I remember my first compact camera came with a 16mb SD card and I quickly bought a 64mb SD card. It was a 3.2mp Nikon Coolpix E3700.

If I used it on the D40, in RAW it would barely take 4 photos I think. And now cameras easily exceed 64mb with RAW files.

Gabandi said:
I think we should all go back to shooting 1.3 MP so we can be content with our lenses again.

heh. Sounds like Knock Renwell on DSLRs.

Seriously though, same thing happens all the time in the technical segment of any market. I am a big proponent that short of something being wrong with a lens if it shot well when it was made there is no reason it shouldn't shoot well now days. I have mentioned this many times on these forums but I have a '67 built Nikkor 55mm f/1.2 that was a fungus mess when I got it that I cleaned and reworked and have shot a lot of pictures with on my D7000 and D800 that makes fantastic images.

Nice reference wether it was intentional or not though.

chris_weinert said:
I just came across this camera review of one of the rather early-generation digital cameras, the Olympus C2000 Zoom. The camera was launched at CeBit 1999 and was available in May 1999. The review is in German only, but it made me chuckle several times, both since it's so yesterday – and because it's soooo today!

...and I bet the participants in forum threads on the topic back then were just as animated and certain of themselves as they are now! ;-/

I think we should all go back to shooting 1.3 MP so we can be content with our lenses again.

I just came across this camera review of one of the rather early-generation digital cameras, the Olympus C2000 Zoom. The camera was launched at CeBit 1999 and was available in May 1999. The review is in German only, but it made me chuckle several times, both since it's so yesterday – and because it's soooo today!

Listen to this:

"The new camera finally breaks a boundary in terms of resolution, as it tops the 'magic' 2-million pixel mark."

"The battery proves to be quite durable: You will rather fill up two 32-megabyte memory cards with pictures than run out of battery."

"Taking pictures is a pretty speedy process: Given individual focus and exposure values, the camera can shoot a new picture after only 3 seconds."

"Whoever wants to ensure highest quality can skip the JPEG compression and record directly in uncompressed RGB-TIFF format. In this case, images result in 5.6 Megabyte files."

So far, so good. But doesn't this sound familiar:

"Generally, the new high-resolution 2-megapixel CCDs demand remarkably higher optical quality from the lenses than it is the case with the 1.3 to 1.7 megapixel cameras. With the C2000 Zoom, we could observe light chromatic aberrations in the image corners if the motive had strong contrast in those areas."

So let me sum it up:

With the new C2000, we've arrived at a point where the sensor resolution is so high that it exposes all the weaknesses of the current lenses. It's the glass that becomes the limiting factor. But: Both the camera manufacturers and third parties have already announced to release new-generation lenses specifically designed for delivering excellent quality also with the 2-MP sensors!

Did I say C2000? I mean D800, of course. ;-)