Perhaps the digital fad is about to go bust. I've been expecting it.
I wouldn't call digital a fad, really. It's just a market that's much more advertising-driven than film was, I think.
I actually work for Wolf/Ritz Camera as a salesman, so I see a lot of cameras come and go. And of course, the consistent thing is that the megapixel race is still running strong, and now the optical zoom race is starting to heat up, with Olympus releasing a 20x optical zoom camera this year (and I'm sure the majority of us all use primes, and the idea of a lens with such a zoom just makes us shudder).
Like all easy-to-use technology, it's just fallen into the hands of the wrong people and their desires for convenience over quality has steered the market in a bad direction. Bad direction for photographers, anyway. Everybody wants more megapixels and more zoom, and everybody wanted more sensitivity until it was clear to everyone that ISO 3200 on a tiny, overcrowded sensor is a TERRIBLE idea.
It's just getting harder and harder to find a good digital camera. Because if your camera doesn't read as top-of-the-line on paper, it won't sell. So, at the sacrifice of quality, you, as the manufacturer, need to cram it full of features.
If you want an actually good digital camera, you just have to dig deep in your pockets and buy a Nikon D300 or a Canon 40D or 5D. The prosumer and professional SLR market is something the layperson's plea for "bigger numbers" can't touch.
I'm sure the digital age of photography isn't going anywhere. It's just going to undergo many, many reformations and renaissances.
