How Mature is Digital Camera Technology?

Well

It won't be for awhile, the sensor technology keeps advancing, much like computer processors & memory

I would suggest checking into Sumix.com a highly innovative company developing amazing cameras......Just a thought.

"...for the rest of time."

You gotta be kiddin! As Garthh indicated, electronics keeps following Moore's law.

A few years ago 2 MegaPixels was top-of-the.line. Now most phones have something in that range.

Look at Flash memory: it was just over two years ago that I paid almost $70 for a 2GB memory stick. Now you can get one for 6 or 8 dollars.

When I got my first zoom lens, (admittedly that was a loonnng time ago) I was thrilled with a 3:1 zoom ratio. My 3 year old Cannon has a 12:1 ratio. I haven't even looked to see what is available today.

Now on the other hand, that $650 camera you are talking about probably has image quality, light sensitivity, speed, etc. rivaling that of $10k professional cameras of just a decade back, so it should be quite adequate for your needs. I think the biggest question is going to be: what medium is going to be used to store the data, and how is it going to be viewed in the future. If you pick up a movie shot 50 years ago, you can at least see the frames one at a time. I'm betting that 50 years from now, a DVD will be a rarity whose data can only be viewed in a few museums and maybe the larger libraries, assuming libraries are able to exist that long. I doubt many individuals will be able to keep a DVD player/recorder operable that long.

The technology gleaned from the space program(s) (have a few acquaintances at JPL) will probably help pave the way . Sometimes the "problems" of capturing the images is more in how to "store" the images. Everyone wants something smaller, and more convenient, yet a lot of indie movie producers are going back to 35 mm, or 16mm for whatever effects they want to create.--Look at the 3-D Imax movies--Quite amazing stuff--Don't know if it is film or digital--I am sure that someone out there knows. Looking at music storage is a good comparison---LP's vs. mini digital vs. computer style hard drives....as the world turns.. C-MAC

Many movies are shoot digitally. Much easier to carry hard drives, memory cards then big rolls of films.

Digital camera technology has surpassed film technology. Looking at the SLRs, for example the sensors (cropped size) have gone denser than 15 mega pixels and now the resolution limiting factor is the lens diffraction, rather then the sensor capability. The new CMOS sensors in good SLRs are much less noisier (grainy) than the film of similar sensitivity. The new sensors can be practically used at ISO1600 and above with barely visible noise. And with 14 bit color capability, the colors are as true as film now.

Discovery of experimental digital photography during a visit to a friend's home electronic shack in 1975 was sufficient to provoke a move away from chemical imaging and into bulk pharmaceutical manufacture instead.