pendennis

I also worked in IT for a number of years, mostly in the infrastructure area.

Our company, in the late 1990's opted to lease PC's, replacing a hodgepodge of older platforms made by IBM, Dell, H-P, etc. Most folks didn't need the horsepower of the "standard" Dell model, and we did not lease the latest and greatest among processors, memory, monitors, etc. The choices were tiered, depending on the needs of the user. Folks who needed more horsepower often got "tower" models, running more advance OS', etc. Folks who traveled were issued Dell laptops, monitors and docking stations for desk use. However, since business was so aimed at MS Office Suite, we used Microsoft, but with contractual modifications. Our contract with Dell runs in two-year increments. This did not preclude buying other manufacturers' products, but the overall contract was with Dell.

Our IT support needed a standardized platform to maximize productivity, and minimize parts inventory.

Our file and print servers ended up standardized and centralized within the local campus. Our original centralized servers were by building, and varied from IBM, H-P, and others. However, in the early 2000's, changing server technology, including IBM blades, made it much easier to standardize file and print services. It was much easier to centralize into one data center, rather than building dedicated computer rooms in each facility.

If one considers staying with the same performance, computing costs have fallen rapidly (see Moore's Law). However, with each change, most folks opt for more power, since applications tend to grow in size and complexity.

For a number of years, we maintained a display in our infrastructure office of the evolution of the personal computer. In the 1980's when we went to the IBM AT Series, those machines ran around $5K. Today, for 1/10th the cost you can run circles around the old boxes.

mnpacker1 Loc: Mountain Lake, Minnesota

As long as people want more gadgets included with their camera companies will supply them. For me it is all about photography not gadgets. My 5D and 7D produce great pictures which is what I am after. Not that I may upgrade but the need for the newest isn't what photography is about. It is about recording what I see in a creative and story telling way. The camera's we have now can do that amazingly. My camera's are simply for taking pictures!

pithydoug Loc: Catskill Mountains, NY

I don't need the latest and greatest but the technology is rapidly advancing. Just look at the leaps and bounds of mirrorless even if you don't own one. It least when you decide to move up, you will have more more and better to choose from.

tradio Loc: Oxford, Ohio

It seems the technology advancements aren't slowing at all, if anything, it seems to be leaping ahead. They come out with the D850 and a year later, out comes the mirrorless Z cameras.
I see no slowing for quite some time.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

The manufacturers will keep adding features, speeding up processors, making better lenses, and so forth, ad infinitum, UNLESS and UNTIL some outside force slams them and replaces what they make with something completely different.

Think... Linotype machines, buggy whips, AM tabletop tube radios, 8-track tape players, cheap, mass market mechanical watches, slide rules, rotary dial phones with land lines... While some of these relics are around, no one makes them, or makes them in significant quantities. New paradigms replaced them!

You can already see that the middle of the camera market — small, cheap, digital point-and-shoot cameras — has all but dried up and blown away. Smartphones and cell phones killed that market.

Meanwhile, use what you have, or replace it with something that truly advances your craft. You can't hold out for the next big thing, if you need an improved version right now. Take comfort in the fact that the last model year of a car series has had the bugs worked out! The same is true of a current line of cameras. I never want a copy from the first boatload... I want revision 2 or 3!

Ched49 Loc: Pittsburgh, Pa.

I remember those "earth shoes" back in the 70's, they even made them for work shoes. I had a pair and they were very comfortable but didn't look very stylish.

dsmeltz Loc: Philadelphia

I had a pair of the boots in the 70's. I thought they were freakin'! Oddly, I was living in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh at the time. I think I bought them at a store in Shadyside.

Bob Locher Loc: Southwest Oregon

Realistically, where is improvement in a digital camera system possible?

Start with sensors. Sony, for example, recently announced a 50 megapixel sensor - for cell phones! So obviously larger pixel counts are coming.

The EVF - the Electronic Viewing Finder or screen - the specs continue to improve incrementally, in terms of resolution.

And this ties in with the digital processing in the camera - it will get faster - and faster. Image stabilization will likely get faster and cheaper and will be in more and more cameras. Heating issues will be resolved.

Lenses - there are two areas that offer improvement. One is new glass formulations. The glass available to the lens designer has hugely improved over the years and new and better glass continues to evolve, though this gets little ink. But it does make for better lenses.

Another area is aspheric lenses. They have been used in lenses for over 50 years, but still offer huge potential for improvement - at least in developing affordable manufacturing techniques for mass production. Every lens manufacturer that is using aspherics keeps that area of the factory closed to visitors.

Lens design software continues to improve, again in incremental steps. Zoom lenses particularly will improve with design software improvements, and especially as aspheric lenses become practical.

It is also entirely possible that plastic lenses and crystal lenses will make more and more of an impact as well.

Optical coatings continue to improve. While their direct impact on resolution is little or none, they can and will impact effective contrast and flair reduction.

All these factors suggest considerable improvement remains realistic.

There are two other factors to watch. The really high end equipment often uses the latest technology - and that technology gets cheaper and cheaper so that much less expensive systems soon share the benefit.

The other is the arrival of independent Chinese lens manufacturers. They are just beginning to be a factor in the lens markets. They are offering at least a few lenses that are of excellent quality and very attractively priced. They still are not offering any serious zoom lenses, nor any significant offerings of autofocus lenses - but that will surely come. They have been manufacturing excellent binoculars for years. They will surely be a factor in the photographic market and sooner rather than later.

So - we are far from a point where further improvement is no longer possible. Many companies are striving to offer us new and better products.

Photokina is coming!

cheers

Bob Locher

TonyL Loc: Coventry, UK

Don't look up the latest camera or computer the day after you buy one or other. You'll only wish you had waited!

ppage Loc: Pittsburg, (San Francisco area)

Yes. When the camera can accurately record what the human eye can see, we can rest a bit but it still won't be over. We still have a long way to go before that ever happens. Same goes with the other technologies.
When a car can drive itself as well as I can and when a computer can think and move through processes as nimbly as I can, then we can see the day when we can rest but we will never stop.

nadelewitz Loc: Ithaca NY

Digital cameras and computers are one and the same. The technology improves at breakneck speeds, constantly increasing "betterness": speed, computer "power", storage capacities of drives and memory media, gimmicks (oops, I mean FEATURES), megapixels, on and on....
The new technology does not mean much for getting the job done, to many of us....photographer, engineer, whatever.
The incredible thing is the current technology costs a consumer the same as the old technology, or less, in real terms.
The question of the day is: How much of an "improvement" in technology does a human being need?
What drives the technology most is the need to keep selling products to consumers by making them think they "need" more and better.

DHooch

I will be one of the last to this party.

I have been organizing my photos and videos from my DSLR. I bought a high-end consumer video camera in 2004. It uses digital video tapes. Each tape holds an hour's worth of standard aspect video. When I'm done creating DVDs from the video, I store the tapes. They are self archiving.

I bought my high-end DSLR a few years ago in hopes that it would replace my older video camera. My DSLR has a few video formats, which work for me. Today, DSLRs have quite a few more video formats. What I am finding is that my DSLR is much harder to use as a video camera because it can't use the view finder when shooting videos. It has to use the live screen in the back of the camera, which, in my case, can't rotate and is inconvenient. Also, it is very hard to view in bright light. Lastly, unless I use my external mic, my DSLR's built-in mono microphone really sucks. My old video camera's built-in mic captures in stereo and it's quality is very good.

Now for my biggest gripe: as I said before, my old video camera used tapes that are self-archiving. I'm finding that my DSLR's video data has to be archived onto Blue-ray discs or external hard drives because of their huge file sizes. I think I have taken a step backwards from my old video camera. Yes, my DSLR takes better still photos than my old video camera (16 Mb vs. 2 Mb images) but my video images have taken a really big hit.

I predict that, someday, DSLRs will take better videos, more conveniently and have more features than the best video cameras, today. At that point, I will get rid of my old video camera and buy a new DSLR, just for the improved video capabilities. Until then, I guess I'm stuck with two cameras.

2Much Loc: WA

A $500 cell phone camera on par with say the D850 sporting pro glass might be considered a breakthrough - then everyone could wield an ever ready camera with capabilities far surpassing their own. Hard drives and backup storage would soon burst at the seams with technically superb, high resolution photographs no better conceived and composed than what they were making before the breakthrough.

Not a comment on anyone else's abilities, just thinking that if I were a 10% better photographer my photos would improve more than any technical leap beyond the capabilities of today's cameras might effect.

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

Provide the data on lens resolutions for various lenses. This would be good and informative to know about.
Thank you.

Tomcat5133 Loc: Gladwyne PA

You got me thinking. A digital DSLR will work a long time well. Lens last for years. I recently saw a early 90s BMW I owned driven by an acquaintance. It was in great shape running well. I owned that car. Why didn’t I keep it.
Cameras today appear well made and will work a long time. Computers are the monster. We have to keep upgrading
Because of memory and procsssors etc. etc. The average car age in the US is at least 10 years old.
I wanted to keep that BMW but it was terrible in snow and ice so after 5 years I traded it in.
My son and his family focus on the next iPhone and are obsessed. We have written off people that don’t
have wifi to learn and research. I think that materialism and class distinction is pricing out some of us.
I never i thought I would ever need another Nikon because it was great and last forever. And
Nikon was OK with that. And proud of their cameras. Technology has cost us a lot