04.25.06
Prediction: Digital Camera evolution
My latest prediction: eventually digital cameras will not have an optical zoom, nor will they have flashes. These will become obsolete once the optics technology matures.
Optical zooms will go away because the optical sensors will be able to take such detailed images that zooms will be unnecessary. The resolution of the images they capture at full size will be detailed enough that an optical zoom will be overkill. What we call ‘digital zoom’ today will become the primary method of ‘zooming’, (which in a sense is actually ‘cropping’). Once digital cameras are able to take 100+MiB images, zooming will be redundant.
Flashes, likewise will go away as the sensors will be able to pull up the details of all light coming to the camera and be able to apply tone maps in order to generate High Dynamic Range images. Flash used for darker environments will be uncessessary, and flashes used for fills will also not be used, replaced with tone mapping algorithims.
Not this decade… maybe the next one.