The megapixel race may have peaked. It seems to me that most pro photographers feel their camera's resolution is now high enough. Instead of more pixels, they would like new camera models to bring them better pixels.

Conventional wisdom has it that what pros and consumers want most from their cameras are more megapixels. But buyers may now be happy with the resolution they are getting. I have some evidence: the contrarian reaction to last week's Phase One digital back announcements.

Digital backs are used by product, fashion and landscape photographers who want the really, really best image file quality.

These backs are interchangeable; they are used mounted on medium format or view cameras.

Backs are often used tethered, attached to a computer that allows images to be downloaded and previewed as they are shot. Backs are mostly built on chips designed by Kodak or Dalsa, so the Phase announcement also gives us a good idea where the market is heading.

As digital back users are quality fanatics, the spectacular resolutions—up to 39 megapixels—announced by Phase One for its next generation of digital backs, to be delivered at the start of next year, should have elicited applause, admiration and approval from digital photographers.

Not so: Commentary on the Rob Galbraith medium format discussion group has been, frankly, skeptical.

Most pros still appear overwhelmed by price levels that are remaining stable rather than descending—around $30K is just too much for a single piece of equipment—especially for an item that stays state-of-the-art for only two years.

Many don't like the sensor size. While Phase's most expensive model will now almost completely cover rectangular 645, their other backs still have crop factors.

However, fashion and landscape shooters seem to be saying "no thanks" to finder images that shrink, and the frustration of super-wide angles that will end up cropped into simple wides.

Raw format is a lifesaver. Click here to read Edmund Ronald's column.

Then there is the issue of noise: In fashion and architecture, pros want higher sensitivity, desperately. To capture sharp detail in several focus planes, you need to stop down a lot.

The current low sensitivity of the backs translates into a need for lots of light. This means bigger strobe generators to supply more joules.

Big strobes means serious money, while adding to the transport weight of equipment that needs to be brought to every location shoot.

And there is the eternal problem of the MF frame rates: 1 frame per second in the best of cases is not exactly optimal for shooting a moving model. Fashion shooting is, in fact, an interactive performance, where split-second expressions create the best images.

I could go on, but you see the trend: The target audience is booing rather than applauding Phase's new act. Now, medium format is a very special format that nowadays is mostly reserved for an aristocracy of commercial and landscape shooters.

But I think the same megapixel fatigue can be discerned at the high end of the 35-mm digital SLR scale—the equipment I use every day.

We've seen quite a few shooters move to the expensive full-frame 35-mm SLR cameras in order to avoid crop factors that are psychologically disconcerting, to use extreme wide-angle lenses, and to keep the ability to blur out backgrounds.

Next Page: Pros want highlights that hold their own.