Future technology

[Jerry Skrocki]

I think the real answer here is the almighty dollar. We clearly have the ability and vision to develop hardware and software that would revolutionize the photographic industry. What inhibits this development is marketability. The electronics industry caters to the market that makes the most profit like video games or the cell phone industry.

[Dennis_Vied]

Could be that the software industry is showing signs of becoming a more mature, accepted industry than it once was, with fewer "Gee Whiz" moments. Maybe that's the reason for the reduced "excitement" factor.

Talented software engineers are more likely to break off and form their own startups rather than fight the inertia of an established software house, I suspect. Except, of course, for Adobe, who seem to be able to retain talent and prosper, and actually produce a solid useful piece of software.

These are the impressions of an outsider, of course.

I think it also depends on management philosophy, as do so many things. Take for instance Nikon's "encryption" of RAW data awhile back. This kind of thinking can be detrimental to a productive software development environment, I would think. I use that only as an example of how management philosophy might sabotage product development.

Before Microsoft became a mature house, we used to see "good, old fashioned solid engineering" which resulted in good software without the bloated code. But, speaking from personal experience, of course, maturity has resulted in "bloat" for me. Maybe it's just a fact of life.

[Ronald Garrett]

60 FPS at 6 mp? Done. 1200 FPS in movie mode? Done. Who diddit? Why that's be Casio in their new high end point and shoot. Throw in 12X zoom for good measure. Image quality? Dunno.

How many of you would like to take a pic while looking at a real time histogram on a 2.7" display. How many of you would like to flip one switch, move your head back, use the 2.7" lcd to frame, push the button halfway, then take the shot? No delay at all? Folding lcd so it can be used on low shots and not get you on your knees? 14 mp of clean, noise free shots? All in a D40 size body? Done. Who diddit? Why that'd be Sony. Sony also has a nice feature whereby one can see the effect of the "in camera" stabilization on a small meter displayed in the lcd, neat. Image quality? superb!

Enough to make one's head swim?

[curtd]

What I would like most is to be able to use lenses wide open or stopped down. The current sweet spot of f8 to 11 is limiting. So better lens design is my biggest wish.

I LOVE my 21 megapixel 1ds3, I need the image detail and the ease of operation of this type of body.

I would not envision ever using any cf card bigger than 4 or 8 gigs, too many images on one card scares me. I use the best cards and change them every 150 shots. Granted, i don't shoot high volume stuff, so that's just me.