A new NE Asia Online article claims that the video photography option of digital cameras will rival the quality found in dedicated digital video cameras by 2006. Cameras like the Fuji Finepix M603 have tried to combine the best of both worlds by offering still and moving digital photography in one package, but at present top-end models only offer 310,000 pixels per frame at 30 frames per second (fps). Apparently that is all set to change in the next few years:

“Manufacturers have been facing numerous problems in trying to achieve higher image quality and ease-of-use within these limits, and the results of their efforts will hit the streets in 2004. The new digital cameras released then are expected to rival video cameras in terms of image quality and recording time.

But digital camera manufacturers are not likely to stop there: a look at developments in constituent technology shows that the video photography functions are going to continue to evolve. One of the most likely developments is video photography with more than a million pixels per frame in recording. Technically, it is possible that digital cameras could be out by 2006 capable of taking still images with several million pixels/frame, and video at 1.3 million pixels per frame (super extended graphics array, or SXGA format). Above the million pixels/frame threshold, this type of video photography is called megapixel video.”

Website: NE Asia Online - Video from Digital Cameras to Reach 1.3M-Pixels/Frame