The 2000 Megapixel Mobile Phone Image

The picture that takes up all your bandwidth for a month. The one that causes the local Telstra tower to burst into flames... If you think this is hyperbole...well you're right. For now. Wait a few years and see what happens. That was what occurred with the memory card - it went from being a tremendously rare thing with small capacity and high price - to a laughingly common object with enormous storage and laudably small price. You can still be soaked for some of the new high-speed cards, but that will drop soon enough. Technology eventually outstrips even accountancy. This is a good thing. My first cards - 2Gb - were large and expensive, but less so than those of a few years prior to my digital entry. Their capacity has steadily expanded as their price-per-byte has dropped. People who hoarded one card to load and empty now carry handfuls to fill and store. And are caught out less with failures and corruptions. The technology has advanced. Now back to the impossible phone. It won't be impossible, eventually, but the danger will be the desire on the part of the phone companies to load the things with ever more idiot apps. The app with the street map of Bogota showing the toffee shops will eventually crowd out the one allowing you to take good pictures. You will be faced with 7 different steps to delete anything and eventually will be tempted to drop the thing in the river for a bit of peace. I am drawn to this by looking at the rumour site that deals with my preferred camera brand. It would appear that we will eventually see the 5th iteration of a camera line - of which I possess the 2nd version - and that it will have a 40 megapixel sensor. If I thought this excessive ( don't ask me... ) I would not say, because when it comes out we will be delighted and grateful for the technological advance. The people who make images for the sides of buses will heave a sigh of relief, as will the amateur shooters who need to compete with others on the basis of novelty and expenditure. The company will sell them, the previous models will come back into the second-hand market, and all will be happy. Happy, of course, until the 80 megapixel replacement is announced...but there is no point hitting yourself with a future whip when there are current ones available at a good price.