I find it interesting that no one else seems to have noted this trend. Of course the reviewers may have higher res cameras in hand under non-disclosure agreements.
Chris Brogden wrote:
I think the argument about DSLRs becoming obsolete isn't as stupid as it sounds to some. It's not so much that their quality goes down as our expectations go up. It was less than five years ago that 1.3MP cameras were being touted in reputable reviews (and in slightly less reputable advertising) as producing photo-quality 8x10's. Then the 2MP's came along and we saw how much better they were. Sure, the 1.3MP's still took the same photos, but now that people had a better frame of reference and higher expectations, they understandably weren't as happy with 1.3MP prints.
Now we have a bunch of 6MP DSLRs that produce 2000x3000 pixel images. Divide that by 250dpi and we're looking at 8x12 prints that could be considered photo-quality. If we use 300dpi, now we're down to 6.7x10 prints. This is assuming that dots and pixels can be roughly equated via interpolation, but if we count each dot as being made of 3 distinct pixels, then the maximum photo-quality print size drops even more.
So now we laugh at the idea that 1.3MP cameras can take photo-quality 8x10's, but we brag about how great our 6MP's are at 11x14's and 16x20's. And yeah, they're probably not too bad. But when 14MP cameras become affordable, all of a sudden we'll have a different frame of reference and we'll start seeing the flaws in our 6MP enlargements that we ignored or just didn't see earlier.
So no, the cameras won't start taking worse photos, but they'll pale more and more in comparison to newer models and their limitations will become more apparent. Anyone who doubts this only has to look at how fast computers are improving, and remember that what we're effectively doing is bragging about our new IBM 286 computers with 33MHz processors, 8MB of RAM and a 300 baud modem.
chris
On Sun, 19 Oct 2003, Jim Apilado wrote:
When the D30 Canon came out lots of photographers got one. A year or so later came the D60 and the D30 owners began unloading their digitals so the prices came down. The D60 was superceded by the 10D. D60 prices are slowly coming down. It may be awhile before Pentax comes out with a newer digital slr (with K/M compatibility?). I can see some current *ist D owners trying to unload their "obsolete" cameras for the new one.
-- graywolf http://graywolfphoto.com
"You might as well accept people as they are, you are not going to be able to change them anyway."
