Camera Wars: Why Autofocus is the New Megapixel

[Guest]

As the camera megapixel wars end, the autofocus battle begins closing the gap between DSLRs, mirrorless models and even smartphone cameras.

Camera Wars: Why Autofocus is the New Megapixel : Read more

 

[dstarr3]

This is just a temporary trend. For a while, people were distracted by wanting the most zoom in the smallest camera, then people wanted f/2.8 lenses or faster in cameras too small to benefit, and now people are pleased to have better autofocus. But, in between, before, and after all of these trends, people just wanted more megapixels, even though the average consumer doesn't need more than 8MP. It's nice that periodically customers are interested in improving these other technologies that make a better camera when things get a little dated, but once camera technology plateaus, they always go back to demanding more megapixels, just because it's a simple number to look at and assume it has anything to do with quality.

 

[bujuki]

I don't know why my previous comment doesn't show up. You should watch Peter Gregg's Youtube video "My new Panasonic GH4 Camera Arrives" (watch?v=Y26VQXB49mM) and add another important aspect, low light AF. That camera is simply awesome.

 

[bujuki]

@dstarr3 : Sony decided to make their new full frame mirrorless, A7S, to only had 12.2 MP - lower than 13 MP on many smartphone - but upped the ISO performance to a whopping 409600. Just watch the video test on Youtube : watch?v=XgbUgNiHfXM. So my thought if A7S is a success it will be low light performance race for quite a few years ahead.

 

[gm0n3y]

Modern smart phones take pretty good photos, but I'd like to see them improve on low light / motion performance.

 

[annymmo]

The future is liquid lenses (can focus much faster) and electrically tunable metamaterial lenses where you change the focus, refractive index by changing a voltage over very small elements that control the light going through it. (electrically tunable metamaterials focus even faster than liquid lenses)