Towards 100 megapixels

Photography

Rational extrapolation.

Moore’s Law is named after one of the founders of Intel and holds that the number of transistors in a CPU doubles every 18 months.

Even as component spacing approaches the frequency of the electromagnetic spectrum, which I suppose is a theoretical limit, the Law shows no sign of abating. Indeed, any data point above the line in the chart above reflects a rate of change faster than the 18 month frequency suggested by the Law, and there are many such recent points.

Which begs the question why have digital camera sensor densities been so much slower to grow? By any standards 2012 has been a stellar year for full frame camera sensors, with much of the increase in pixel counts coming from Sony in their own branded bodies, their SLT-A99, DSC-RX1 and SLT-A77 all at 24 mp, Sony manufactured sensors in the Nikon D800/800E (36mp) and in the D600 (24mp) and Canon’s sensors in their 5D Mark III (22mp). The snapper has never had a better choice of full frame bodies and Sony’s RX1 finally added a compact non-DSLR fixed lens body to the options.

As each new body sees an older one obsoleted, with prices dropping by over 50% a year or two later, this rapid pace of change affords tremendous choice in used full frame bodies for photographers. The $3000 Canon 5D Mark I (12mp) of yore can be found mint for under $700. The stunningly expensive $8,000 Nikon D3x (24mp), still sold for some $7,000 new, is easily found in barely used condition for under $3,000. The robust Nikon D700 (12mp), $3,000 until the D800 and D600 crushed resale values, can be easily found in unmolested condition for under $1,500.

The need for greater sensor densities has been accompanied by much ignorance or misinformation. Those decrying ever higher pixel counts will damn them with words like “you only need these for billboard sized prints” or “the noise levels rise with pixel count”. Both are wrong. The definition from the latest sensors in Sony, Canon and Nikon bodies make selective enlargements ever easier and the sensors are emphatically lower noise than those of the previous generation. I often find myself snapping with a lens in the 20-35mm range, sometimes cannot get close enough to the subject fast enough and end up having to enlarge a section of the original. A denser sensor pixel count makes the result that much better.

Yet despite Moore’s Law, camera sensors have not remotely increased pixel densities at the rate seen in CPUs and GPUs. The 1999 Nikon D1 had 2.6mp in its APS-C sensor, equivalent to 4mp in FF. That was 13 years ago. Today’s D800 has 36mp, an increase of only 9x in 13 years, whereas had Moore’s Law applied we would be seeing 100mp today. Whether controlled co-opetition based on oligopolistic practices or more arcane technical issues are the cause, the rate of growth in sensor densities pales in comparison to what has been accomplished in microchips.

However, the D800 introduced this year reflects a serious jump in densities and we can expect another even denser sensor from Canon in 2012, rumored at 45mp in the 5DX. That suggests that 100mp is maybe 2-3 years away at most. This jump in sensor densities has also exposed flaws in technique (focus must be dead on, camera shake negligible to get the best out of the sectional enlargement) and while the newest sensors improve the results from any lens, many lenses are now being ‘out defined’ by the latest breed of sensors. So we have had the wonderful experience of seeing Zeiss becoming a serious competitor with outstanding MF optics for Sony, Canon and Nikon bodies forcing the Japanese to go back to the design computer to come up with something better. All photographers win from this competition.

Higher pixel densities are already available from Panasonic and Olympus in their latest MFT bodies, but those sensors are but one quarter of the area of FF. At 16mp that figures to 64mp on FF and the sensor in my Panny G3 yields 18″ x 24″ prints with outstanding resolution from the full frame with ease. Noise performance in not quite up to stellar sensors like the one in the D700, but it’s quickly getting there, already representing a significant improvement on the 12mp sensor in the earlier Panasonic G1. So while processing chips will have to speed up and buffer sizes will have to increase, we already have the technology to get sensors very close to 100mp.


One of Zeiss’s latest offerings, the 15mm ultra-wide, raises the bar for Japanese designers.

Better yet, Schneider is now entering the FF lens business offering Sony, Canon and Nikon mounts for its 35mm Perspective Correction Super-Angulon, a storied name if ever there was one.

So while pixel densities have been crawling along for much of the past decade, I expect that we will see rapid growth in the number of high density sensors in the near future, accompanied by ever falling costs. Truly, this is the golden age of photography. Film, once scanned and digitized, cannot equal the resolution afforded by the latest crop of digital sensors. At 4,000 ppi, FF film maxes out at 24mp and it takes ages to complete a scan that dense, which still leaves the snapper having to retouch dirt and scratches. And the result, with all the lossy steps, is a digital copy of an analog original. Hard to see how that makes sense. Further, as optics leap forward these high pixel count FF sensors will rapidly sound the death knell of overpriced medium format hardware from the likes of Hasselblad and Leica. Why spend $50,000 when like performance can be had for 10% of that sum?

Steve McCurry and Pirelli

Photographers

A new look.

Steve McCurry is best known for his third world photography for National Geographic. His work is exceptionally good and he is a seemingly tireless and much travelled photographer.

So to learn that McCurry is photographing the 2013 Pirelli calendar comes as a surprise. The models are all photographed in Rio de Janeiro and the overall look is dark and sombre. Quite a break with Pirelli’s tradition, and how McCurry did not get mugged and robbed in this most dangerous of cities is a mystery, especially as much of the photography was done in the scandalous slums overlooking the city where gangs and guns rule. The recent movie Fast Five does an excellent job of showing the favelas up close, and is also immensely entertaining.

McCurry’s style of working is the antithesis of the motor driven yob who generally typifies fashion snappers in the public’s imagination. No long hair, two-day beard, bad language, torn jeans or reversed baseball cap, he works quietly and methodically, mostly using a tripod, and is most charming, self effacing and gentlemanly. There is obvious rapport with his models who presumably have seen it all by now, and I found it especially touching that he makes the time to show his subjects their images on the LCD screen of his camera. In many ways, McCurry’s fame exceeds that of his models, yet he makes no issue of it.

The video is well worth watching, with McCurry using a digital Hasselblad and a loudly advertised Nikon D3x – gotta repay all that free gear! No photographer in his right mind would use the garish stock straps which come with Canon and Nikon gear, but I suppose if sponsorship money is involved, that’s a different matter. And inept as the straps are, if your free camera falls to the ground who cares? It’s the only jarring note in an otherwise interesting documentary piece.


Click the picture for the video.

While the final images shown in the video seem over processed to my eye – too much action on the Vibrance and Saturation sliders if you ask me – they are striking, especially those of Karlie Kloss toward the end. It’s also pretty special to see that all of these affluent women are doing so much to help the poor and sick. What a fine way to leverage fame to bring attention to third world issues.

McCurry blogs two to three times a month with very generous helpings of his wonderful photographs. You can see his blog and sign up for the RSS feed here. His work is no stranger to poverty and you will see many images of the poor of India, Pakistan, northern Africa, Russia and so on. Sadly there is no shortage of similar subjects for his fine eye.

The Crown Graphic

Cameras

A well thought out design.

Watching Brian dePalma’s splendid Prohibition Era movie The Untouchables the other evening I was struck by just how skilled reportage photographers were in that period. In one early scene, the Treasury Agent Elliot Ness orchestrates a raid on a suspected illegal liquor warehouse and as he prepares to smash open one of the wooden crates he believes contains the hooch, an aspiring press photographer, armed with a Speed Graphic and that enoromous flashgun with the almost as large one-use bulb, bursts in and takes a snap. His men want the reporter removed but Ness, sensing a ‘photo op’ lets him stay. As he picks up the axe to smash the crate, it’s what follows that leaves you lost in admiration. In a choreographed series of actions, the reporter realizes he has used one of the two exposures in his film slide. In the matter of a few seconds, you see him insert the dark slide, pull out the film holder, reinsert it reversed, pull out the second dark slide, change the flashbulb and snap Ness as he pulls out the contents of the crate …. a Japanese decorative umbrella. Ooops. But what the photographer had to go through to get his one chance at the front page is exceptional.

The camera was, amazingly, exceptionally well suited to hand-held use. It came with a decent rangefinder (I dismantled mine to clean the mirrors whereupon it became easy to use), an optical finder with interchangeable masks for different lenses, a wire frame finder easily extended from the body and ideal for reporters’ use and adjustable focus stops. You had a reasonable range of perspective controls thanks to the drop bed, and lens exchange was very simple and fast. Best of all the whole thing collapsed into a surprisingly compact rectangular box and the included carrying handle made for easy transport. It weighed less than the modern DSLR. A large chromed side plate accommodated the flashgun whose handle later did double duty in George Lucas’s ‘Star Wars’ movies as a light sabre!

Until the roll film camera gained acceptance, the reporter’s tool of choice was the Graflex company’s Speed Graphic or later the Crown Graphic. I owned a Crown Graphic for a couple of years, interested in finding out just how it was to use a large format camera. I put together a slide show of my Crown Graphic – long sold – and you can download the 50MB file by clicking or touching the picture below:


Click the picture to download the slideshow.

Toward the end you can see where I made my own focusing cams for the wide and long focus lenses so as to ensure accurate coupling with the optical rangefinder for hand-held use. A fun project!

Tripod use was every bit as easy and the huge negative size meant that large prints of just about any size were easy to make with frightening resolution. Scanned at 4,000dpi the negative yielded no fewer than 320 megapixels! At 2,000 dpi, more than enough, it came in at 80 megapixels.

I eventually gave up on the Crown for a couple of simple reasons. First, it was impossible to find anyone to process my Kodak Vericolor originals without adding scratches, boot marks and hair lines. This meant endless retouching just as in the bad old film days. Second, getting a good scan of the originals at a reasonable price was also impossible. Drum scans, which would disclose every last detail in every last leaf on that giant sequoia were prohibitively expensive and the scanned files would average over 200MB. Guaranteed to disclose my iMac’s dual purpose design when processed – a computer and a toaster, all in one. But the Crown Graphic was an absolute blast to use. Both color and monochrome film stock remains available if you want to give it a shot. You will not lose any money when it comes time to sell your hardware, but you will need a good changing bag to load those film holders. Just about any lens will do, the large negative making the latest and greatest in optics overkill.

Here are a few snaps:


Cayucos beach.


Abandoned gas pumps, Los Alamos, CA.


General Store, Los Alamos, CA.


Rust.