HD video is currently the next step in increasing the visual quality of moving images, and it is certainly more detailed than anything in the past, but it just makes me think about how in terms of visual clarity, video is forever doomed to lag behind still images and photographs.
Here is a fiction re-enactment of the interaction between video and photography.
Video: I’m bigger and sharper and better than ever! Maybe I’ll finally win!
Photography: Well that’s great! By the way, have you seen my new ultra mega resolution that lets me get in 100 times as much detail?
Video: DAMN YOUUUUUUUU
Or something to that effect.
Of course video is more realistic in its own way, but through time we’ve seen that increasing desire for more realism in it, but just by the fact that for every step in visual clarity that video takes, photography and the like are able to be at least twice or three times better just by virtue of being static images.
This might make for a good shounen manga, actually. Personally I can’t wait for the heroic team-up to vanquish a common enemy.
And by common enemy, I mean REALITY ITSELF.
OGIUE MANIAX 
If we’re just talking about quality of the frame, I think the gap is being bridged as we reach maximum pixel density our eyes can handle.
Even if a photo has 10k x 10k pixels and the video only 1k, if its on the iphone 4, at 15 inches away or whatever with perfect eyesight, we cant see the difference. (can only see x00 dpi of detail no matter how big the pic is)
At x00 dpi, a direct comparison of a photo to video will be the same at a given dimension. Of course if we zoom in, the photo will keep it’s detail.
Maybe the enemy of the photo will soon be the screen.
Photo: damn you, screen! If you weren’t here I could destroy movie!
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Well, the thing with photos is that since they’re static images, the higher pixel count means better zoomability and cropping. So you could take a wide angle shot from afar and still get a close up that is of fairly high pixel density. Sure, if you just want to look at the photo as one on a screen, the extra pixels won’t matter – in fact, most computer monitors aren’t capable of doing this with photos greater than 3 or 4 megapixels – but with photos, we like to zoom in and pan around, seeing the various little parts of it.
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