The death of digital photography as we know it

Humansvillian · Apr 10, 2017

One of my other passions is shotguns, and to this day, shotgun shells are marketed as their black powder equivalents of well over a century ago. There hasn't been any substantial improvement in shotguns and their ammunition in over fifty years, and no really ground shaking improvements in over a century, when the makers converted from black powder to smokeless powder, which smokes less, BTW, it's not really smokeless.

Except for professionals, the still camera is a hobby. People do it because it's fun. The images from digital cameras are not actually any "better" than from film cameras, but they are more fun, and give instant gratification.

The technology of a digital still camera, if all development stopped today, is more than good enough,,,,,today,,,,to make all these billions or trillions of images out there being made. It may well be that the basic image quality of a digital camera cannot be any more improved than a shotgun shell, and from here on out the camera makers are going to be making and selling digital cameras with most of the same, basic features.

In a way, that's already came to pass.

The biggest thing the camera makers could do, to sell more cameras, is to have one, standardized RAW file format and every one of them use it.

Imagine if shotguns could only shoot shells made by the gun manufacturer?

Ellis Vener · Apr 10, 2017

Humansvillian said:
One of my other passions is shotguns, and to this day, shotgun shells are marketed as their black powder equivalents of well over a century ago. There hasn't been any substantial improvement in shotguns and their ammunition in over fifty years, and no really ground shaking improvements in over a century, when the makers converted from black powder to smokeless powder, which smokes less, BTW, it's not really smokeless.

Except for professionals, the still camera is a hobby. People do it because it's fun. The images from digital cameras are not actually any "better" than from film cameras, but they are more fun, and give instant gratification.

The technology of a digital still camera, if all development stopped today, is more than good enough,,,,,today,,,,to make all these billions or trillions of images out there being made. It may well be that the basic image quality of a digital camera cannot be any more improved than a shotgun shell, and from here on out the camera makers are going to be making and selling digital cameras with most of the same, basic features.

In a way, that's already came to pass.

The biggest thing the camera makers could do, to sell more cameras, is to have one, standardized RAW file format and every one of them use it.

Imagine if shotguns could only shoot shells made by the gun manufacturer?

katastrofa · Apr 10, 2017

People will be replacing cameras which break or lose some of their functionality due to wear and tear. Like they probably do with shotguns.

Professional digital cameras won't die, they will just become more expensive to cover the cost of being a niche product.

Joe Niepce · Apr 10, 2017

Rick Knepper said:
As innovation and products to market slows, PetaPixel has nothing to write about except for the lack of innovation & products. Who needs them to tell us that?

There is rarely new material on PetaPixel. They copy articles from other people and make it look like their own. They do provide a line about where the content originally came from at the end, but somehow most miss it.

Rick Knepper said:
Tony Lau said:

Very comprehesive article.

https://petapixel.com/2017/04/04/death-digital-photography-know/

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Tony
Nikon D750+Nikon 16-35mm f4 VR+Nikon 50mm f.8g+Nikon 70-200 F4 VR+Nikon SB700

Click to expand...

--
Once you've done fifty, everything else is iffy.

Matsu · Apr 10, 2017

The article confuses digital photography and digital camera sales, and doesn't provide much insight into either one. It simply ties together a bunch of forum punditry and cliche opinions and passes them off as a thought provoking analysis.

Petapixel should tighten their standards.

That said, a comparison to film, and the relative settling of the ILC market does sit at the doorstep of a more intriguing analysis: That cooler camera sales might actually be a good thing for photographers.

Digital caused both democratization and distortion. On the one hand it made the craft more accessible to a number of people - which founded a number of distorted expectations in both the camera and photographic marketplaces. Chiefly, manufacturers assumed everyone wanted to be a photographer and clients/customers assumed anyone could be a photographer. This conspired to have the whole industry, from camera manufacturers, to agencies, to publications working against the interest of photographers. Camera makers desperate to sell more of their wares feed the delusion. Amateurs pretend to be pros, social media personalities pretend to be teachers/artists, everyone starts to believe it's simply a question of handing a camera to someone on the team, and that's enough to get the images you need.

So, if on some level the general public discovers that good photography is hard, and that they won't be pros simply by buying the gear, that's not a bad thing for photographers - who have never taken themselves seriously enough, and on some level bought into the distortion themselves.

OlyPent · Apr 14, 2017

Honestly, Instax represents instant gratification and print film in this day and age is trendy, aimed at the youth. Film needs to be fully re-established and not subject to the flighty fancy of 20-something trendoids, who could be off it and on to the next fad like they jump to the next social media site.

katastrofa · Apr 14, 2017

OlyPent said:
Honestly, Instax represents instant gratification and print film in this day and age is trendy, aimed at the youth. Film needs to be fully re-established and not subject to the flighty fancy of 20-something trendoids, who could be off it and on to the next fad like they jump to the next social media site.

It ain't serious if middle aged men are not into it

OlyPent · Apr 14, 2017

katastrofa said:
OlyPent said:

Honestly, Instax represents instant gratification and print film in this day and age is trendy, aimed at the youth. Film needs to be fully re-established and not subject to the flighty fancy of 20-something trendoids, who could be off it and on to the next fad like they jump to the next social media site.

Click to expand...

It ain't serious if middle aged men are not into it

It isn't serious if it fades in the next couple years. Like many things adopted by the immediate gratification age brackets. I hope it's still around and stronger. I still have a darkroom.

RedFox88 · Apr 15, 2017

Humansvillian said:
One of my other passions is shotguns, and to this day, shotgun shells are marketed as their black powder equivalents of well over a century ago. There hasn't been any substantial improvement in shotguns and their ammunition in over fifty years, and no really ground shaking improvements in over a century, when the makers converted from black powder to smokeless powder, which smokes less, BTW, it's not really smokeless.

Except for professionals, the still camera is a hobby. People do it because it's fun. The images from digital cameras are not actually any "better" than from film cameras, but they are more fun, and give instant gratification.

The technology of a digital still camera, if all development stopped today, is more than good enough,,,,,today,,,,to make all these billions or trillions of images out there being made. It may well be that the basic image quality of a digital camera cannot be any more improved than a shotgun shell, and from here on out the camera makers are going to be making and selling digital cameras with most of the same, basic features.

In a way, that's already came to pass.

The biggest thing the camera makers could do, to sell more cameras, is to have one, standardized RAW file format and every one of them use it.

nope. Why? A very small percentage of camera users record raw files. 99% use jpg

Humansvillian said:
Imagine if shotguns could only shoot shells made by the gun manufacturer?

--
Humansville is a town in the Missouri Ozarks

RedFox88 · Apr 15, 2017

OlyPent said:
Honestly, Instax represents instant gratification and print film in this day and age is trendy, aimed at the youth. Film needs to be fully re-established and not subject to the flighty fancy of 20-something trendoids, who could be off it and on to the next fad like they jump to the next social media

Social networking not media

Member said:
site.

Ellis Vener · Apr 15, 2017

"The biggest thing the camera makers could do, to sell more cameras, is to have one, standardized RAW file format and every one of them use it."

That's like saying there should have only been one type of color negative film or one flavor of vanilla ice cream. No one one would ever have a reason to upgrade a camera.

Humansvillian · Apr 15, 2017

Ellis Vener said:
"The biggest thing the camera makers could do, to sell more cameras, is to have one, standardized RAW file format and every one of them use it."

That's like saying there should have only been one type of color negative film or one flavor of vanilla ice cream. No one one would ever have a reason to upgrade a camera.

FrancoD · Apr 15, 2017

Humansvillian said:
But a long, time ago, somebody, somewhere, decided that every digital camera ought to conform to a standard we call JPEG.

Users decided that. Nobody forced manufacturers to do it the same way the buying public decided it prefers SD over the other defunct flash memory cards.

Humansvillian said:
I'm serious, here. Explain to me why, it would be so difficult, for a standard to be established that after a certain date, every RAW file had to conform to a certain standard?

Users have no need for that because, as already mentioned the vast majority (I would think well under 1% , not here but the general public) does not need nor want it.

mrgs1 · Apr 15, 2017

FrancoD said:
Humansvillian said:

But a long, time ago, somebody, somewhere, decided that every digital camera ought to conform to a standard we call JPEG.

Click to expand...

Users decided that. Nobody forced manufacturers to do it the same way the buying public decided it prefers SD over the other defunct flash memory cards.

FrancoD said:

I'm serious, here. Explain to me why, it would be so difficult, for a standard to be established that after a certain date, every RAW file had to conform to a certain standard?

Click to expand...

Users have no need for that because, as already mentioned the vast majority (I would think well under 1% , not here but the general public) does not need nor want it.

You regard XQD defunct? Far superior to SD.

kodachromeguy · Apr 15, 2017

But then they would lose most of the crowd that comments here on these comment pages. Actually take pictures, create something?

Humansvillian · Apr 15, 2017

With all respect, if there was one standard for RAW, and that one standard supported a far higher ability to work with the files than the JPEG standard, then maybe Microsoft and Apple would conform several billion computers to process the RAW files and then, by golly, more than 1% of the people might start using RAW.

Right now, on the right sidebar of my screen, I see that the $2,000 body only Panasonic DC-GH5 is the most popular camera on DPR, and it's hitting 9%. It's followed by a bunch of other new whiz bang, high dollar cameras, none of which are cracking even 2% of use.

Every one of those new cameras will shoot JPEG.

Is there some technical reason, perhaps, why they could not all have the same RAW standard?

It couldn't hurt.

I realize that each sensor and each new processing engine has different data on it, but every digital camera I can plug in my computer, even the ones that are over ten years old, go zipping right into my "devices" menus and they are compatible with my computer. Why can't the manufacturers do the same thing, somehow, with their RAW files?

--
Humansville is a town in the Missouri Ozarks

katastrofa · Apr 16, 2017

FrancoD said:
Humansvillian said:

But a long, time ago, somebody, somewhere, decided that every digital camera ought to conform to a standard we call JPEG.

Click to expand...

Users decided that. Nobody forced manufacturers to do it the same way the buying public decided it prefers SD over the other defunct flash memory cards.

Users get a package deal. Nobody gets to choose each feature of the product separately.

FrancoD · Apr 16, 2017

katastrofa said:
FrancoD said:

Humansvillian said:

But a long, time ago, somebody, somewhere, decided that every digital camera ought to conform to a standard we call JPEG.

Click to expand...

Users decided that. Nobody forced manufacturers to do it the same way the buying public decided it prefers SD over the other defunct flash memory cards.

Click to expand...

Users get a package deal. Nobody gets to choose each feature of the product separately.

sort of. They do by buying the ones that better match their wants.

If a common RAW was as important to the public as the OP thinks it would be a known "need" .

The reason why it isn't known is because it isn't needed by most.

BTW, several manufacturer have within their version of RAW corrections that they are not all that keen to share.

Nicolas06 · Apr 17, 2017

Humansvillian said:
Ellis Vener said:

"The biggest thing the camera makers could do, to sell more cameras, is to have one, standardized RAW file format and every one of them use it."

That's like saying there should have only been one type of color negative film or one flavor of vanilla ice cream. No one one would ever have a reason to upgrade a camera.

Click to expand...

mrgs1 · Apr 17, 2017

Nicolas06 said:
Humansvillian said:

Ellis Vener said:

"The biggest thing the camera makers could do, to sell more cameras, is to have one, standardized RAW file format and every one of them use it."

That's like saying there should have only been one type of color negative film or one flavor of vanilla ice cream. No one one would ever have a reason to upgrade a camera.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

The death of digital photography as we know it

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