In the eleven years that SP has been in existence, photography and imaging have evolved at the fastest pace in its history. Our first issue in 2005 heralded the launch of Nikon’s F6, its last professional film SLR. Since then the digital wave took over resulting in some game changing moves from the leading players. The smartphone onslaught, however, took the industry by surprise and ravaged the bottom end of the compact camera market. Whilst the cameras installed in smartphones have improved considerably, they still cannot challenge a D-SLR or a mirrorless camera or even a professional compact in certain situations. For action photography or low light photography, smartphones still have a long way to go and the quality of their zooms (mostly digital) is mostly modest.
Meanwhile, Japanese manufacturers have made considerable progress on the sensor front and today’s sensors are way ahead of what appeared three years ago. R & D efforts of sensor making companies like Sony, Samsung, Panasonic and Aptina have resulted in sensors with considerably improved colour filter arrays and stacked sensors delivering much higher performance.
With the Olympics on the anvil, both Canon and Nikon have launched their latest professional D-SLRs and other big launches are sure to follow. And lest we forget, the quality of lenses is improving. Just look at the Art series from Sigma! We are sure that there is much more to come.
On our eleventh anniversary, we at SP thank all our readers, advertisers, employees, vendors and other stakeholders. We look forward to an exciting twelfth year.
H. S. Billimoria
