Dinner break ya’ll! This is footage from an upcoming cell phone camera. It’ll be apparent who makes it, but I’m not pimping it specifically.

I show it because I’m struck by this turn of events in light of conversations I’ve overheard in the past. I mean, I guess it was sort of inevitable but I remember a few years ago listening to the technorati discussing the then current state of video. There was a lot of crummy home video flooding YouTube (there still is and always will be) and I seem to remember there were some polls or studies that suggested that folks just really didn’t care all that much about video quality. Not only that, but people were spending a lot more time watching video in that medium over TV. Or watching standard definition material on their high definition TVs, happily. Which lead some to speculate that we might end up in a world of shitty quality video as the standard and that things wouldn’t move forward. It’s an alarmist point of view but one I entertained a little because while content is certainly king, given the choice I prefer my video crisp – definitions ever higher.

Although the obvious outcome even in this apocalyptic view isn’t that cameras would clap their hands together and announce that we’d come far enough. No, technology progresses and you eventually have cell phones capable of what you see above. The DSLRs I can’t stop talking about are just another indication that technology improves and finds a way into the hands of the masses. There are times when I think about whether or not constant progress is a good or bad thing in general, but it’s pretty much inevitable and a topic for another time. So at least if we’re all going to be watching YouTube as our primary outlet for entertainment, it’ll look nice.

Now this is the part where I rant. Best to pull your goggles up, it’s about to get greasy. I saw today yet another guy claiming that he can’t tell the difference between standard old busted definition, and HD on his 42″ 1080p TV. You sir, are either an idiot or a troll. Possibly you also sit 30′ from your TV. In which case the former is confirmed. May I suggest a larger TV or glasses? I have a really nice upscaling DVD player and I can certainly tell the difference between that and my Brew-rays. They look good, but I don’t struggle to see the difference.

Thank you.