Camera of the Future?

[RebelHero]

Hello to you all,

First let me introduce myself, I am Niels a dutch industrial design student. I represent one of the groups from our university of Twente. We have been given the assignment from Canon to develop and design the camera of the future. Our aim is the year 2015, 10 years from now. During this assignment we will have to take in account the technical and cultural development of the world during those years as well as the customers desires. And that is where you come in. We would be very pleased if you would answer some simple and short questions to help us create the perfect camera for 2015. Here we go:

- Which aspects of Digital photography should be improved?
- What would be a very cool feature for a digital camera?
- What developments do you expect in the coming 10 years?
- What is in your opinion wrong in the designs Canon makes?
- What features do non-digital cameras have that you wish digital cameras had?
- What would be a good price for a professional Camera?
- What would be a good price for a casual Camera?
- What would be a good price for a beginners Camera?
- Whats you opinion on cellphone cameras?

Your help would be greatly appreciated!

Regards,
Niels Korteling

[JTL]

Hello to you all,

First let me introduce myself, I am Niels a dutch industrial design student. I represent one of the groups from our university of Twente. We have been given the assignment from Canon to develop and design the camera of the future. Our aim is the year 2015, 10 years from now. During this assignment we will have to take in account the technical and cultural development of the world during those years as well as the customers desires. And that is where you come in. We would be very pleased if you would answer some simple and short questions to help us create the perfect camera for 2015. Here we go:

- Which aspects of Digital photography should be improved?
- What would be a very cool feature for a digital camera?
- What developments do you expect in the coming 10 years?
- What is in your opinion wrong in the designs Canon makes?
- What features do non-digital cameras have that you wish digital cameras had?
- What would be a good price for a professional Camera?
- What would be a good price for a casual Camera?
- What would be a good price for a beginners Camera?
- Whats you opinion on cellphone cameras?

Your help would be greatly appreciated!

Regards,
Niels KortelingThe camera of the future should reside in the brain itself and use the human eye as its lens. It should be entirely thought activated. Images should be able to be stored in brain memory (or an implanted chip, if necessary) and be able to be output to any device via direct neural connection (preferably via ultra high-speed 100MB per second, or faster, wireless). The output images should have the same look and resolution (or better) than the human eye currently perceives. Any other design would just be a rehash or incremental improvement to what we already have. Tell that to your sponsors! :cool:

[Risky Business]

And that, Ladies & Gentlemen, is the post of the year. Now where did I put that trophy...

[Clyde]

The camera of the future should reside in the brain itself and use the human eye as its lens. It should be entirely thought activated. Images should be able to be stored in brain memory (or an implanted chip, if necessary) and be able to be output to any device via direct neural connection (preferably via ultra high-speed 100MB per second, or faster, wireless). The output images should have the same look and resolution (or better) than the human eye currently perceives. Any other design would just be a rehash or incremental improvement to what we already have. Tell that to your sponsors! :cool:

Hmm. I have this camera. I am especially impressed with the range of the color space. It is far better than my RebelXT at exposing both the darks and lights correctly, without bracketing.

The camera I have is not perfect. Perhaps the next generation will be better. For instance, I am noticing a deterioration in the performance of the memory. The buffer seems to be working fine, so the problem seems to be in the long term memory. I have noticed that the older shots I have are begining to look out of focus, though the colors seem somehow more saturated.

My camera requires an aftermarket conversion lens. This lens, made by "LensCrafters" seems to improve telephoto performance dramatically. They assure me that in a few years they will add capability to the aftermarket lens so it also improves my macro shots. At the moment, macro performance is fine though.

Printer speed is slow. And I mean SLOW. It takes me 2-3 hours to print a 9"x12" image. Larger images take days. Print costs are much higher than my canon i960. Resolution is also variable, though I tend to be happy with it. Perhaps suprisingly, smaller prints, say 5"x7" tend to have lower resolution than images printed at say, 20"x24". I have printed shots as large as 36"x48", and am happy with the performance at that size, though print speed drops atrociously.

All in all, the old models used by people like Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Schiele, or Lucien Freud seem to have a kind of L lens "pop" that mine lacks. I keep trying, reminding myself that it is a poor photographer who blames his gear.

Perhaps you should try the OEM version you were equiped with. A good cheap printer is made by "Ticonderoga." I recomend the "Number 2." If your experience is normal, you will find your prints improve with practice.

You can check out my results at

www.clydesart.com

Good Luck,

Clyde

[Risky Business]

And Clyde ups the ante...

...very nice, Clyde.

(Man, I'm dying here!)

[JTL]

Clyde:

Absolutetly brilliant!!! It's rare that I can say that something so profoundly thought provoking made me pee my pants at the same time! :D

I'm still cracking up 10 minutes later and still thinking about it...especially about the aftermarket conversion lens part...:D

[John_Reed]

Hmm. I have this camera. I am especially impressed with the range of the color space. It is far better than my RebelXT at exposing both the darks and lights correctly, without bracketing.

The camera I have is not perfect. Perhaps the next generation will be better. For instance, I am noticing a deterioration in the performance of the memory. The buffer seems to be working fine, so the problem seems to be in the long term memory. I have noticed that the older shots I have are begining to look out of focus, though the colors seem somehow more saturated.

My camera requires an aftermarket conversion lens. This lens, made by "LensCrafters" seems to improve telephoto performance dramatically. They assure me that in a few years they will add capability to the aftermarket lens so it also improves my macro shots. At the moment, macro performance is fine though.

Printer speed is slow. And I mean SLOW. It takes me 2-3 hours to print a 9"x12" image. Larger images take days. Print costs are much higher than my canon i960. Resolution is also variable, though I tend to be happy with it. Perhaps suprisingly, smaller prints, say 5"x7" tend to have lower resolution than images printed at say, 20"x24". I have printed shots as large as 36"x48", and am happy with the performance at that size, though print speed drops atrociously.

All in all, the old models used by people like Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Schiele, or Lucien Freud seem to have a kind of L lens "pop" that mine lacks. I keep trying, reminding myself that it is a poor photographer who blames his gear.

Perhaps you should try the OEM version you were equiped with. A good cheap printer is made by "Ticonderoga." I recomend the "Number 2." If your experience is normal, you will find your prints improve with practice.

You can check out my results at

www.clydesart.com

Good Luck,

ClydeWonderful post, Clyde! Images we retain in our brain are much more vivid and beautiful than most photographs. Why, I remember this experience as about an 8-year old boy (that'd be 58 years ago), traveling with my Dad in his company truck (he was an SP lineman). We were driving along a lonely road in northern Utah when I saw this blue Bluebird on a fence post. I saw it for a fleeting instant, Dad didn't stop to take in the scene, but never since in my life have I seen a more beautiful bird, and its image is still retained to this day. I never did print it though; do you have some Ticonderoga recommendations for faithfully printing this image? Thanks for your refreshing post!

[swgod98]

The camera of the future should reside in the brain itself and use the human eye as its lens

Reminds me of the movie, Final Cut.

But, uhh...is anyone going to help this guy with his questions? I'll answer a few...

- Which aspects of Digital photography should be improved? Noise Reduction and focusing speeds

- What developments do you expect in the coming 10 years? Better sensitivity (ISO) improvements

- What features do non-digital cameras have that you wish digital cameras had? Optical Viewfinder in all digitals

- Whats you opinion on cellphone cameras? I think they are great, but I never use mine...the quality sucks. One day (perhaps in 15 years), I suspect our phones/watches/etc. will have high quality camera's built in.

[JTL]

But, uhh...is anyone going to help this guy with his questions?In all seriousness, I thought we had!

It's plain old silly to think that cell phones and cameras will exist in 10 years as they do today...instead of just thinking outside the box, we need to think outside the collective mind and challenge any and all conceptions & perceptions if true innovation is to be accomplished! ;)

I mean, better ISO, focusing speeds? That's next year...not 10 years away! Don't be afraid to dream a little! I mean, 15 years ago digicams didn't even exist! Try to think of what's next and not merly of improvements to what's here now. And remember...today's 15 years into the future is at least yesterday's 30 years into the future! Meaning the time between paradigm shifts continues to compress as time moves forward.:cool:

[John_Reed]

I've been on the inside of the technology curve since the mid-60s, when I designed my first silicon chip. In fact, a couple of my chips formed the first couple of points on Gordon Moore's "Moore's Law" curve. Through the years of developing and evolving technology, we "insiders" just simply got used to a high rate of change, that this new project (mine were mainly memory chips) would be twice as fast as last year's, have 4X as many bits, and dissipate half the power, all while fitting into the same package. As an example of how far that's gone, my first DRAM chip was the Intel i1103, released in late 1970. It had 1,024 bits, and dissipated ~400mw. To use 1103's in one of today's modern camera buffers would take ~1,000,000 of those chips or more, impossible to contain in less than a whole room full of electronic racks!

But there we were, feverishly moving the curve, and until the 80s and 90s, most of the rest of the world was ignorant of what we nerds were doing. Then suddenly the Internet, now enabled by all these new-fangled high-density memory and microprocessor chips, caught on, and the "revolution" spread outside our cloister.

This technology curve is still advancing and moving daily. I have no idea what'll be available for us to use 15 years hence, given the "amazing" developments that rapidly have brought us to today's state of the art.

One interesting thing to me is the effect that digital cameras have had on consumer photography. Remember when people used to show home movies all the time? Slides and prints were sort of fading in popularity. But now, more and more people are sharing still photos via Internet, and movies don't seem so popular anymore. Many people never even print photos, just share them over the Internet and leave it at that. Off my soapbox, back to work.

[JTL]

But now, more and more people are sharing still photos via Internet, and movies don't seem so popular anymore. Many people never even print photos, just share them over the Internet and leave it at that.
You're making an excellent point. Photography has become "consumerized" and is being used in society in expanded ways. People always used to shoot holiday and vacation snapshots, many times after having to "search" for the camera! And you always had a small group of serious hobbyists. But, today we're seeing a "casualization" of photography. Almost everyone I know has at least one digicam. And all of them know exactly where it is. Kids and young adults are cameraphone crazed, instantly zapping photos of themselves and friends to each other...even my relatives in their seventies are viewing family photos online.

So, John, you've got me thinking...instead of young Niels approaching his camera project from a purely "geeky" hardware perspective, he should try to imagine how instant and ubiquitous sharing of images will continue to shape and transform our society and let his design concepts flow from that. Maybe we can all star in commercials or real-time reality shows on the fly...or some other such communal activity...how will something like that change us? What other things might happen? Without the societal component, technology is just wires and chips. Watching and imagining what people will do with the wires and chips is the interesting part. :cool:

[Vich]

See my post at this thread:
http://www.dcresource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13576

Just happened to be thinking of this very topic, but didn't see this thread.:D

[Vich]

Another little addition. I'm really tired of having to take photos of white and grey cards. Or worse; having screwed up color balancing on some shots.

Why can't there be a little side scope on the lense or a projection on the camera itself (that little fingers won't block) with a diffuser that has its own true 18% grey. The camera would use that at least to second-check what the lense is calculating. The photo solution of the future should always get it right.

[reyval2k]

Another little addition. I'm really tired of having to take photos of white and grey cards. Or worse; having screwed up color balancing on some shots.

Why can't there be a little side scope on the lense or a projection on the camera itself (that little fingers won't block) with a diffuser that has its own true 18% grey. The camera would use that at least to second-check what the lense is calculating. The photo solution of the future should always get it right.

Or why don't they just add a little 18% gray board to the package? It wouldn't take too much space in the box would it?

My idea of a camera of the future (10 years down the road at least) would be something the size of a cellphone (nokia N90-like) with a 1MP 2" LCD, 12MP 1/10" CMOS sensor, superior IS, 18mm-500mm f1.8 lens and the image quality of a current EOS 1D Mark II N. DVD-quality video at 60fps and built-in 1 Terabyte memory. Of course an expansion slot would be available if 1 terabyte wasn't enough for you. The things gonna be made of "space-age material" and hermetically sealed so you can even take it underwater to take a shot of that pretty reef in the carribbean. :)

We can dream folks...

P.S. Battery life would be good for 5000 shots.

[Vich]

Or why don't they just add a little 18% gray board to the package? It wouldn't take too much space in the box would it?

My idea of a camera of the future (10 years down the road at least) would be something the size of a cellphone (nokia N90-like) with a 1MP 2" LCD, 12MP 1/10" CMOS sensor, superior IS, 18mm-500mm f1.8 lens and the image quality of a current EOS 1D Mark II N. DVD-quality video at 60fps and built-in 1 Terabyte memory. Of course an expansion slot would be available if 1 terabyte wasn't enough for you. The things gonna be made of "space-age material" and hermetically sealed so you can even take it underwater to take a shot of that pretty reef in the carribbean. :)

We can dream folks...

P.S. Battery life would be good for 5000 shots.
I think you forgot ISO 50000 with zero noise and a Depth Of Field selector, oh, an may as well have focus go to where your eyeball is pointing.

[Balrog]

I think you forgot ISO 50000 with zero noise ...
Shouldn't be too hard; it's only 4 more stops from where we're at now (3200). I'm sure we can manage at least one stop better every two and a half years ...


... and a Depth Of Field selector, ...
Heh .. heard of the A-DEP exposure mode? :)


... oh, an may as well have focus go to where your eyeball is pointing.
Eyeball tracking isn't really such a big deal... I wouldn't be surprised to see this in the next few years.