On another tab in this same web browser, I am reading a Thom Hogan article about how the 12-mega-pixel Nikon D3 isn’t “high resolution” enough, and you need to stitch at least two of its images together to make it truly “hi-res.”

Seven years ago, the highest-resolution digital camera on the market was the Kodak DCS 760. At six mega-pixel, it was regarded as the gold standard of digital, and photographers paid $8000 for it. (Three years before that the DCS 460 was sold for $15,000.) I got a 760 on Ebay recently for a tiny fraction of its original retail price. It turns out that it still takes great pictures even though there are newer cameras out there.

How is this possible?

Easy: you don’t need new cameras at all. You only need a new camera if you have a tiny penis and/or enormous hubris.

Commerce is about ego. Nothing more.

This also, by the way, is an excellent example of the concepts of planned and perceived obsolescence.