What do you think will be the next great leap in photography technology?

gjl711 wrote in post #11674175
It seems like interim step towards something new but not what i would consider a great leap forward. The mirror is there only to provide AF. You are sacrificing %33 of the cameras ability to gather light just so you can have AF in video mode. I applaud Sony for the removal of the shutter and viewfinder, but the mirror and separate AF detector have to go as well. Once they figure out how to use the image sensor for both image capture and AF, then you've taken a step forward.

Agreed... should be fun when that comes around.

we've got face detection, how about eye detection for effortlessly nailing focus on those portraits with the really fast, wide open lenses

built in wi-fi for:
instant upload of images to your pc or your cloud storage when in range,
or wireless tethered shooting with your smartphone or tablet pc controlling,
or locating stolen equipment?

built in gps for geocoding all images,

in-camera watermarking

set focus points by tracking the shooter's eye movement

workerdrone wrote in post #11682706
we've got face detection, how about eye detection for effortlessly nailing focus on those portraits with the really fast, wide open lenses

That's why someone needs to come up with a fast way to use the image sensor to focus. As long as we stay married to today's technology where there are three separate light paths, one for image capture, a different one for auto focus, and a third one for viewfinder display, there are just too many sources of error.

gjl711 wrote in post #11674175
You are sacrificing %33 of the cameras ability to gather light just so you can have AF in video mode. I applaud Sony for the removal of the shutter and viewfinder, but the mirror and separate AF detector have to go as well. Once they figure out how to use the image sensor for both image capture and AF, then you've taken a step forward.

They got rid of the moving mirror thingy and the optical viewfinder (as it's still using an electronic viewfinder), but there's still a conventional shutter in there...

I agree that really fast on-sensor phase detection AF would be nice though. I've heard of it quite recently, but I can't remember which company was working on it. Maybe Sony is/was - could be the reason why they've been working on their A700 replacement for so long. I mean, by the time that camera will be announced, the A700 will be like four years old.

A really high quality digital camera with the shape of a Film Roll that fits in that old Manual analog Cameras and takes pictures by the sense of the light coming from the analog camera as Film does...

Victor Ruiz wrote in post #12390521
A really high quality digital camera with the shape of a Film Roll that fits in that old Manual analog Cameras and takes pictures by the sense of the light coming from the analog camera as Film does...

That would be amazingly awesome. 35mm and 120 format, would buy it no doubt.
I reckon the next big thing will be as has been said here, more dynamic range.
Or as the trend shows right now, the average amount of megapixels in a camera will jump from 14-16 to 40. With the more pro cameras having 100-200.

Built-in GPS does exist in some cameras but it would be nice to see it more often.

Victor Ruiz wrote in post #12390521
A really high quality digital camera with the shape of a Film Roll that fits in that old Manual analog Cameras and takes pictures by the sense of the light coming from the analog camera as Film does...

We have that today. Checkout the hasselbladcameras. You can use either a film back or a digital back. Because of the sensor size though, it doesn't come cheap.

Purple Puppy wrote in post #9991707
Yes, processor clock speed has hit a wall, but processors are still getting exponentially faster despite not increasing in clock speed. (I'm sure everyone knows that clock speed does not correlate well with processing power when comparing across different architectures)

With new architectures, processors can execute many times the number of instructions within a single clock cycle.

Things will always get exponentially better, except that at different points in time, things will get exponentially better using different methods. As such, I think that we have NOT hit a wall with dynamic range.

Yeah, clock speeds are going back up again though . Many sandy bridge chips have no problems hitting 5ghz on a nice air cooler even. 5ghz+ is easy on water, and it wasn't 2 years ago, 4ghz was the norm. I bet Ivy Bridge will have no problems hittin 5 ^_^---but I could be wrong.

ImSwedish wrote in post #12391071
That's not really what he meant though. A normal looking film roll that you can put into any camera that takes that format. So you can use your old lovely film camera with digital "film" instead of having to buy a Hasselblad and a digital back to it.

Found this by the way, http://www.wipo.int/pc​tdb/en/wo.jsp?WO=20061​29331

It seems like it might actually become a reality. How nice.

As far as I know, there is already a company that will sell them within a short while!
God forbid I forgot what the name was, but I'm sure you'll come across!

I keep hoping someone comes out with talent and inspiration pills. I really don't think the photo equipment technology today (which is amazing) is holding anyone back.

tkbslc wrote in post #12391782
I keep hoping someone comes out with talent and inspiration pills

Have you tried prozac

Cup holders....wait, that was Detroit.

I think there's a lot of the technology already out there. GPS labeling, face recognition, auto tagging, auto posting, etc. It's just got to get quicker, easier, cheaper....which it will.

GrendelKhan wrote in post #12392209
Cup holders....wait, that was Detroit.

I think there's a lot of the technology already out there. GPS labeling, face recognition, auto tagging, auto posting, etc. It's just got to get quicker, easier, cheaper....which it will.

None of that is really photography, though, just indexing tools.

tkbslc wrote in post #12392575
None of that is really photography, though, just indexing tools.

Okay, how about predictive focusing. I catch my son playing soccer and the focus follows him as he runs through a crowd. Or I tag a car, bird, dog in a position where differentiation is easy then follow them through a group or into a background where image differentiation is harder (a black car from a grass background into heavy traffic). That's just processing power - something cameras should be able to handle - if not now then soon.