Natural disasters tend to fade from memory as scenes of destruction slip from prominence in the media.

ECONOMIST: In Katrina's wake

His funeral sparked chaotic scenes but fears that the death was not natural proved unfounded.

BBC: Goodbyes

Mr Obama's team believe that if they can't have the natural wild magic of 2008, some clever stage craft and behind the scenes mechanics will still synthetically reproduce that winning wizardry in 2012.

BBC: A targeted message from Obama 2012

With this latest iteration, we were able to capture sharp images in environments where there was far too little light to make out details with the naked eye, just as we have with the larger (and pricier) Nikon D3S. Our resulting scenes look like they were lit with sophisticated rigs, or in an environment that allotted far more natural light than was actually available.

ENGADGET: Canon EOS 5D Mark III field review Hands-on