Recently I had an email discussion with a friend about technology. I had
emailed him describing the new Canon image sensor which is huge - 202mm x
205mm - somewhere around 488 megapixels (too big for my wife's point and
shoot!). We discussed how we used to buy a film camera, and have it last
for 20 - 40 years or more in some cases. My friend lamented that today it
seems that if you purchase some piece of equipment, it becomes obsolete as
soon as you receive it.
The speed with which technology is "advancing" is breath taking. His closing
comment was that he was thinking about taking up oil painting - a technology
which hasn't changed much in several hundred years. I closed by saying that
at times, I thought about a plan I had almost 40 years ago - when my life
seemed to be rushing past me. My plan was to take my cat, and move back to
Southern California and become a beach bum. Well that didn't happen, and
here I am trying stay current with technology. |
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I have an old Canon A1 which I purchased around 1977. I have used it
on my many trips into the Boundary Waters in Northern Minnesota/Southwestern
Ontario (Canada). I must have 20 Carousel trays full of slides from these
trips. Most of the pictures are so-so, a few are really good - none are "bad"
as I pitched those before filling the trays. I haven't seen those slides
in many years - it is a hassle to set up the projector (yes I still have
one which works), and screen to watch them. Here is one area where technology
has saved the day. I can now scan the slides and put them on a DVD (or even
BluRay disk) and watch them on my 46" Sony LED flat screen video system (I'm
hesitant to call it a "TV"!).
For my next 50 years, I won't even have to do the scanning. I got a Canon
DSLR camera. Now, after shooting, I take the little memory card, plug it
into my computer and transfer the photos instantly to an image viewer (I
use XnView) where I pitch the bad, catalog the good and am ready to build
my DVD. No more pulling the roll of film, sending it off to Seattle Film
Works (or taking it to Walgreens) to get it developed etc.
In general, I think that technology has done a lot of good - it just seems
to move awfully fast! |
