Is this the most exciting time to be into digital photography or what?

1. Microsoft releases Vista - Yeah, it's full of bugs right now, but after it matures and stabilizes and more software is written specifically for it, it could be the best OS to date. You definately can't deny the sleek UI.

2. Adobe releases Lightroom v1.0 - The ultimate workflow solution for photographers? You betcha. I think this will revolutionize digital photography in the same way PhotoShop has done for digital imaging. There's just so much more room for growth potential with this software.

3. Adobe set to release CS3 - What more needs to be said?

4. Canon annouces the 1D MKIII, 16-35L II and 580ex II - The 1D MKIII is everything the action shooter asked for and more. It was already tough to improve on near perfection (1D2 and 1D2N), but this just revolutionized the action, sports, PJ, wildlife genre and took this to an entirely new level.

5. Intel - faster multicore processors. More powerful, yet uses less power. Can have multiple RAM hungry apps running simutaneously.

It's 3 years until the year 2010. And I believe we are on the cutting edge, and witnessing a whole new evolution in digital imaging.

Let the games begin!!

**** yeah!

A few thousand dollars would help tho...

Unless there's a windfall from somewhere, I'll have to watch from the sidelines

It will be a fun ride for those who can afford it.
You have to pay to play.

There is always new and exciting technology coming out...and because I like to play devil's adovate:

1. Tried vista. Didn't work. Went back to XP. This is coming from a very tech oriented person. My games got horrible frame-rates, there are numorous driver issues and overall stability is not improved over older versions. Sure it looks slick, but it also uses 500mb of RAM when its idle. Maybe in 2 years vista will not suck. (Or when DX10 graphics cards come down in price)

2. Meh, used it, its ok, I'll download it, but no way I'd pay for it.

3. I'm not sure how much they can improve on CS2, but I'll def. be downloading this soft the day it comes out

4. If I were rich...

5. Multi-processing has been around for a long time. I've been running dual CPU's since 2000. Too bad the software industry STILL refuses to move in the direction of multi-threaded applications even though it has been the obvious solution to speed problems for the last 10 years.

Thats not to say I don't agree with you that its an exciting time digital photography. Almost anyone can now afford a great camera that takes killer pics. I think that the industry can only move in positive directions.

Ya' should of been around in 1998 when I paid $900.00 for a Kodak 240, with a full 1Mp image file. The biggest CF card was 64Mb.

Jon, The Elder wrote in post #2756998
Ya' should of been around in 1998 when I paid $900.00 for a Kodak 240, with a full 1Mp image file. The biggest CF card was 64Mb.

...............why? what would a 1mp pic get you?

Jon, The Elder wrote in post #2756998
Ya' should of been around in 1998 when I paid $900.00 for a Kodak 240, with a full 1Mp image file. The biggest CF card was 64Mb.

i have similar memories... i was in my last year of college in '98 and the school had bought a sony digital camera that was also 1 MP but it didn't use cf cards... it wrote to a floppy disk.

oh yeah... it was close to $1000 too. crazy.

Yes it is exciting and an awesome time to have money . That said I will agree with software manufacturers' lack of support of multithreaded applications. I am starting to see more of it in Open Source apps, GNU/Linux stuff especially, but not near as much as i would like to see in windows or linux.

Jason77 wrote in post #2760408
i have similar memories... i was in my last year of college in '98 and the school had bought a sony digital camera that was also 1 MP but it didn't use cf cards... it wrote to a floppy disk.

Ah yes...the ol' Sony Mavica. I had one of those little guys too. Floppy disk storage; 480 X 640 resolution; rechargeable battery that also worked on my Sony video cam....life was good.
...until better days came along.

Just to expand a little on #4: the megapixel race is over, and now comes the new features in the digital market. Up till now it was about getting more MP into the camera. The 1DIII has features that could not even be imagined 5 years ago: fine autofocus adjustment, dust removal and detection, and ISO 6400 to name a few. And the increased image quality that these new cameras can produce is straining even the best lenses - a la the upgraded EF 16-35 F/2.8L.

I agree that this is an interesting time, but I think it will be even more interesting in the next 2-3 years.

Have Fun,

aside from the vista comments (wife has it on her laptop, nothing about it makes me want to upgrade...I can skin xp to look like it if I want) I agree with the original post.

dougxt wrote in post #2763466
aside from the vista comments (wife has it on her laptop, nothing about it makes me want to upgrade...I can skin xp to look like it if I want) I agree with the original post.

Hmmm, I'm still running W2K on my production servers at work. In April/May the servers are slated for W2K3. Best not to rush into new software from MS.