The future is now

Michael Reichmann over at The Luminous Landscape has an interesting essay about the forthcoming convergence of digital stills and video.

This has already begun to take place at the top end of the market, with a number of films and TV shows now being shot using the RED One. Shooting 12 megapixel 30 fps video in RAW format, it allows film makers to treat their video output just as us still shooters treat our RAW files - colour correction, cropping and other post processing can be done much more quickly and efficiently than with film or JPEG output. And if a still shot is required, a 12MP RAW file can be pulled from the sequence and used, just as if it had been taken with a still camera.

He also has a review of the new Casio EF-X1. This is the first of a new generation of consumer cameras that combine high definition video with RAW format digital stills. Over the next couple of years we can expect to see more and more of these products come to market. What does this mean for stills photographers? Right now I don't know.