[michaelt]

If the aim is to gather a panoramic image while in the air, I would have thought priority #1 would be getting a compact sensor that didn't suffer motion blur when flying and spinning at the same time, in low light conditions, with battery power, low weight and a tiny lens.

I mean, my phone camera produces poor images when I'm trying to hold it still, whereas a thrown ball can fly at 80mph or spin at 20-30 revolutions per second.

[jffry]

At SIGGRAPH 2010, Microsoft Research showed off a technique [1] where they attached an IMU (measures acceleration/rotation) to a DSLR. They recorded motion and used it to deblur the image.

A ball flying and spinning through the air should have a fairly simple blur, though of a potentially much higher magnitude. I'm not familiar enough with the state-of-the-art, but my gut tells me that post-facto image processing could yield impressive results.

This also doesn't have to be extremely high-res sensors. A lower-resolution sensor with larger pixels would collect more light, allowing for a faster shutter speed, meaning less blur.

[1]: http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/groups/ivm/im...

[michaelt]

I'm not saying it's impossible or anything. If they wanted to they could just put a bright flash on, or wait for the camera to roll to a stop, or buy a crazy high performance sensor.

I'm just saying, if I was running the company, that's the problem I'd be most worried about getting right.