News H2D-39, the 39 megapixel digital camera

[The_Pope]

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2006/01...apixel_camera/

[Hamish]

You'd be forgiven for jumping around the room like Christopher Lloyd in Back To The Future shouting "1.21 gigawatts!" at this news.

1.21 jiggawatts not gigawatts

[The_Pope]

You're right, but you're wrong: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jigawatt

[gpw111]

aaaah crystal clear images the size of bed sheets

[DarkReaper]

Mind-blowing.

But I still prefer the Gigapixel project

[Nature]

Thats great news for consuming in the future... My HP 5.1 mp R707 just isn't cool enough

[Nexxo]

Five years from now, of course, this will be the standard resolution for mobile phone cameras.

And drunk people will still use this exquisite technology to take pictures of their equally pissed mate mooning people.

[Burnout21]

that camera is not a conventual camera, in other words not a DSLR, it is in fact a medium format beast. last i heard the biggest was 24 mill, 39 mill cant see the point its all down to the optic's! oh yeah medium format also needs big lenses!

[thecrownles]

Can that image sensor be used to capture video at HD resolutions as well? For $32,000 I would expect it to. That or clean your room.

[Arkuden]

sweet mammy pajammy thats one helluva res. now i can sleep on bedsheets in my image hahaha... creepy

[Marquee]

LOL
Man the celabs will be the frist to see these camras. That is a sweet camare but such a big leap. Last year the best camara was like 9megapixl. Now 39. Thats crazzy.

[Firehed]

Meh, you could have a 239084MP camera, and still suck at taking pictures. It would just be ultra-high-res blurriness.

[Hybr1d]

mmm... lifesize Jess Alba photo's

[Wolfe]

Originally Posted by Nexxo

And drunk people will still use this exquisite technology to take pictures of their equally pissed mate mooning people.

That, and pictures of turds (bluespamming, :shudder: ).

[Tomm]

Originally Posted by thecrownles

Can that image sensor be used to capture video at HD resolutions as well? For $32,000 I would expect it to. That or clean your room.

I doubt it. I'm not au fait with how medium format cameras work as opposed to SLRs, but I'm pretty sure they won't be capable of video.

When will the megapixel increases stop? Like Burnout says, it's all down to the lenses, and if you're buying a £32 grand camera you're probably gonna get some decent lenses to go with it. But on your average consumer camera, there is no way you'll get a lens decent enough to take advantage. I think perhaps we will stop these increases in image size fairly soon. But then again didn't a great man once say 640k was enough memory?

No, it was Bill Gates roffles

[customh]

All you people... pshh just take it for what it is, a cool new peice of technology to show we are advancing.... or at least somebody is.....

[r-gator]

I had a singular opportunity last year to take pictures with the Hassleblad H1D (21 MPx) at a product demonstration they were having at my school. At the time the camera cost $25,000. The salesman who brought the camera in said he had 7 in his shop that he rented out to photographers for $700 per day. The camera is very heavy and if you are using the portable harddrive slung about your shoulders, then you are weighed down even more. It's not a camera for traipsing about the country with. It is a studio camera. What was crazy was he would take a picture 5 seconds later it would be on the G5 Mac for preview, then 120 seconds later he would have finished a 30''x40'' print on the large format printer which he said could potentially be sold for $1000. (the print not the printer).
Incendentally the file size of the pictures we were taking at 16bitRGB was 132MB. The camera also doesn't come with a lens you have to purchase one separately for $1500-$3000 depending on your needs.

[eddie_dane]

Only goes up to ISO 400... I'm curious how noisy the images are at 200 - 400 on that sensor. At least it's got good lenses.

[<A88>]

Originally Posted by Tomm

But then again didn't a great man once say 640k was enough memory?

No, it was Bill Gates roffles

Actually that's just a myth, he never really said it.


<A88>

[Firehed]

Originally Posted by eddie_dane

Only goes up to ISO 400... I'm curious how noisy the images are at 200 - 400 on that sensor. At least it's got good lenses.

Well in theory, it would be the same as any other speed, but obviously not. With film, it's grainier as a result of needing less light. I suppose that'll be the same case if you're doing sports shots or something, but if it's studio work then surely you'll be shooting at ISO100 or lower. Even at ISO100, my B+W prints are moderately grainy (though not nearly as much as the 400 film most people in my class are using)

I suppose that's the thing about dSLR... they work the same way as film SLRs in essence. Your eyes work the same way actually, I've noticed - if it's really late with little light, even with your eyes adjusted to the low light (say ISO1600, if we could rate our eyes), it's very hard to see any details and everything does appear to be somewhat grainy. But during the day, it's all crisp and happy.

At least THAT part of AI is figured out for when we want to create the matrix.