a $25,000US camera body with ultra high sensitivity by Canon
Toronto. When digital came along, photography was revolutionized. Pictures were technically perfect with a digital ‘auto everything’ camera. It still took a professional or knowledgeable amateur to understand framing, lighting, etc for a shot that was steady and captured feelings.
Over the next few decades, sensors increased in size, sensitivity, and resolution with a reduction in noise. Small sensors have also increased in sensitivity and resolution with lower noise.
Modern smartphones are all camera-equipped and have amazingly tiny sensors and computers to auto correct images. The box camera brigade have no idea how complex their tiny cameras are to create decent images in spite of them.
My first Sony (F828) even had night vision allowing infra red (IR) photos up to a few feet away in total darkness. Recently I had security cameras installed. For them, modern technology means video is on 24/7 and any motion is captured. A hard drive records the video which can be scrubbed back and forth later. A copy of any suspicious activity can be easily downloaded for action,
Once filled, the hard drive begins to over write the oldest videos. Amazingly, at night the cameras automatically switch to IR and record motion activated videos in monotone for the same distance as day time! Using an outdoor light means the camera is automatically adjusted for white balance and colour videos are recorded. The camera are all digital using an ethernet connection for signal transmission to a recorder and low power transmission to a camera.
The blog Review Geek covers Canon’s MS-500 with its spectacular new sensor. While very costly, the sensor hints at the future of digital photography. Modern cameras have low end sensitivity that was once high end and high end sensitivity beyond our imagination two decades ago. In time the cost of these new Canon sensors will drop (think of CD/DVD recorders) and such ultra high sensitivity will be the standard for digital cameras.
