CES/PMA is having a mini-conference called the Future Imaging Summit. I’m on the panel on software, so I’ve been pondering what software is going to look like in five years, at least as it pertains to photography.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on where you think it’s going to be and what you expect.

Do you want a Canon 5D markV running Android and apps?
Do you want it easier to add metadata like keywords?
Editing in the cloud?
3D photos? (god forbid ;-)

It will be interesting to see what kind of changes happen to photography over the next five years. One trend that will definitely continue is making it easier to take great photos on a wide range of devices. Can you see a camera phone with a 3/4″ mount for interchangeable lenses? This is of obvious concern to pro photographers. What do you feel you need to compete in a world where even a simple camera phone can take great shots?

Wifi and GPS will become standard on all cameras. Removing the need for a tethered cameras and making it easier to add location metadata. How do you see this affecting you?

How big of a deal is all kinds of metadata? What do you use it for and how would you like to use it if the data could be added automatically or with little effort?

Personally I would love to see cameras running Android. Much of what what we need to attach a camera to a computer for can, and maybe should, be done on camera. Imagine doing a portrait shoot and having the ability to automatically watermark the image with your web address and  upload it to the subjects Facebook page as you’re shooting. Or doing school photos and having the camera scan a QR code without additional hardware and add the info to the metadata of the image.

What about the cloud? Do you even want to edit ‘in the cloud’? Do you see yourself needing to edit from different devices in different locations? What kinds of things are you doing now in the cloud or do you think would be useful?

I’d love to hear from you about any of this stuff or anything you think will be a factor in photography 3 or 5 years from now. Post a comment or shoot me an email at jim@nulldigitalanarchy.com.

Of course, since I’m the one speaking on the panel I’m supposed to be the expert.  But mostly it means as a software developer I may have a better read on some of the newer technologies than some folks. Then again, since I’m not a pro shooter I may be reading those technologies completely wrong. I guess we’ll see, but I would definitely value your input!