we should see a top for picture size, but a big evolution on video output size... so we will continue buying new cameras for at least the next 10-15 years!!
Advantage is that we no longer would need a separate video cam.
Storage will increase for digital cameras so people can "film" a nice number of high-quality vidéos on their machine...
So... imagining 100 GB storage for your Sony or Olympus or whatever is very probable...
The possibility of having each film considered as one FILE is the best. You can then save it on your PC in different folders, instead of having to "download" a long digital tape first and then cut it in parts......
2006-06-17 05:03:55 · answer #2 · answered by king76 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It will keep on going - digital SLR cameras already equal or better the resolution of their film counterparts. Digital medium format cameras are getting to that point slowly, too.
But as with computers and megahertz - they will continue to advance for some years to come - well beyond the point that most consumers require.
2006-06-16 22:11:49 · answer #3 · answered by OMG, I ♥ PONIES!!1 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
So far I have seen a 4B pixel camera, It is amazing.
Theoretically, the information in digital photo is much less than the analog photo film.
2006-06-16 18:06:24 · answer #4 · answered by usa_dreamer 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I would think so. Digital has been taken gigantic leaps in technology in the last 3-4 years and I don't see it stopping anytime soon.
2006-06-17 00:40:51 · answer #5 · answered by v_stroke_28 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Rather than seeing higher megapixeled cameras in time to come, i suppose cameras will start to come in more functionalities.
2006-06-16 17:50:57 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋