goldengod

The Hasselblad H3D is not quite as crazy as The Gigapxl Project, but it comes damn close. Using some of the largest image sensors in the world, measuring 48 by 36mm, Hasselblad has created an incredible 39 megapixel digital camera. This is much higher than current digital cameras or SLRs, which range from 6 to 16 megapixels.

High resolution photography such as this has been available for a while, as evidenced by the previously mentioned Gigapixl Project and this article by Ken Rockwell. In the past, it involved using a large format film camera to take the photo. After shooting with one of these 4×5″ large format cameras, the negative would be processed and then scanned on a high-resolution drum scanner. Today any consumer-grade 4800dpi scanner will work just fine as an alternative to expensive drum scanning.

These extra steps eliminate it as a solution for most of us lazy folk. However, some company whose name I can barely pronounce has made up for our inadequacies in the form of a ridiculously overpowered digital camera. You can read all the tech specs on the manufacturer’s site, but I warn you that they might make your head hurt.

While I am really happy to see serious advances are being made in the field of DSLR image sensors, I know it will still be decades before digital photography can even begin to consider matching film quality. You really only need to look as far as the medium-format black and white film work of Lung Liu (here or here) or read a few of Ken Rockwell’s articles on the quality of digital cameras.

There’s a reason major photographic magazines by and large still refuse to accept digital submissions, and that reason is quality.

Hasselblad H3D Digital [Gizmodo]