Thirty photos a second with a compact digicam?

Posting an article about the things in progress in the digital world - can't wait to see what Canon's next 1D Digital SLR looks like

Micron Technology is coming out with an imaging chip for compact digital cameras next year that will let amateurs maniacally click away like Austin Powers.

The Boise, Idaho-based chipmaker has come up with an 8-megapixel silicon imager for compact cameras that will allow cameras to shoot 10 8-megapixel pictures a second or 30 2-megapixel shots a second. If camera makers adopt the chip, consumers will be able to capture those '60s-style photo montages made famous in "A Hard Day's Night."

The chip will also be capable of capturing video in the 720p format, which is the entry-level version of high definition.

Many current compact and even single-lens reflex (SLR) cameras do not provide this capability. Most cameras can take two to four shots a second at maximum resolution or 10 shots at lower resolution. Most also capture video at the 480-by-640 pixel resolution.

Over the past two years, however, digital cameras have been undergoing a quiet internal revolution. Traditionally, camera makers produced their own chips. The expense and time involved in developing these chips, however, has prompted them to turn to outfits like Texas Instruments, NuCore and Micron to produce the imagers for their still cameras.

http://news.com.com/Thirty+photos+a+second+with+a+compact+digicam/2100-1041-6073584.html?part=dht&tag=nl.e703

I mean, a still frame from a consumer 2 megapixel digital camera is better than a frame from a 50K dollar HD camera. The reason movies are still shot on 35mm film is not so much quality, but rather quality vs cost of bandwidth and storage. It's a compromise, but it won't always be in the near future, as the article posted shows, even for consumer products.

HD is good, sometimes even "good enough" for a major motion picture, but it is really just an old, interim standard. I mean, why not a Canon 1D that shoots 30fps? Storage and speed of storage.

And with storage sizes getting larger and larger, it's not inconceivable to have a pair of glasses that record everything you see each day, at 8mp a frame, 15 frames a sec, and then bluetooth it to your house's own storage system when you're asleep :-)

No more missed shots, ever.

And the Canon 1D IIn already snaps at 8.5 frames a second at 8+meg.
:shrug:

This "technology" seems more geared to the consumer who take both pixies and movies with their point & shoot camera and not the happy snapper, pro-sumer, pro, etc...... but I could be reading it wrong.
:dunce:

It's just interesting to think that it is all starting to mix, consumer/pro/prosumer, and how far things have come in such a short time, and how far things are going to go in the direction of more quality for your money.

with actual functions. The point, as I read it, is that eventually these sensors won't care if they're taking SLR style long exposures or sports action, or filming movies, it'll be all the same.

Still photography has already felt the impact, and absorbed it completly. It's the motion picture industry that will feel the big changes.

A 35mm motion picture camera suitable for shooting sound is a hundred thousand dollar tool. Film and processing to make a 30 second commercial cost thousands of dollars.

You're right, the sensors don't care, they are already not just "good enough", but better. The technology to capture that "better" at 30fps and store it and edit it is the current bottleneck.