Go, Get a Tablet!

I caused some heartburn when I wrote ‘Go, get a DSLR‘ and I’m still busy wiping foreign froth off my face! A couple of connoisseurs who couldn’t bring themselves to descend low enough to put in a comment on this blog, called me long distance to tell me how very backward looking I was. DSLRs will be passé in a year or two, I was told, and I probably was not ready to acknowledge the advancements in technology. Was I an ostritch or something? See, what happened to all those doggedly sticking to film photography!

Sure enough. Unfortunately and fortunately, the goo doesn’t stick to the face of someone who drools at the scent of a new gadget! I, who have kept the date with Intel, chipset to chipset and with the nth upgrade to my console am none the God! Bricks to polyphonic mobiles, Razrs to Iphones, I’ve had them all: my battered bank account would bear testimony to that. Suddenly now I am the retro fool who wants to screech his gramophones and rewind his ISO 100 film.

Surprisingly, the very fact that I advocate Digital rather than Film SLRs is conveniently lost on my detractors. Why, if I am the rabid purist, did I not stick to Film SLRs? Come on, I will make it simple and tell you that! In case of Digital vs Film, two overpowering facts in favour of digital photography sealed the fate of the latter. One is the power of ‘instant review’. The second is, of course, the power of ‘delete’ and shoot ‘anew’ without any jolt to your wallet. I can throw in the power of increased dynamic range and ISO sensitivity also for good measure but this will sooner turn out to be a never ending slugfest of film vs. Digital. This has been made possible because of the innovative use of digital sensors in place of disposable films. Apart from this, nothing else has changed for the equipment otherwise refered to as “Single Lens Reflex” cameras. The same however does not hold true for the case of DSLR vs point-and-shoot cameras. With more compact camera models than there are stars in the Galaxy, none of them has been able to match the might of life-sized sensors and appendable lenses of a DSLR. My point is, I am not blind to new developments in technology but the broth has to settle before I start sipping it off my daily cup.

But this may change and how! The world is waiting with baited breath the advent of the Apple Tablet, “a cross between an iPhone and a laptop” with a 10 inch high resolution screen. Now, this is getting interesting! What if the huge facia could act as a lens with integrated glass elements and aperture, feeding an enormous sensor behind! That would certainly beat the Hasselblads, or wait, the resolutions of even View Cameras! And when that happens, I will be there indeed, in the overnight queue to grab my piece of the Tablet that will put the Nikon D3s and Canon 1Ds of this world to shame. Meanwhile, go get a Tablet that is a phone, a media player, a personal computer and an image snapping device all magically rolled into one!