Progress In Digital Cameras

Digital Camera
Photo Source: Stock.xching

Yes, it is amazing. There is a technology out there that allows for incredible photos and these photos can magnify things so much, that a person on foot would need a magnifying glass to accomplish the same task. The photos are called GigaPan pictures. If these photos are taken close up, you can zoom in on the object as if you were looking at it under a microscope. The photography is done in such a way that the photos can contain over 5 gigapixels. Yes you heard me correctly. The State university in Kansas has taken about 300 of these photos. One person commented after seeing these photos, "You can see things over a wide area at really good detail. You can actually ... make out small little minerals that you'd need a [magnifying glass] to see". Will scientists find other uses for this technology? I am not a scientist, but I was thinking that maybe if we took our very best photo of a distant planet and then used this technique on it, we might be able to get even better close ups, but I don't know if there is enough data in the original photo to accomplish this? The following video shows an example of this using Mars photos. You have to be patient, the video is a little amateurish. By the way, the GigaPan device is supposed to be available about now, or very soon, at the relatively cheap price of a few hundred dollars.

As time is going by, digital cameras are taking the same route as computers. They are getting more powerful and yet they are also getting cheaper. Why is this? The answer is pretty easy to see, the old film cameras were machines, the new cameras are computers with lenses. Every time there is an advancement in a computer chip, it also may advance a camera. Touch screen advances are now being incorporated into the camera screens to eliminate the button farm on the back of the devices. Some cameras can tag a photo with the exact location from a GPS receiver and the cameras can also be used as navigation devices.

One of the most amazing things that I have come across in digital cameras is face recognition. Some cameras will focus in on faces before taking a photo. Little square boxes appear around faces on the screen so that you can see what is happening. The amount of these focus points differs depending on the camera. Digital cameras, by and large, are not quite as capable of taking photographs that are as sharp as film cameras, but this is quickly changing and for most of us, the quality of a digital photo is fine. In a year or two the digital camera may surpass the film cameras in this area.

When I bought my first digital camera it was a long time ago. The camera was an Agfa. It was quite a plain device and was only 1 megapixel. I don't remember, but I think it didn't have a screen and it used double A batteries, which it went through very fast. Still I was fascinated by the camera. The camera broke in its second year. Something snapped off the battery cover and you had to tape the cover on every time you replaced those batteries. This did not contribute to a very professional look when you were taking photos. I kept getting better and better cameras until I purchased the current 12 megapixel Canon camera that I own.

Another great advance in cameras is the ability to take night time shots without using a flash. An example of a truly great low light situation camera is the Sony DSC-WX1, which is capable of taking clear night shots in minimal light situations I have seen this camera advertised on Amazon.com for under $300. While it is a great night time camera, it is not the best in other areas, although many people that use it, like it very much. The camera is 10 Megabytes and was giver 4.5 stars by its users.

We can not over look the fact that better and better digital cameras are being built into many devices, including cell phones and PDAs. Could it be possible that everyone will carry a camera on them where ever they go in the future. There could be cameras built into jewelry as the camera shrinks, or even into clothing. Quite frankly, it is hard to see where all this is going to end. We already have cameras built into some cars and they serve as rear view and side view devices. It is about time that those old fashioned mirrors with their limited views hit the dust. Just getting rid of the blind spot in our side view mirrors makes it all worth while.

The mating of two different types of photography is taking place at a furious pace. When I got my first digital camera it took still photos. By the time I got my second, it was able to take short videos. Today I can take a video with my still camera that is so good that I am hesitant to carry my video camera, except for long sessions of video taping. With all the advances in digital photography came complexity. Some cameras have a high learning curve. To take the best pictures you have to use the manual setting and then pick the situation you are shooting, from all sorts of different scenarios that come up on the screen when you are in the correct mode. The apature has to be set correctly and so has the speed, among other things. For most of us, the automatic setting is good enough.

What is going to happen to digital photography in the future? Scientists are thinking about creating 3D photos rater than the 2D ones in use today. This is without 3D glasses being needed. Adobe had been working on a process that can expand the depth of field of an ordinary photo. Hasselblad is working on a camera that will correct all your settings to get the best photo. The photo is then processed by software that is said to make it perfect. Then there is high-dynamic range photography. That is where many photos are taken of the same area and different exposure levels are used and a composite image is created. This creates an incredible image that will allow you to see all the subtle tones of an object. A somewhat similar process is Motion DSP. This relies on similar frames of a video being used to create a composite photo.

There are many other new processes being used and envisioned, but make no mistake, the camera of tomorrow will be far superior to the camera of today.