DigitalPro Shooter Volume 2, Issue 12, September 11th, 2003

Welcome to DPS 2-12: The Future of Cameras. With digital camera resolutions quickly surpassing film and our eyes it is more and more tempting to think that price, size and perhaps speed will become the only thing differentiating cameras. It is easy to forget just how much is possible with a little creativity and investment from the camera manufacturers. At Pro Shooters, we're hoping that now that the resolution wars are nearing their end more camera vendors will use their R&D dollars to innovate in other ways. To this end we've provided our Top 10 innovations we'd like to see in a camera in the next two years:

10. Built-in and always on GPS. What a great way to automatically categorize images, keep a record of where you've been, and even map your experiences. Those of us who've taken the time to build cables and hook our GPS units up to our D1X/H know how valuable it can be to have a permanent and easily mapped record of where their images were captured. With GPS prices plummeting, this feature could start to be built in.

9. Painless image transfer: With the introduction of the Nikon D2H & optional WT-1 wireless transmitter, we're getting closer to a painless system for image transfer. There are still plenty of complicating factors, but as cards get larger and wireless technologies get better, I look forward to the day where my images have downloaded themselves by the time I get back to the room after a day of shooting.

8. High Dynamic Range: Fuji and Pixim have both introduced technologies to greatly extend the dynamic range of image capture devices. At the low end of the market this will help make inexpensive digital cameras as flexible as the multi-speed disposable film cameras on the market. At the high-end of the market, it will allow digital captures to capture the full range available to large format negative film photographers. And it will allow all of us who shoot digital to breath more easily as we won't have to worry as much about blowing out highlights or losing shadow detail from the linear and therefore unforgiving digital sensors we now use.

7. Size and Weight: Frankly I find some cameras, like the Coolpix 5000, almost too small for their controls. But there's no question I'd like to have my D1H and D1X be as light and handy to carry as the D100 and Digital Rebel. The first step is probably to make the high end cameras modular and put the fancy extras like GPS and wireless in a handgrip. Then over time all the functionality could be provided in a smaller and more convenient form factor.

6. Raw File Format Standard: Until there is a published file format for Raw files that software vendors can all work with, Raw image processing will remain a hodge-podge of fiefdoms. Sure, each vendor has some secret sauce that needs protecting as far as how they render information, but frankly all the formats out there start with a basic 12-bit encoding of three primary image sensor 'colors' and a bunch of 'hints' from the camera as to how the photographer had set the controls. There isn't anything proprietary about that. On a more fundamental level, the image belongs to the photographer, not the camera company, so as a photographer I'd like to have the flexibility to work with my images the way I want to, and not the way the camera company decides is acceptable.

5. Meta-data System: Hand in hand with the need to standardize the Raw file format is the even greater need to address the antiquated and creaky meta data systems of EXIF and IPTC. Both have the virtue of being more or less standard, but neither was designed for the needs of modern workflows. Various efforts such as the Digital Imaging Group have tried to come up with standards, but there hasn't been sufficient support from the major industry players to get any real progress into the market. Microsoft is rumored to be tackling this issue for its next release of Windows (code-named Longhorn) but it seems to be a constant 2 years out. And unless they can work with Adobe, who has its own RDF based meta-data plan, as well as with Apple and the camera vendors then it will just be one more fiefdom.

4. "Fool-proof" Color: Almost all modern cameras rely on detecting three 'colors'. But given the limits of chemistry and physics, what the camera sees isn't all that much like what we see. On all cameras except ones using Foveon, 2 of the colors are interpolated. And in all cases, the camera's three colors are not identical to what the eye sees. To make matters worse, the match between the camera and the eye changes with different lighting conditions and light sources. As Sony has illustrated with its new 4-color (RGB + Emerald) sensor, there is nothing sacred about the number 3. Additional spectral data, in the form of additional 'colors' or even a true spectral measurement like those done by spectral photometers would help provide more color accuracy under more conditions.

3. "Perfect" Fill Flash: TTL Flash with film wasn't perfect, but it had gotten pretty close. Digital flash has been quite a step back. That's because so far it's tried to recreate fill flash the way film did it. But with advanced imaging systems like the Digital Pixel System from Pixim, it is possible to take 2 or more "micro-exposures" for each image--some with ambient light and some with flash. Then the flash balancing could be done after the fact, either by the camera itself or even in post-processing software as part of a Raw file workflow. Nothing like DPS is available yet in a still digital camera, but there is no reason it couldn't be and won't be in time.

2. Automatic White Balance: There are literally dozens of research projects on creating accurate white balance automatically. None of them are perfect, but they are getting better. As the processors in our cameras get faster and manufacturers can devote more circuitry to this problem, it is only a matter of time before White Balance is as accurate as exposure. Of course we'll still want creative control and the ability to over-ride the Automatic WB, but wouldn't it be nice to be able to rely on Auto for White Balance as heavily as we do on Matrix or Evaluative metering for exposure. Nikon's D2H and Canon's Digital Rebel both promise improvements in this area, so we may be in for some pleasant surprises sooner than we realize.

1. User Interface Re-Design: After shooting digital for awhile you get used to having to look in three or four different places for your important settings, and needing to use a variety of various buttons, dials and menus to control them. But it doesn't have to be that way. Many of the controls on our D-SLRs are hardly used any more and some are left-overs from the days of film. An example of simplifying life for many of us are the new G lenses from Nikon which provide smaller, less expensive lenses at the expense of the manual aperture ring that we didn't use. But there is plenty more to go. White Balance is now changed far more often than metering, but it is typically stuck in a hard to find location. Settings like Tone can make or break an image but they are nearly invisible and therefore error-prone. I look forward to the generations of cameras that begin to address these issues by thinking out the way controls are used by digital shooters today and then creating a camera design to fit.

A Day in Paradise:
Fall Color in Northern Michigan

 There are still spaces for our Fall Color Seminar & Day Shoot on October 10th & 11th in Paradise, Michigan on the scenic Upper Peninsula.

For more information and to register, see the Cardinal Photo Events page.

Upcoming Events:
Seminars, Talks and Photo Safaris

DigitalPro News:

Since the last issue of DPS we've updated DigitalPro2 with a new beta version (2.0.6.2) that fixes Canon 10D raw file viewing accuracy as well as IPTC batch captioning glitches. The new version is free to all licensed users of DigitalPro2.

Subscription Update:
If you can read this, you don't have to:-)

As part of the war on SPAM, some ISPs have started blocking anything that looks like bulk mail. This appears to include AOL and several other large vendors. I'm a huge fan of battling SPAM (as a website owner I get a nearly limitless amount myself!), so I applaud the attempt. However, it means that many of our subscribers are not getting DPS, or getting it inconsistently. If this should happen to you, aside from complaining to your ISP, remember that we post all back issues on http://www.nikondigital.org, so you can always check there for the latest. Of course, if you can read this, you're probably okay so far!