The Ultimate Camera

What a Camera of the Future Might Look Like
 

- Seth Shostak

EVERYONE HANKERS for a better camera, and that’s good news for equipment manufacturers. But is there an end point to this pining? Is there some camera that would be as good as it’s ever going to get?

Imagine a camera you could plunk down in front of the Taj Mahal or anywhere else and snap photos that were indistinguishable from reality. A camera producing images that, when properly displayed, would be pictorially the same as being there.

This kit would match your visual system in terms of resolution, field of view, dynamic range, and color gamut. And, of course, it would shoot in 3D. The Ulticam.

Could we ever build such a thing? And if so, when can you buy it?