The 15 Megapixel Timesuck

My mother got me an awesome new camera for my birthday earlier this month. Its an amazing camera and has more options than Postfix.

When I first got into digital art and photography I was using Windows 3.1 and an early version of Photoshop.  I am not sure if I was running a 386 or 486 then but it was definately Pre-Pentium times.  The one annoying thing back then was the fact that the highest resolution shots my camera could create (640×480 – or 0.3 Megapixels) would take FOREVER to process using some Photoshop filters.   As time went on and computers got faster the images processed more quickly.  I am probably an anomaly in that I upgrade PC’s faster than I upgrade cameras.

As a result of this process, I have the occasional magic months when GIMP and G’MIC can rip through images like a hot knife through butter.   That is where I was since moving to a 8gb of RAM, Phenom quadcore system last year.   That all changed with the new camera.   Now that I am working with 15 megapixel RAW files my PC is finally challenged.  The new camera allows me to make things like this:

Her Highness Aiko

The problem is that stages of the processing can take over ten minutes.  So now  that I have this, I may very well need a new and faster PC.  At least this time I will be set for years since I have no plans to upgrade the new camera any time soon.