NWA-PCUG Newsletter
Article, December 2004
Digital Photography:
What’s New For Christmas This Year
by Bill Moeller, Vice President
wmoeller@arkansasusa.com
(click to email author)
The digital photography scene continues to change at warp speed this Christmas season, as you probably expected. Last year’s models, or new models with last year’s features are available this year at much lower prices; new models are available with more features at last year’s prices; and some brand new features are being introduced, usually in the high-end models.
So, what’s new? Here’s a partial list:
Higher pixel count: This year’s crop of everyday digital cameras aimed at the average consumer is running 3 to 5 megapixels, with some models offering 7 or so. Higher pixel counts are available for more serious photographers, but at a price.
Lower Prices: This season’s local ads offer discounts, rebates, bundled extras, and just plain low prices in some cases. At least one name brand point-and-shoot model with minimal features, but boasting 3.2 megapixels, is being advertised locally for less than $100.00. Last year’s models, or new models with the same features as last year’s models, are selling for half of last year’s prices.
Camera Phones: (Are they serious?) These might be an evolutionary dead end, or they might take hold and live for a long time. Most produce very low pixel count images intended for over the air transmission, but some recent models boast 1.2 or more Megapixels.
Direct Camera-Printer Connection: This is an innovation that might take hold, particularly in the lower price ranges. For those who want to point and shoot, then print without getting into the whole image correction thing, this could be the answer to a maiden’s prayers. Some big names are offering this capability, and a standard allowing cross-brand coupling has been developed.
Printing Kiosks: For those who like to print their own, but don’t want to buy a printer, do-it-yourself kiosks are showing up in mainstream locations like Walmart and Colliers.
More Scene Modes: Each scene mode automatically selects a good, but fixed, combination of settings for the various controls which must be set for best effect in a given situation. For the naive user, this means direct access to the settings a skilled photographer might recommend for that situation; for the sophisticated user, it means faster access to those same settings. Customizable mode settings are beginning to appear on some high-end models.
Larger LCDs: This year’s LCDs are bigger and brighter, in most cases, making them easier to use, and useful in more brightly lighted situations.
Higher Capacity Memory Cards: For any given level of image compression, more megapixels means larger image files, which means fewer pictures on a card. Memory card capacity is keeping pace with increases in pixel count, without big price increases. Sony’s 256 meg memory stick sells today for the same eighty bucks I paid for my 128 meg sticks eighteen months ago. (Get out your slide rules, guys, that’s Moore’s law right on the button!)
Larger Sensors: As pixel count increases, so does pixel density unless the total chip size is increased. Greater density brings its own problems, like increased noise, and light bouncing around all over the place. The solution to this is larger chips, which cost more money. This is one of the reasons why some high-end cameras, costing thousands of dollars, have lower pixel count than some consumer models costing hundreds of dollars. They deliver better images because, while important, pixel count isn’t everything.
EVF: This year, electronic viewfinders have greater resolution and higher refresh rates, at least partially eliminating two big objections to their use. EVFs have the big advantage of showing in the viewfinder exactly what is on the sensor chip, and of being able to simultaneously display exposure and other data. EVFs are generally available only on higher-end consumer-oriented cameras.
Interchangeable Lenses: Most consumer-oriented digital cameras have one non-interchangeable zoom lens fixed in place. When you buy the camera, you are committing to the focal length, aperture, and other characteristics of that one lens. 35mm photographers have long enjoyed the incredible flexibility that one camera body and a collection of lenses affords. That flexibility is now being extended to digital camera owners through the availability of digital camera bodies designed either to accept lenses they now own, or lenses specially designed for digital imaging. There is also the new “4/3” standard, introduced as the digital challenger to the 35mm film format.
Specially Designed Lenses: Because of the physical differences between film and a digital sensor array, the sensor array is much more sensitive to the angle at which light strikes it. It also reflects more light back toward the lens’ rear element than does film. The first of these differences can result in more “vignetting” with a digital image. The second can result in more flare, and washed-out images. These problems are being addressed with new lenses “optimized” for digital photography.
Image Stabilization: When the zoom lens is used to “zoom in” on a subject, any camera motion at all translates into reduced image sharpness. Even the most steady and skilled professional photographers cheat to get around this problem--they use tripods, or clamp themselves against the nearest wall, or use very fast lenses with fast shutter speeds. Image stabilization solves this problem within the lens, or within the camera, depending on the design. Unfortunately, this is an expensive feature, and available only on high-end cameras at this time.
New Sensor Designs: With more sensors being packed onto the chips, some manufacturers are exploring different ways of using the sensors. Last year, the Foveon chip featured redesigned sensors which recorded data for each primary color, thus eliminating the need for color interpolation. This year, Sony introduced a new color, emerald, mixed in with the usual red, green, and blue. Another manufacturer is introducing a chip which, like the human eye, has some receptors designed for bright light, and others designed for dim light. In this case, the total pixel count is allocated to increase the brightness range of the image rather than just the pixel count of the final image.
RAW Format: Until recently, one of the differences between digital and film photography was that exposed film contained a latent image to be developed in the darkroom, at which point all kinds of control could be exercised over the final image, whereas the digital image was “developed” in the camera by the camera’s software, with no control possible at that stage by the photographer. RAW, now becoming a standard feature on higher end cameras, changes that. In effect, the electron charge on the individual sensors is directly recorded in the image file, without interpretation. That interpretation, or “development,” is done later, in the digital darkroom.
Dust Shakeoff: Interchangeable lenses open the camera body to all kinds of contamination while the lens is being swapped. Inevitably, dust gets in and settles on the sensor array. Because manual cleaning can be hazardous to the chip’s health, one manufacturer has introduced an electronic “vibrator” on its camera bodies to solve this problem by shaking off the dust each time the camera is turned on.
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As interesting and exciting as these developments are, it is even more interesting and exciting to observe the new phase that we are entering in the life cycle of digital photography. Consider that most, if not all, of the old names in the photo business are getting into digital products in a big way. This includes Kodak, Leica, and Hasselblad. Consider that Leica and Epson have each introduced “retro models” with digital sensors but without all of the automatic features we have come to associate with digital cameras. These are cameras for serious photographers only. Consider that this year, for the first time, major photo retailers serving professional and serious amateur photographers, are listing digital camera prices in their national ads. Consider that this year, for the first time, these prices are beginning to reflect traditional photo industry discounting practices. Consider that old-line photo magazines such as Shutterbug and Popular Photography have changed their names as well as their editorial content to reflect a new and abiding interest in digital photography. And, finally, consider that the debate today over digital vs.film photography is very subdued and doesn’t approach the intensity of the debate during the last century about whether photography qualified as an art. These are the real developments, in my opinion, of the year 2004.
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