With the recent release of the Casio F1, a $1,000 digital camera that can capture images at 60 fps, some photographers are already predicting a future where still and video equipment converges. The prediction is further backed up by the release next year of the Red Scarlet. Certainly, with high-end professional digital SLRs becoming faster and faster in terms of how many images can be captured per second, it is clear that some photographers — those working in photojournalism and sports, for example — are screaming out loud for more.

The Luminous Landscape looks at what this could mean for the industry and the type of cameras on offer to photographers.

I believe that we are at a point in time where a profound change is about to take place in the photographic industry. It is being driven not by user demand, but by the inevitable convergence of a number of required technologies. In combination, and when a certain nexus is reached, they will allow the creation of a new type of photographic instrument which will radically change the way photographers and film makers work.

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Imagine something about the size and weight of a medium format camera. It will have optical reflex viewing and interchangeable lenses. It will be able to shoot raw still images at 30 frames per second continuously, and without the need for a mechnical shutter at just about any required shutter speed. It will have a recycling memory buffer so that it is constantly recording images, buffering the last couple of seconds and then disposing of them if not needed. That way the image can be captured even before the shutter has been pressed.

When the shutter is pressed the last couple of seconds are saved to disk or card and the camera now continues to record, as long as the shutter release is held down, and without any real time length constraint. So if 5 seconds are recorded, 150 frames are as well. The still photographer or editor can then later choose the frame that is best.

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That’s what excites me the most. Give a creative professional photographer a still camera that can simultaneously shoot movies, and a cinematographer a movie camera that can shoot pro-grade stills, and what kind of creativity will this engender? I don’t yet know, but it’s very exciting to contemplate.

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