Photo enthusiasts like me love Photokina time. All the new goodies show up. Leaf, a medium-format digital camera vendor has set the new bar for 6x6 cameras with its 56-Mpixel AFi-II camera system. Leaf codeveloped the CCD sensor with Dalsa Corporation, a specialist in high-end silicon imaging.

There’s a lot of signal processing in a camera like this and cameras like the Leaf AFi-II point the way to the future for other camera systems. Although consumer-grade cameras aren’t likely to need 56 Mpixels—ever—we’ve not yet reached the point where consumer cameras are pushing the abilities of the human visual system. So it’s a safe bet that sensors will continue to grow in pixel size and the resultant processing needs will grow for the next few years.