Automation ...

[Andrea Taurisano]

There are video cameras like the GoPro Hero cameras that basically already do this. Making art with these will be a matter of editing, redacting, to pick out the important stuff. Post-visualisation rather than Pre-visualisation.

I second this, adding that, in fact, it is now also possible to previsualize when using GoPro Hero (either by attaching a dedicated display to the back of the camera or using iPhone as a wifi "finder").

I recently tested the GoPro Hero, mounted on the top of my M6 (with manual shutter release but no pre-visualization), for street photography in Tokyo. Here is a short account with pictures, if of any interest.

PS: The GoPro Hero 3 has a 12 Mpx sensor, which even with some moderate cropping leaves you with usable files. The Autographer not so, yet, if I get it right.

 

[Sejanus.Aelianus]

At some stage in this discussion, there will be an assertion that you are not a real photographer unless you chop down the tree from which to make your camera body, kill the cow to make the bellows for the camera and obtain the gelatine for your colloidal suspension, find the charcoal to heat the fire that will allow you to make the glass for your lens and plates...

Oh d**n - I just did!

 

[emasterphoto]

.. I was asking about the photographers role however, this section being the philosophy of photography rather its technology ... like; at what point did technology make the craft redundant? ... sort of thing

But I was speaking precisely about the photographer's role. Consider: Your role as a photographer so far has been to question the merit of the new camera based on its unconventional approach. Another person, however, is guaranteed to be looking at the same camera with an eye to using it and experimenting with it to see what it could bring to the table artistically. For you, the point was reached the moment you became primarily concerned about the implications of the technology on the craft, and thus you ceased to be an artisan (in this instance at least).

This isn't a knock on you either, just an illustration. Essentially, the point one stops being an artisan is the moment they stop thinking artistically. Gear and technology have nothing to do with it because anything can applied in an artistic endeavor if someone's willing to use it as such. That's the role of a photographer as an artisan, to use any available photographic technology to make art. Technology never makes the craft redundant, it just changes what it entails.