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What to Fight Over After Megapixels?
NewScientist has a quick look at where the digital image crowd is headed now that the megapixel wars are drawing to a close. Looks like an emphasis on low-light performance and color accuracy in addition to fun software tools are the new hotness. "For years, consumers have been sold digital cameras largely on the basis of one number - the megapixels crammed onto its image sensor. But recently an industry bigwig admitted that squeezing in ever more resolution has become meaningless. Akira Watanabe, head of Olympus' SLR planning department, said that 12 megapixels is plenty for most photography purposes and that his company will henceforth be focusing on improving color accuracy and low-light performance."
"12 megapixels should be enough for anybody." - Akira Watanabe
Reviewing just the first hour of video games.
god damnit, I'm tired of having to risk getting arrested just to get a blurry up-skirt shot, I want to be able to have my camera see through anything!
Monstar L
It's for the ladies
"3. Optical SVG - the ultimate! Forget pixels. Have cameras sketch accurate SVGs of a scene with the ability to show or print at any resolution."
It's a fascinating idea. But where are you going to get enough imps to do the drawing these days?
The cameras need built in AIs that talk to you.
"Beep! This image is framed poorly."
"Beep! The subject requires better lighting."
"Beep! The subject needs clothes. Seriously. This is not porn material."
"Beep! The current angle will not sufficiently capture the dark and depressive mood for which you were aiming. I have wirelessly ordered you some Zoloft."
"Beep! Wow, that's just... really... may I suggest a different hobby?"
"Beep! This camera will now self destruct to save your family, friends and the world in general from your mind numbingly boring vacation photography. You have 30 seconds to reach minimum safe distance."
What to Fight Over After Megapixels?
Simple. Gigapixels.
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Startup time to first shot. Expect to see lots of fudged numbers there, where they'll do start up to LCD screen on, or to first shot in "super crappy mode", or fast first shot, but massive reload times.
Battery life. It'll be marketed as "Get X thousand shots from a single battery" (in super crappy mode writing to a propritary format on a low-energy drain SD card using nucluar powered batteries that the end user does not have access to)
UI. Roll out the bells and whistles that let you wipe out Granny's redeye right on the preview screen. Omit the fifteen button presses it takes and the five minutes of camera-cpu processing time. I'm sure the words "warm" and "natural" will be used somewhere.
Interconnectivity. Snap a shot, have it instantly wifi 2.0'd to you faceblog picturebucket. 3G service fee extra.
Thinness. Our camera is thinner than our competitor. Oh, snap! (With snap being the sound your camera makes after parts warranty expires)
UTF-8: There and Back Again
12 megapixels is plenty for most photography purposes and
Kind of reminds me of this quote "No one will need more than 637 kb of memory for a personal computer," though not as extreme.
More pixels = the option for bigger pictures. So if I want that life-size picture of the naked chick I zoomed into from my dormroom then i should be able....hmm wait, nothing to see here move along.
I do not support "The Man". I also do not support your irrational stupidity
Now you are confusing dynamic range with magnification.