Digital cameras of the future

[ksagomonyants]

Hey guys! It's Friday and I thought we should walk away from all these serious discussions about Canon Once in a while we all probably think about how our life and technology will change in the future. How do you guys see the DSLRs of the future, let's say in 20-30 years from now? Which features these cameras can have? Do you think DSLRs will eventually be replaced completely with something else?

Also I'd like to ask people who were engaged in photography 20-30 years ago. What were your thoughts about future SLRs at that time? Have you dreamed about having some specific features in these cameras? Was anything eventually implemented into what we have now?

Nothing serious, please just share your thoughts and dreams about it I hope my English makes sense

 

[RGF]

- focusing after the shot - different focus by area of the picture
- ISO will not have any meaning (for the most part)
- lighter lens but not feather light
- some of the usual stuff, wifi downloading, Photoshop CS 22 builtin to the camera

 

[Loswr]

There will be no more dSLRs. No more point and shoots, either. Everywhere in the world, outdoors and inside, will be covered by a combination of security and satellite video cameras with sufficient resolution and sensitivity for any photographic need, all instantly downloadable, and the iWatch will have ample computing power for any and all creative post-processing, plus holographic projection display capability.

 

[verysimplejason]

Through the eyes camera using the brain and eyes as processor and sensor. Zoom lenses are available as easy to use auto corrective eyeglasses. ISO, DR and shutter speed and AF performance are without equal. The camera downloads the pictures directly from the brain to a storage unit.

 

[digital paradise]

Well there are two paths - Blade Runner or Minority Report.

Blade Runner. No mirrors, a bit smaller both for bodies and lenses. Lenses much lighter with more zoom and improved distortion. Dealers of old DSLRs' on every third corner.

Minority Report. High end imagining glasses that do both stills and video with all types of 3D special effects. Zoom from 5 to 5000mm with no distortion. Your buddy on the other side of the world can see the image or video you took instantly via heads up display within his/her glasses. Same thing for contact lenses. Brain activated image capture. Also holographic imaging systems by competitors so people still have something to argue about on forums.

Back in the day. I hated either wasting a roll of film by shooting of the images at nothing for a few images. Or trying to rewind film back so the tip did not slip back into the canister cause then I would have to dig it out. All just to change ISO or film type which included B&W. I used to think I wish they came up with a better way to do this Never though of a digital sensor back then. Also even though I liked the look of grain but I wished I could make a clean 8 by 10 with 400 ISO film.

 

[EdB]

I'll answer your second question first. The 35mm film cameras I had were capable of auto shooting but I never used it. Focus, shutter speed and aperture were used on manual 100% of the time (auto focus wasn't even a glimmer in anyone's eye) and the camera did everything I needed it to do. The only thing that I used as auto was film advance and 5 fps was plenty. I never had dreams about "features" since they weren't really necessary. I dreamed about the lenses I didn't have and capturing great images.

The digital age has given us some wonderful things but I have yet to see a print that rivals an 8x10 contact print on platinum paper for shear beauty.

30 years from now? Who knows, 60 fps and pick an image out of that? Doesn't really matter, I still use manual the vast majority of the time except for auto focus, my eyes aren't what they used to be.

*edit*

Back in the day. I hated either wasting a roll of film by shooting of the images at nothing for a few images. Or trying to rewind film back so the tip did not slip back into the canister cause then I would have to dig it out.

The motor drive on the F1 had the ability to rewind the film and leave the tongue out. That did come in handy at times.

 

[Don Haines]

Canon releases the T37i. 18 megapixels, iso 100-25600, 9 focus points, but with a newly upgraded logo

 

[RS2021]

Canon releases the T37i. 18 megapixels, iso 100-25600, 9 focus points, but with a newly upgraded logo

How true.
I laughed, sardonically...better than crying

 

[RS2021]

There will be no more dSLRs. No more point and shoots, either. Everywhere in the world, outdoors and inside, will be covered by a combination of security and satellite video cameras with sufficient resolution and sensitivity for any photographic need, all instantly downloadable, and the iWatch will have ample computing power for any and all creative post-processing, plus holographic projection display capability.

Not that far fetched ...continuous high-speed live feed with cameras saturating streets and perhaps indoors...reminds me of the movie "Brazil".

Even just thumbing through flickr, I can't help but think sometimes, have all the pictures that could ever be taken, have nearly been taken in some form already? Of food in different angles, of bikes, of cars, of airplanes, of people...flowers...churches...men in distant parts of the world wearin' grass skirts...dogs and cats and exhotic animals... is there anything at all I can do that is new and has not been done in some guise already by someone.

It is exciting and depressing at the same time.

 

[digital paradise]

I'll answer your second question first. The 35mm film cameras I had were capable of auto shooting but I never used it. Focus, shutter speed and aperture were used on manual 100% of the time (auto focus wasn't even a glimmer in anyone's eye) and the camera did everything I needed it to do. The only thing that I used as auto was film advance and 5 fps was plenty. I never had dreams about "features" since they weren't really necessary. I dreamed about the lenses I didn't have and capturing great images.

The digital age has given us some wonderful things but I have yet to see a print that rivals an 8x10 contact print on platinum paper for shear beauty.

30 years from now? Who knows, 60 fps and pick an image out of that? Doesn't really matter, I still use manual the vast majority of the time except for auto focus, my eyes aren't what they used to be.

*edit*

Back in the day. I hated either wasting a roll of film by shooting of the images at nothing for a few images. Or trying to rewind film back so the tip did not slip back into the canister cause then I would have to dig it out.

The motor drive on the F1 had the ability to rewind the film and leave the tongue out. That did come in handy at times.

As yes I remember that. I did not own any that had that wonderful feature.

 

[Drum]

No we'll still be waiting for the 7d mk2, and wondering will it match the latest Nikon with 24 giga-pixels, Sony will still be #3 out of the big 3

 

[javidog]

Eventually photography as we know it now will pretty much vanish but in the next 20-30 years photography will become wearable, touch sensitive, connected and perhaps even voice activated. Future generations will find holding the camera to your eye and adjusting settings with your fingers to be an enormous waste of time. We are already seeing this with phones etc...

Wearable cameras have the potential to shoot what are you are looking at immediately and how you want it to look like without that hesitation of positioning a camera, choosing ISO/Shutter and pressing.

I think the GoPro and Google glasses point towards this direction. Eventually, innovative companies will produce fully automated (always connected) cameras, but the user will always seek out customization and creativity and this is where less manual controls and more intuitive controls will revolutionize how we will capture images.

 

[TrumpetPower!]

- focusing after the shot - different focus by area of the picture

You're presumably thinking of the Lytro.

And I would tend to agree. Right now, it's a gimmick, a toy...but, at some point, it's going to be a game-changer -- a truly radical revolution.

I also think we'll see the lines between cameras for stills and cameras for video blur to a very great extent. When you do photography for stills, you'll hold the button down for however long you might hold it down for a burst shot today, and you'll then pick either the single frame or some sort of composite of frames. That'll particularly be the case when video gets into the thousand-frames-per-second range, because shutter speed will become irrelevant. So will mechanical image stabilization; you (or, rather, software) will simply pick the one frame out of the thousand shot that second with the least motion. Or, more likely, something will do an intelligent analysis of the thousand frames to reconstruct an even higher-resolution and cleaner single composite frame. You'd also have the possibility for recreating the effects of a slow shutter (water turns to fog) or even a second-curtain flash effect with motion blur trailing a sharp subject. That latter will quickly become a cliche for sports photography.

And I think that we'll also tend to see stills with motion. You've seen the idea, I'm sure, in lots of movies, including Harry Potter. Instead of a single frozen print, it'll be a one- or two-second loop. The subject's head turns towards the camera and smiles; end of loop, followed by the next frame in the slideshow. The flowers and leaves continuously flutter in the breeze. The batter swings and hits -- presumably in slow motion. The same wave keeps crashing over and over again against the surf. That sort of thing. These will be mounted in picture frames just like any other photograph you might see today mounted in a picture frame, except they'll be some sort of digital display, maybe backlit, maybe not. Again, we already have these sorts of things, but, like the Lytro, they tend to be gimmicky. That will change.

We're also not that far away from the whole-wall-as-a-TV of Fahrenheit 451. When that day comes, expect it to be on all the time, even when people aren't watching a program; it'll instead have a "screen saver" and will be another primary medium for display of photography.

Cheers,

b&

 

[Ewinter]

I'm excited to see what the future will bring, but there will always be a niche for people who are experts in it: no matter what the gear. My profession is safe

 

[RGF]

- focusing after the shot - different focus by area of the picture

You're presumably thinking of the Lytro.

And I would tend to agree. Right now, it's a gimmick, a toy...but, at some point, it's going to be a game-changer -- a truly radical revolution.

I also think we'll see the lines between cameras for stills and cameras for video blur to a very great extent. When you do photography for stills, you'll hold the button down for however long you might hold it down for a burst shot today, and you'll then pick either the single frame or some sort of composite of frames. That'll particularly be the case when video gets into the thousand-frames-per-second range, because shutter speed will become irrelevant. So will mechanical image stabilization; you (or, rather, software) will simply pick the one frame out of the thousand shot that second with the least motion. Or, more likely, something will do an intelligent analysis of the thousand frames to reconstruct an even higher-resolution and cleaner single composite frame. You'd also have the possibility for recreating the effects of a slow shutter (water turns to fog) or even a second-curtain flash effect with motion blur trailing a sharp subject. That latter will quickly become a cliche for sports photography.

And I think that we'll also tend to see stills with motion. You've seen the idea, I'm sure, in lots of movies, including Harry Potter. Instead of a single frozen print, it'll be a one- or two-second loop. The subject's head turns towards the camera and smiles; end of loop, followed by the next frame in the slideshow. The flowers and leaves continuously flutter in the breeze. The batter swings and hits -- presumably in slow motion. The same wave keeps crashing over and over again against the surf. That sort of thing. These will be mounted in picture frames just like any other photograph you might see today mounted in a picture frame, except they'll be some sort of digital display, maybe backlit, maybe not. Again, we already have these sorts of things, but, like the Lytro, they tend to be gimmicky. That will change.

We're also not that far away from the whole-wall-as-a-TV of Fahrenheit 451. When that day comes, expect it to be on all the time, even when people aren't watching a program; it'll instead have a "screen saver" and will be another primary medium for display of photography.

Cheers,

b&

Years ago (mid 1980's I believe) I saw a technologically advanced 3D system that allowed you to wonder through a 3 image (monochrome only, but still amazing). The system worked by simulating moving a TV screen forward and backward and at each position a portion of the picture was drawn. The system was a bit more complicated - but this is the basic theory. Since you would see each portion of the image differently based upon where you were standing/seated, you got the true sense of 3D.

20-30 years from now, dynamic 3D will be the norm - wall size TVs that look real.

 

[wayno]

Canon releases the T37i. 18 megapixels, iso 100-25600, 9 focus points, but with a newly upgraded logo

Haha - surprised it took this long in the thread for this one...

 

[zim]

There will be no personal photography it will be illegal, everything will be copy write
…. and on that depressing note good night! :'(