Electronic image acquisition spans a broad range of product categories and functions with much overlap. Challenges are being met in the mechanical, optical, opto-electronic, storage, and digitalprocessing domains that were once considered exclusive to others of those domains. Boundaries between consumer, broadcast, and cinematographic acquisition equipment are disappearing. Stereoscopic 3D is shaping many technological developments, including at least four types of image processing not associated with twodimensional imagery.The ARRI Alexa cameras, with ALEV III CMOS image sensors, are typical of the sort of subjects that would normally appear in an acquisition-technology progress report. The sensors, in this age of widescreen imagery, are the size and shape of a 4:3-aspect-ratio (4:3 AR) Super-35 film frame. The cameras, therefore, can use standard PL-mount anamorphic lenses for 2.4:1 AR cinematic images. A version with optical viewfinder seems appropriate to such digital-cinematography use.Another version, with electronic viewfinder, however, seems more appropriate to high-definition (HD) video shooting, and the camera can capture 2880 x 1620 16:9 AR images without anamorphic optics. It is also priced well within the range of recent HD broadcast cameras. Today' s range of HD broadcast-camera prices is much broader, however, especially at the low end.New mobile telephones, such as the Apple iPhone 4, HTC Touch HD, Motorola Droid X, Nokia N8, Samsung Captivate, and Sony Ericsson Vivaz, include HD cameras. As this is being written, Aiptek' s AHD-1 consumer HD camcorder is being sold new by its manufacturer for a retail price below $80.
