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Digital Convergence
Most striking for me is the degree to which previously separate technologies are merging, with software empowering hardware and vice versa, So you have cellphones that double as computers and take great pictures too. Or a Sony D-SLR that, with the help of a small add-on unit, can tell you exactly where in the world you made a particular photo. Or a Fuji point-and-shoot that uses pattern recognition software to ensure that Aunt Bea’s eyes are open. Or a Pentax D-SLR that lets you develop your RAW files as JPEGs inside the camera itself. Or multi-tasking photo programs like Aperture and Lightroom that integrate tasks which once required several separate applications—and help photographers manage their ballooning collections of digital photos—created by ever more powerful digital cameras.
Old is New Again and Vice Versa
Despite the virtual disappearance of film on the consumer level, professionals are still using (and manufacturers producing) analog photography products and/or traditional cameras, sometimes in the old fashioned way and other times in conjunction with digital. Witness companies like Leica, Sinar, and Hasselblad, which make both film and digital equipment, or cameras that can shoot both digital and film. Large and medium format is very much being used commercially, whether with film or digital backs, and there’s been a renaissance in 35mm-size rangefinder cameras, both film-based and now digital.
The Competitive Spirit
Although the sheer number of new products at Photokina can make you head spin, it’s comforting to know that many of them do similar things in similar ways. Part of this is simply form following function, or products filling similar niches. But it’s also because of competition—with each manufacturer striving to match or surpass the other. So, with D-SLRs (the category I spent most of my time covering), you see certain attributes appearing, then proliferating, in different cameras. Like image stabilization or automatic dust removal. But the most interesting thing is trying to guess what happens when competitors are faced, not with some rivalry over existing technology, but limits based on the fundamental laws of physics. Like how many pixels can fit on a sensor and still make good looking pictures.
Ponder that, because it’s my signoff until next show.
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