peterm1
Veteran
I was just thinking.
Imagine for a moment that it is in the mid 1990's and the digital craze (because that is what it still was as only hard core imaging nerds invested heavily in new digital cameras) is just getting under way. For example I recall visiting Singapore around that time (I forget the exact year but probbaly around 1995) and seeing the latest digital marvel. I think it had around an 800,000 pixel sensor (which was also tiny in size) and probably shot at 100 ISO. Its images were bad with next to no dynamic range and blown highlights all over the place. And it cost well over a thousand bucks. Accustomed to using a Leica M3 I failed to see the value proposition for digital camera and put off buying one till the Nikon D70s came along almost a decade later.
I recall a learned article at the time opining that to equate to the resolution of 35mm film a digital sensor would need about 24 megapixels of resolution. Well now we have it - in consumer cameras. And top end full frame cameras now compete with medium format ones at least in the megapixel stakes.
And not only that, we are routinely doing something I never dreamed of at a time when I was happy to shoot with Ilford XP2 at 400 ISO (usually I shot it at 200 ISO for the finer grain that gave). We are able to shoot at 3200 ISO and upwards - way upwards. Digital cameras can do everything a film camera could do and much much more including video (although I confess I never think to use it, so ingrained are my imaging habits) and then upload the product wirelessly to the internet or a digital device.
And for a week away on holidays instead of buy a dozen rolls of film each with a crummy 24-36 exposures we can buy one or more SD cards and go on holidays for a week or perhaps a month and still come home with plenty of storage space for more images. Which we do not need to pay to have developed or printed.
Not only that, the lenses we have access to, are technical marvels (a comment which also applies to cameras of course - don't even get me started on image stabilization!). I was thinking the other day about all the advances that should make a photographer's life a dream (although we still grumble). Computer aided design of lenses means we can design optics we could only dream of a few years ago. And computer aided manufacturing and robotics means we can build them cheaper and more reliably than ever before. And those new manufacturing technologies mean we can build lenses that have aspherics integrated into cheap consumer lenses - impossible less than 2 decades ago due to cost and complexity. New materials too - modern composites may be unsexy but they allow cheaper equipment with tolerances that were difficult to achieve yesterday. And of course new lens coatings that perform marvels in terms of reducing flare etc. Also who would have imagined a few years back the preponderance of ultra wide angle lenses now available (admittedly mainly for sub full frame sensors) - more often at bizarrely fast speeds of around f1 or less. Or for that matter lens adapters that turn manual focus lenses into autofocus ones or which increase the field of view to emulate full frame camera views on sub full frame sensors - while increasing the apparent f stop and improving image resolution. I would have said this was voodoo stuff till it happened.
New lenses are flooding the market right now - often out of China at bargain basement prices as seen recently with the several brands of 50mm f1.1 lenses most of which get surprisingly good reviews and sell for only a paltry few hundred dollars. In some ways it is reminiscent of the 1960s with all those smaller photographic and optic companies churning out cameras, lenses and accessories. Many of them I have not really heard of or only associated with accessories - 7Artisans, Yongnuo, Samyang etc. All of this so we can throw out the equipment every few years to buy new stuff (well manufacturers have to keep the ball rolling after all) :^)
BTW I should not neglect to mention eBay and the like. Who would have considered in 1995 how this kind of technology would change the world and drive demand? I now routinely buy stuff from China, Japan, Canada, the USA and can get access to stuff that I just could not find in Australia or if I had, would have had to pay double, triple or more. Love it or hate it, if eBay did not exist someone would have to invent it - it is that fundamental to the market these days even if many still buy their main photo equipment through bricks and mortar stores.
I am not up on where this will all go - but I expect in the foreseeable future there will continued change and more innovation even if most of that ends up in devices like digital phone cameras - or flyable drones. But that's another story.
Any thoughts?
Imagine for a moment that it is in the mid 1990's and the digital craze (because that is what it still was as only hard core imaging nerds invested heavily in new digital cameras) is just getting under way. For example I recall visiting Singapore around that time (I forget the exact year but probbaly around 1995) and seeing the latest digital marvel. I think it had around an 800,000 pixel sensor (which was also tiny in size) and probably shot at 100 ISO. Its images were bad with next to no dynamic range and blown highlights all over the place. And it cost well over a thousand bucks. Accustomed to using a Leica M3 I failed to see the value proposition for digital camera and put off buying one till the Nikon D70s came along almost a decade later.
I recall a learned article at the time opining that to equate to the resolution of 35mm film a digital sensor would need about 24 megapixels of resolution. Well now we have it - in consumer cameras. And top end full frame cameras now compete with medium format ones at least in the megapixel stakes.
And not only that, we are routinely doing something I never dreamed of at a time when I was happy to shoot with Ilford XP2 at 400 ISO (usually I shot it at 200 ISO for the finer grain that gave). We are able to shoot at 3200 ISO and upwards - way upwards. Digital cameras can do everything a film camera could do and much much more including video (although I confess I never think to use it, so ingrained are my imaging habits) and then upload the product wirelessly to the internet or a digital device.
And for a week away on holidays instead of buy a dozen rolls of film each with a crummy 24-36 exposures we can buy one or more SD cards and go on holidays for a week or perhaps a month and still come home with plenty of storage space for more images. Which we do not need to pay to have developed or printed.
Not only that, the lenses we have access to, are technical marvels (a comment which also applies to cameras of course - don't even get me started on image stabilization!). I was thinking the other day about all the advances that should make a photographer's life a dream (although we still grumble). Computer aided design of lenses means we can design optics we could only dream of a few years ago. And computer aided manufacturing and robotics means we can build them cheaper and more reliably than ever before. And those new manufacturing technologies mean we can build lenses that have aspherics integrated into cheap consumer lenses - impossible less than 2 decades ago due to cost and complexity. New materials too - modern composites may be unsexy but they allow cheaper equipment with tolerances that were difficult to achieve yesterday. And of course new lens coatings that perform marvels in terms of reducing flare etc. Also who would have imagined a few years back the preponderance of ultra wide angle lenses now available (admittedly mainly for sub full frame sensors) - more often at bizarrely fast speeds of around f1 or less. Or for that matter lens adapters that turn manual focus lenses into autofocus ones or which increase the field of view to emulate full frame camera views on sub full frame sensors - while increasing the apparent f stop and improving image resolution. I would have said this was voodoo stuff till it happened.
New lenses are flooding the market right now - often out of China at bargain basement prices as seen recently with the several brands of 50mm f1.1 lenses most of which get surprisingly good reviews and sell for only a paltry few hundred dollars. In some ways it is reminiscent of the 1960s with all those smaller photographic and optic companies churning out cameras, lenses and accessories. Many of them I have not really heard of or only associated with accessories - 7Artisans, Yongnuo, Samyang etc. All of this so we can throw out the equipment every few years to buy new stuff (well manufacturers have to keep the ball rolling after all) :^)
BTW I should not neglect to mention eBay and the like. Who would have considered in 1995 how this kind of technology would change the world and drive demand? I now routinely buy stuff from China, Japan, Canada, the USA and can get access to stuff that I just could not find in Australia or if I had, would have had to pay double, triple or more. Love it or hate it, if eBay did not exist someone would have to invent it - it is that fundamental to the market these days even if many still buy their main photo equipment through bricks and mortar stores.
I am not up on where this will all go - but I expect in the foreseeable future there will continued change and more innovation even if most of that ends up in devices like digital phone cameras - or flyable drones. But that's another story.
Any thoughts?
