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Advances in technology and the images we are taking now?
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Are my DIGITAL images going to become outdated as technology changes/improves?
I’m not talking about anytime soon or anything but it struck me last night. In the long term as digital camera technology improves (as it is a fairly new medium) are my digital image files going to become outdated by improvements in technologies?
Over time, as computers get faster and bigger is camera technology going to get faster and bigger too therefore rendering my images antiquated? i.e. too small, wrong format, who knows?
I know it’s not really an argument at the moment – but I just want to know what people think about jpeg photo stds and potential new technologies (maybe not any time soon – but a good bit in the future – 10 or 20 years +) and what that will mean for he images we are taking now?
I think everything will be heading towards the “gigapixel” size in terms of resolution.
You will look back on your 3meg jpgs (8meg RAW) files and think to yourself, how the
hell did I get a clean print!! :)With this in mind I always shoot RAW so that I am maintaining the maximum detail
possible so that in the future I will be happy with my negatives.There is no real way of knowing what format will dominate in the future. JPG’s wont
be needed for their compression, in the future due to increasing internet speeds but
it wont be going anywhere for a long time yet.I can also see future versions of lightroom, photoshop and other image editing programs
going in the touch screen direction. Imagine rotating, cropping, burning, dodging, sorting and
rearranging all your photos with your fingers with a screen that can compute multiple touches.As a new technology is introduced there will be programs to convert your old format images
to the new format.shiny wrote:
I can also see future versions of lightroom, photoshop and other image editing programs
going in the touch screen direction.The future is now! :wink:
I could see touchscreen helping with organising and rotating but I think it would be more of a gimmick than an actual help with working with images. I work with touchscreens all the time, using a finger/stylus is not nearly as precise as using a mouse and sustained use can be tiring on the arm compared to the rest your wrist gets using a mouse. Unless you get a monitor embedded into the desk surface, I couldn’t imagine spending hours with my arm extended doing miniscule adjustments.
Re. futureproofing your photos, there’s a limit to the resolution of the human eye, once you can get A3 prints at 300dpi then there’s no great advantage for the average consumer in having greater resolution. For pro’s etc, yes you may need to print large sizes but unless standing with your nose 12″ away from billboards becomes a pastime craze, your into the law of diminishing returns.
Getting digital photos printed and stored in proper conditions is the only way to guarantee they’ll be still be easily accessible to you in the medium term, though I’m certain there will be conversion utilities and providers out there! I think it’s more important to concern ourselves with making images that someone would bother wanting to see in 50 years time of course! Who wants 60 Terabytes of boring pics? :)
Thorsten wrote:
shiny wrote:
I can also see future versions of lightroom, photoshop and other image editing programs
going in the touch screen direction.The future is now! :wink:
That is the dogs bollocks. 8)
Aimee wrote:
Are my DIGITAL images going to become outdated as technology changes/improves?
I’m not talking about anytime soon or anything but it struck me last night. In the long term as digital camera technology improves (as it is a fairly new medium) are my digital image files going to become outdated by improvements in technologies?
Over time, as computers get faster and bigger is camera technology going to get faster and bigger too therefore rendering my images antiquated? i.e. too small, wrong format, who knows?
I know it’s not really an argument at the moment – but I just want to know what people think about jpeg photo stds and potential new technologies (maybe not any time soon – but a good bit in the future – 10 or 20 years +) and what that will mean for he images we are taking now?
There is a valid concern here, which hopefully the camera makers/computer makers/software designers etc will keep their eye on the ball.
For example at the moment if someone is cleaning out an old attic and comes across a long forgotten box of old B&W negatives or even “glass plates” these can usually be printed and copied even if they are better part of 100 years old. Such finds sometimes come up with great archives of photographs useful social history.
It is amazing that negatives and b&w prints survive so long sometimes in great condition.One wonders if you are today shooting with a Canon – in Raw format and storing files that have say a .CRW extension or a .CR2 extension (Canon Raw File)
and you archive your files on a CD or DVD. If they are found by your grandchildren or great children in your attic in 2078* will there be a PC/Computer to read 70 year old DVD/CD’s
* will the recording surface of the DVD/CD survive and still retain the data on it
* will you be able to download from Canon / Adobe website a Raw Converter that will convert the raw data into file format usable at the timeI wouldn’t be sure! I hope that future generations of software designers maintain backwards compatibility with the old formats…
In relation to current wishes in new technology, I would really like better quality pixels rather than more! For example pixels or sensors with higher dynamic range and with less noise at up to 3200 ASA
Its a scary topic you raised Aimee.
One thing I do know. . . we are being drip fed technology!
With the advent of maybe a Canon 5D mark II for example coming it will probably be a 16mp
unit or so up from the 12.8 unit, no great increase when clearly the ability to produce far greater
sensors is there.Big business has us wired in and they are controlling the game.
It was the same with computers in the 90’s every 6 months a faster processor or
bigger hard drives were being released.Look at the technology they are fitting into the size of a cigarette lighter !
We just have to roll with it, but the previous points made do cause a bit of conscern or frustration!
Thanks Aimee ! :lol:
Kiddin’
A
emjay wrote:
I hope that future generations of software designers maintain backwards compatibility with the old formats…
Well, so far, so good, as far as Canon are concerned. Their raw converter, DPP, supports all of their digital cameras going back as far as the EOS D2000. It was at this stage that Canon begun its own journey rather than continuing its alliance with Kodak. Although a few more Kodak/Canon cameras were subsequently released, by then Canon had clearly decided it was going to go it alone. I’m not sure if Nikon have built in the same backward compatibility into their software. But I think a bigger concern must be the backward compatibility of Operating Systems, without which, backward compatibility at the application level is rather redundant and useless!
aoluain wrote:
With the advent of maybe a Canon 5D mark II for example coming it will probably be a 16mp
unit or so up from the 12.8 unit, no great increase when clearly the ability to produce far greater
sensors is there.Well, the big three medium format back manufacturers have all just recently announced big jumps in sensors – Hasselblad announced a 50MP back, Phase One announced a whopping 60MP back and Leaf just recently released a 56MP system. It’s going to be a very short time indeed before we see a 100MP back announced!
Thorsten wrote:
aoluain wrote:
With the advent of maybe a Canon 5D mark II for example coming it will probably be a 16mp
unit or so up from the 12.8 unit, no great increase when clearly the ability to produce far greater
sensors is there.Well, the big three medium format back manufacturers have all just recently announced big jumps in sensors – Hasselblad announced a 50MP back, Phase One announced a whopping 60MP back and Leaf just recently released a 56MP system. It’s going to be a very short time indeed before we see a 100MP back announced!
Yea I Know, but take the 450D at 12.2 why not make it 15? start upscaling the range to keep in line with the big guns as you mentioned above? it kind of pi55e5 me off.
aoluain wrote:
Yea I Know, but take the 450D at 12.2 why not make it 15? start upscaling the range to keep in line with the big guns as you mentioned above? it kind of pi55e5 me off.
It’s not something I’d be in favour of to be honest. Higher pixel count means a higher pixel density which in turn means smaller pixels, which brings with it a whole raft of other problems. Besides, we’re already at a stage where sensor resolution it out performing lens resolution, so until lens technology improves, there is little or no benefit in squeezing more pixels on to an APS-C sized sensor.
Yea i suppose you are right Thorsten,
but where are Canon going with their EOS-1Ds Mark III 21mp?
And the other mentioned manufacturers at 50 mp etc?
What you say does make sense regarding the lenses.
aoluain wrote:
Yea i suppose you are right Thorsten,
but where are Canon going with their EOS-1Ds Mark III 21mp?
And the other mentioned manufacturers at 50 mp etc?
What you say does make sense regarding the lenses.
The pixel density on the sensor seems to be a limiting factor at the moment, the closer they are together, the more leaking and noise you can get. The microlenses over the pixels on the sensor will improve as new coatings and technologies come on board.
The other sensors Thor is talking about are physically larger and the pixels are more spread out which means less noise and more dynamic range.
The quality of the picture is being worked on by the manufacturers, we now have:
14 bit conversions giving smoother tonal transitions and potentially more dynamic range (when the noise output reduces).
Image stabilisation systems and the ease and quality of modern zoom lenses means that the absoloute image quality from lenses has improved (in terms of usability) and made photographers free of their tripods more often. Nanocoating of lenses has massively reduced flare and ghosting.
What a great time to be alive and taking photos :)
Si
Thorsten wrote:
shiny wrote:
I can also see future versions of lightroom, photoshop and other image editing programs
going in the touch screen direction.The future is now! :wink:
I think microsoft has stepped it up even more throsten :wink:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rP5y7yp06n0
the video isn’t directed at image editing/design but it could do it. Its currently available to casinos/cafes/big businesses from microsoft afaik and eventually it will be cheap enough for mortals like us to use too :-)The concern about format is very valid. As an example of this, the first widely used Kodak DSLRs (DCS460?) AFAIK is no longer supported by any of the major raw converters. The open source dcraw library supports it I think, so I guess anything built on this will allow the files be opened. I’d guess there are probably a fair number of images taken with this camera still around. I suppose the thing to do if a format is in danger of becoming obsolete is to convert it to DNG for archiving
being able to read media is another problem. 3-1/2″ floppy drives are hard to come by these days, and if you’ve got something on a 5-1/4″, well…. (ignoring the fact that the media itself will probably be unreadable after a number of years). This is probably less of a problem as hard drives are so cheap these days it’s straightforward to copy the whole lot onto more recent models.
John
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