A provocative proposal Marc, yet I wonder how many users would be willing to think outside the box concerning new gear.
I guess what we need is something like the original HB 500, which was completely revolutionary at the time, or indeed the Leica M.
Both were game changers.
Any ideas of where the future could take us?
Well, I do have an opinion on that subject ... as I'm sure most others also have:
We "Traditional" photographers don't get it ... the future already happened :facesmack:
History is a great teacher.
There has always been two parallel worlds in photography ... the "real" game changer in photography was the Kodak Bownie invented in 1900 ... fundamentally the historical equivalent of today's cell phone camera.
The Hasselblad 500 and Leica M probably would not have existed without the Brownie, and cameras like it, drawing in enough people to be interested in photography. In essence, the Hasselblad 500 was a high end, high IQ "Brownie" in basic concept. The more revolutionary camera was the Leica because it was so small. Both were based on the use of better optics than any "consumer camera" offered. Leica and its' rival Zeiss, were optics companies, not camera companies ... and basically still are.
So, today's "game changer" is the cell phone, not cameras as we think of them. The difference between the Brownie and Cell Phone camera is that the Cell phone is everywhere, all the time ... because it is a multi-tasking tool.
The Hasselblad 500 (and cameras like it) became the "living dead" well over a decade ago, clearly indicated when wedding and event photographers in-mass switched to 35mm SLRs, then to 35mm DSLRs. The cost of adding a smaller format digital back to these MF 2 1/4 cameras was prohibitive, and remains so to this day. The Leica M survives on because it is a mirror-less rangefinder, and small with great optics ... the very reason it was invented in the first place.
Flash forward to today ... Cameras are now computers. So it stands to reason that computer innovation is the future of photography. Nikon, Canon and Fuji do not make computers. IMO, it is only a matter of time before a combination of computer hardware, firmware and software obliterates cameras as we now know them. Personally, at my age, this doesn't concern me all that much ... maybe the ONLY advantage of advancing age
In the meantime, I predict smaller cameras with big sensors, fatter pixels, and ever better optics (already happening) ... all designed around wireless transfer to web sites and social media. The trick will be to have an obvious and demonstrable visual improvement over the cell phone camera to the "common eye", while offering the same instant gratification, sharing and convenience. To date, the camera companies have not been successful at doing this, and sales of 4/3 cameras have not met expectations. If and when they fix that, I think bigger sensor/fatter pixel/killer optics cameras with some sort of Wi-Fi ability to upload to the web will cannibalize 35mm DSLR sales in mass. I'm already seeing a shift in wedding photography to smaller mirror-less cameras that make great images, and that trend will gain momentum exponentially in the next few years. NO ONE wants to lug around a brick anymore.
The real future of photography as we think of it lies in the eye and brain of those blessed with artistic talent, a well honed eye, and a ferocious creative drive. The innovation of tools will come to mean less and less, and the innovative, insightful image more and more. IMO, there will be a huge amount of casualties in both companies and users as the great divide relentlessly continues ... the homogenized masses all made equal in the democratic world of photography on one side, and the few truly creative visual innovators on the other side ... which when you think about it, isn't anything new ... it is just re-adjusting to the more normal balance that existed before.
One thing is for certain ... the future isn't what it used to be.
- Marc
