This year we see the rise of new ‘smaller yet bigger’ camera; the Olympus E-P1/P2, Panasonic GF-1, Canon G11 and the immaculately resurrected compion Canon PowerShot S90. It shares one common major improvement: better low-light capability.
Manufacturers have taken bold steps recognizing that racing on the megapixel race won’t win their customers trust; by addressing the heart of the matter, they are creating a brighter future for the imaging industry (which means both literally and technically).
We will see newer manufacturing technology that will give us even higher performing sensors, CCDs/CMOSes with higher ISO speed (better low-light capability), lower power consumption and friendlier to our environment. It will give us an entirely different platform to take pictures, simply there will be no relevance to compare it with film anymore. Down the line of the food chain, higher-capacity & faster memory cards (think 64gb instead of 16) will slowly populate the market, with newer file allocation technology phasing out the never-reliable FAT32.
We shall also see newer shutter technology that will cope with the faster sensor—imagine shooting open wide (f/2.8 with ISO 6400 in broad daylight—the shutter that we have today won’t go faster than 8000th of a second (1/8000), this will mean a radically new approach to the shutter mechanism will undergo some major changes.
Beyond the technology, photography is both an art & lifestyle, therefore fashion will come into the picture, old trends will reappear (retro finishing, film look, LO-FI like images) and what was the future look will become classics. Computer images will never be the same again (read about Avatar here).
Popular Photography asked a group of photographers in 1944 about what the future might hold for and one comment stood out from the crowd:
The war will bring photography out of its adolescence. In maturity, it will be an exciting, profitable and expanding profession.
Today’s the last day of 2009, tomorrow will be the first of 2010, happy new year, Joy and Peace for all beings!
(like the deer, this will also make a good iPhone wallpaper, go and grab it!)
Read:
The Future of Photography as predicted in 1944 via aphotostudent.com, kottke.org