Well, there have been a few interesting things lately.

Firstly, Pentax have announced a new 6MP camera with anti-shake technology (see the article on DIMi). This says two things. Firstly, that Pentax see 6MP as a suitable entry level camera resolution and, secondly, that they are pushing development of their cameras, which should mean they are going to stick around. Of course Konica-Minolta suffered the curse of the in-camera anti-shake technology :) and exited the industry, so let’s hope that doesn’t happen to Pentax. I think not, because they seem to have a more realistic idea of what to charge for their cameras.

Is 6MP a suitable size for an entry-level dSLR? Probably. When I compare the 8MP Canon 350D/Rebel XT with it’s older 6MP brethren you see a small increase in noise, or at least I do. The diffence in resolution is nice, but given most amateurs consider an 11×14 inch print large, I don’t think it makes a lot of difference. So perhaps 6MP is a great place to start. The pixel cells are larger, so the noise can be less and the sensitivity a bit higher. If you keep the sensors at 6MP the price can also come down, which is great.

So this is all probably good stuff.

The other interesting thing is that Canon are suspending (and probably permanently) development of new film cameras (see the Reuter’s article). This is a predicable development. Film is not going to go away any time soon (there are too many film cameras out there) but with all the interest and the bulk of sales now in digital you have to ask why invest more money in developing new cameras for a shrinking market.