Hasselblad currently manufactures the 60-megapixel HD4-60 camera. As if that is not large enough, they recently announced that they they would be making a camera capable of capturing even larger images for 2011. CNET News is reporting that this camera will be capable of 200 million pixels.
Who would ever need a 200-megapixel camera? Well, lots of people I would expect. For one thing, astronomers could certainly use images that size. However, the way that they get to 200 megapixels probably rules out astronomy. Instead it looks like it will be used for advertisements used in print medium.
However, even in the rarefied air of the medium-format market, where image sensors are very large and very expensive, the 200-megapixel “extended multishot” technology won’t appeal to everyone: each shot will take about 30 seconds to capture, restricting the camera to stationary subjects such as cars, watches, and jewelry.
That’s because of the design of the Hasselblad multishot-series cameras such as the HD4-50MS. The current model uses tiny piezoelectric motors to shift the sensor a very small amount to combine two shots into one higher-quality image.
via Hasselblad plans 200-megapixel camera for 2011 @ CNET News
