Re: What is APS?

[P3D Larry Berlin <lberlin@xxxxxxxxx>]

> Gregory J. Wageman comments:
>You're making the mistake of assuming that the curve remains constant.
>Not true.  The CCD imager is a transducer, not a microprocessor, where
>new piplining techniques, higher clock speeds, etc., allow a 2x speed
>improvement every few years.
..........
>The CCD imager evolved rapidly from hundreds of pixels to the current
>six megapixels, but such order-of-magnitude jumps are no longer
>possible.  They've reached the knee in the curve, dictated by
>the physical properties of the materials involved.
...........

So rather than give up on the technology, start using it smarter. There's a
lot of room for application improvement that will build on whatever maximum
the physical properties dictate. If you postulate the inclusion of a
dedicated processor in each camera doing a super enhancement job for each
image, with data from more than one input device, you should be able to
achieve resolution well above the level of 35mm film. Where physics leaves
off with the imager, software engineering picks up and stretches the raw
limits currently being looked at. 

It's in the combinations of various technologies that we can exceed what
looks today like limits. We need to keep reminding ourselves that the limits
we see so solidly are an illusion due to having not pursued the thoughts
around the corner. The prime benefit of seeing those limits is to learn to
see the way beyond, and it is there, somewhere. The ideal digital camera may
not look anything like todays typical camera, digital or otherwise. It
should be able to output 3D as easily as 2D.

>Certain costs are fixed, or rising: labor, taxes, land, buildings,
>materials, hazardous waste disposal.  These things are political, not
>technological.

Another reason to use current levels of technolgy in smarter ways.

>... A $20,000 digital camera that
>isn't quite as good as 35mm film holds absolutely no interest for me.
>If it were $2000 I might consider it; if it were $200 I'd buy it now.
>Your $200 digital camera today is no more than a toy.

That *toy* may be a toy compared to a film camera, but it does it's job far
easier and less hassle than a film camera. It depends on your intended
usage. Today there is a demand for rapid image accessability at resolutions
matching the typical computer screen. If it's used on the Internet, there's
additional compression. Today's digital camera isn't the ideal yet but it
does it's job in a non-toy fashion. If you use a film camera for these
applications, you are wasting most of what you get or go through to get your
images, unless you are including a film archive of your images for other
uses. Then the film camera is still better.

>What I meant was that if the general public is satisifed with the current
>level of digital image capture (as you seem to be), there won't be much,
>if any, market pressure to produce the order-of-magnitude improvements
>you are so confident are inevitable, and that I believe are required,
>before digital photography will be an acceptable replacement for film.

As always, what the industry puts forward and puts effort into hyping, will
get some level of use. The public may not know whether or not to be
satisfied with current technology. If something better comes out, they will
be dissatisfied with current stuff. Inventors, engineers, professional
photographers, and many others are well aware of limitations in the digital
camera currently being sold. Newer and better is already on it's way.
Something that is orders of magnitudes better would catch enough publicity
to definitely have a chance.

The marketers themselves want something new and better to sell next year.
The problem is that the push for new and better often sidesteps features and
possibilities that would be real progress for relatively insignificant
cosmetic changes. Educating ourselves and others as to what real features
are needed (include 3D here!!!) helps to maintain a demand for the best
possible.

Larry Berlin

Email: lberlin@xxxxxxxxx
http://www.sonic.net/~lberlin/


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