Many seismic acquisition surveys today have some form of customization and specialization to reduce cost, address operational issues, or efficiently resolve a difficult geologic objective. This trend has been clearly aided in the recent past by the following: 1) Acquisition systems are more flexible and provide capability to specialize, 2) Geologic and reservoir objectives are getting more demanding and diverse, and 3) Geophysicists have more experience and expertise with acquisition opportunities. This trend of specialized acquisition will probably accelerate in the future because of: 4) Better processing tools that allow for very irregular and non-uniform acquisition, & 5) New processing tools that benefit from specialized acquisition, and 6) Better risk management tools by companies to accept unconventional acquisition. The recent discussions on "compressive sensing" shares strong parallels with specialized acquisition. Both perspectives try to find the best acquisition compromise between cost, geologic resolution, noise, and operational restrictions. Both perspectives rely on using advanced processing for successful imaging with unconventional acquisition. Modifying seismic acquisition based on the performance of new processing tools adds risk and should be done cautiously for this expensive process. But, there is a lot to be gained from finding the best acquisition compromise. Not only can costs be significantly lower, but key geologic & reservoir objectives can be resolved. The new processing methods significantly alter the considerations for the best compromise. Better risk management consideration by companies and some new aggressive risk analysis tools will aid the adoption of these specialized, unconventional acquisition & processing approaches.