Photography as we know it is a little over two hundred years old, basically starting with a room sized, lensless pinhole camera. 35mm photography is about to turn 100 years old. Instant film (Polaroid) is about to turn 40 years old and interestingly enough has completed it’s lifespan and is all but gone. Digital photography is turning twenty five, although it was not really put to use until just over ten years ago when the first DSLR, which was capable of only 1.3 megapixels was released (I jumped in with the 4 megapixel Canon 1D in 2001). HDSLR cameras, digital still cameras capable of shooting HD video are now almost three years old.
This is a pretty amazing timeline. Think about where photography started and how fast the technical advancements are moving now. Where will the next jump in technology be? What will your camera bag look like in 10 years?
I remember being in a seminar in Chicago in the late 90’s and hearing the presenter respond to a question regarding the future of photography. Someone asked if she thought that film was going to go away and if digital photography was going to take over. Her response was no and her reason was that digital photography (as we knew it then) was entirely technology driven and not demand driven. In other words, rather than photographers saying to the camera manufacturers, “We really need a digital (filmless) solution to our photographic needs”, the manufacturers were leading by saying “Look what we can do now, don’t you want it?”
While her point was well taken, it seems as though we photographers are willing to embrace what is given to us and are apt to work it into our camera bags sooner than later. What if the camera manufacturers had offered us cameras that all had affordable night vision capabilities or could shoot at 1000 fps? Would we all be shooting surveillance images and shooting objects blowing up in extreme slo-mo?
Now that we can all shoot video with our HDSLR’s (I prefer motion to video) are we all videographers? If my camera could make soup, would I be a chef? Probably not but it would be tempting right? Why not? I now have the capability so I should use it. Problem is, now I need to learn how to capture audio, move the camera smoothly through space, direct talent, work with (and pay) a larger crew, learn how to light a space where people are moving, learn now to edit footage and above all, figure out how to charge for all this…
