Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:
> > Quite why anybody would pay for an expensive 2MP photosensor and then 
> > stick it behind a crappy 7mm lens I have no idea. 

> I've never understood that, unless a 2MP photosensor is actually cheaper in 
> bulk than a lower quality one.

  Well, as technology advances it often quite ironically happens that
the older some technology gets, the more expensive it becomes to purchase.
The reason is simple: Lack of demand reduces supply, and low supply means
that the product becomes expensive to produce. Production lines get
upgraded for the newer technology (if not even dismantled outright), so
the older technology becomes more difficult to produce.

  Thus the price of most technology experiences a strong U-shaped behavior
as time passes: When the technology is brand new, it's extremely expensive
(both because production costs are still high due to the lack of cheap
production lines, and to capitalize on the eagerness of early adopters).
Then it quickly gets cheaper and cheaper, until it reaches the bottom of
the price valley (and depending on the product it can become almost
ridiculously cheap compared to its original price). Then it stays there
for some time, and when the technology gets more and more obsolete, and
demand decreases, it starts becoming once again more and more expensive
to produce. Depending on the product, it may at some point become impossible
to purchase anymore (because nobody is making it), or extremely expensive
(even more expensive than when it was brand new).

  This is the reason you eg. don't find half-gigabyte USB memory sticks
anymore, even though one could think that they would be very cheap to
produce. In fact, they might not be. They might actually be pretty
expensive to produce, which is why nobody does anymore.

  It may also explain why it's cheaper to produce a camera with a 2MP
sensor than one with eg. 1MP.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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