OmniVision recently announced a sensor chip for mobile devices that supports video recoding at a resolution of 4608 x 3456 pixels at 30 fps or 3840 x 2160 pixels at 60 fps. (See also: http://www.ovt.com/products/sensor.php?id=116 ). According to press releases, they expect mobile phones making use of these capabilities for shooting videos to hit the shelves in 2013.

Certainly, this sensor is not large enough to make low-light or "shallow DOF" shooters happy, and mobile phones are not really expected to have decent lenses mounted. But the reason why I wanted to mention this product announcement here, anyway, is that I found 2012 to be a somewhat sad year regarding the video capabilities of new enthusiast cameras. It seems to me that companies like Canon, Minolta, Olympus, Sony etc. want us to actually believe that it is still rocket science to read out sensors quickly and do the post-processing required to record videos from that - while in reality, they just deprive their mid-range cameras of even 1080p60 modes to justify their "pro camcorder" pricings.

2012 was the year that mobile phones took the lead regarding maximum still image resolution (Nokia 808 - see http://www.technobuffalo.com/mobile-devices/phones/why-the-nokia-808-pureview-is-the-first-real-threat-to-the-digital-camera/ ), however reasonable that may be. 2013 will be the year that mobile phone shooters will smile at those dinosaur below-4k-video-camera owners - whatever shortcomings their recordings will have due to the mobile phone form factor restrictions.

Don't get me wrong, I will certainly not trade in my GH2 for a mobile phone. But I'm somewhat frustrated how easily the camera manufacturers give up their market share to mobile phone manufacturers all for the wrong reasons. A child that grew up owning a mobile phone that - at least on paper - has better specs than any non-bulky dedicated camera will be a lost cause for the camera industry.