scanar

This is an exciting time for photography. The development of digital imaging seems to be reaching a level of maturity with good quality images being delivered from even basic pocket cameras.

At the time of writing (June 2009) the emphasis seems to be on developing some of the potential of digital and bringing it to a wider audience. We can already take 14 megapixel images with an image stabilised long zoom range camera you can slip in your shirt pocket, now we are moving into the areas made possible by the image processing power.

For example, I have a ‘traditional’ discussion of panorama photography here. Traditionally panoramas are created by taking a series of overlapping images and stitching them later on your computer. Sony have developed an slr-like camera that will create a panorama if you just press the shutter and pan the camera over the area you want to capture. It will not capture the full 360° view, but that is probably not what the buyers of this camera want.

I also talk about high dynamic range (HDR) and image blending. Most cameras now have some sort of lighting recovery algorithm, the new Ricoh compact that automatically brackets two images and combines them in-camera is of interest, as is the Pentax K7, which will offer a more sophisticated, but still automated, solution to the problem of cameras that cannot capture the detail in both the highlight and deep shadow areas.

Digital has allowed cameras to go beyond the simple taking of images. We now expect them to create photographic masterpieces way beyond the single image.