RE: 'Leica S2 Medium format DSLR hitting UK scene in October '

[mark@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

That all may be true with the technology of today, but what about tomorrow.  One thing we know for sure, is that technology will advance.  Over the years I have been lucky to talk to a number of different people, and two different men stand out for one thing they both had in common.  Both were very driven men and both were extremely bright.  Both were very nice men.  One is now an artist. In a way that is somewhat ironic in that he had a great deal of trouble with cameras at the time.   The other I ran into by happenstance at a small airport where he happened to be landing to visit family.  What did they have in common??  They had both walked on the moon.

The artist was the 4th man to walk on the moon and many of his paintings now are prized because of his unique perspective.  The other man was the last man that has walked on the moon, or at least the last so far.  The computers of the day that they used to fly the Lunar module were a massive 64k IIRC and that was so expensive it was millions.  It was so state of the art it at the time was mind boggling.  Now more computing power is on a $3 wrist watch

I have no doubt that at some point in the future 25mp may seem just as backward as the 64k of the LEM.  At some point 25 mp may seem just as expensive as the millions were to develop those computers.  But I look at it a different way.  It wasn't how little or how much computing power that was available to them.  It was what they did with it that mattered.  That really isn't that much different than photography today.

And if you are as old as I am and were a space buff, you just might know the two men I was fortunate enough to meet.  You are a double old if you knew what trouble he had with a camera  grin.

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: 'Leica S2 Medium format DSLR hitting UK scene in October '
From: karl shah-jenner <shahjen@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, August 01, 2009 1:50 pm
To: List for Photo/Imaging Educators - Professionals - Students
<photoforum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

David Dyer-Bennet
Re: 'Leica S2 Medium format DSLR hitting UK scene in October '


PhotoRoy6@xxxxxxx wrote:


> Some say that a full 35mm sensor will max out at 25.4 megapixels
> because of diffraction and other optical problems will make more
> megapixels useless. The number thrown around for the max out of medium
> format is 39 megapixels but the question of just what medium size
> format they are referring to isn't mentioned.


They're probably wrong.
<http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/2009/02/w
hy-80-megapixels-just-wont-be-enough.html>



I've said before here, the resolving power of a digital sensor is at best
1/3 of the stated pixel count due to nyquist limits in an off axis
situation - and that's at best. the article above just goe a little
further :)

k