Hello all,
About 10-12 years ago I heart about a company which invented a sort of digital sensor which you could put in your film SLR. Where you normally would put the film canister would be the electronics and so.
Just imagine it would have been a success and it would have been a good device, then we all be still using our good old camera's and would have lots of money left for optics..... Just a nostalgic thought I had, a what if question...
Does anyone remember the name of the company? And would it have worked properly?
Best wishes,
Reinier
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05-12-2012, 08:06 PM
(This post was last modified: 05-12-2012, 08:20 PM by Brightcolours.)
No, it did not work properly. Very low resolution, small sensor, took ages to come to market and was way outdated once it did.
Actually, it never really materialized (they never showed actual working prototypes to the public). They said it was an 1.3mp sensor being used. And it has a small format, much smaller than APS-C (2.58x crop factor). And it could only hold very few images (64mb, 24 images).
The company called itself Silicon Film Technologies, and the product was being announced as "efilm".
http://www.sitmark.com/Portfolio/Silicon...erview.pdf
Hi Brightcolours,
Thanks for the reply.
It was a nice idea though. I wonder if it would have been possible to produce a good efilm with a bigger and better sensor and better storage. Or is the room just to small to fit in all the necessary parts to have a proper digital 'module'?
Best wishes,
Reinier
[quote name='Brightcolours' timestamp='1336853172' post='18163']
No, it did not work properly. Very low resolution, small sensor, took ages to come to market and was way outdated once it did.
Actually, it never really materialized (they never showed actual working prototypes to the public). They said it was an 1.3mp sensor being used. And it has a small format, much smaller than APS-C (2.58x crop factor). And it could only hold very few images (64mb, 24 images).
The company called itself Silicon Film Technologies, and the product was being announced as "efilm".
http://www.sitmark.com/Portfolio/Silicon...erview.pdf
[/quote]
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[quote name='Reinier' timestamp='1336894304' post='18170']
Hi Brightcolours,
Thanks for the reply.
It was a nice idea though. I wonder if it would have been possible to produce a good efilm with a bigger and better sensor and better storage. Or is the room just to small to fit in all the necessary parts to have a proper digital 'module'?
Best wishes,
Reinier
[/quote]
Certainly now it is possible to make a module with processor, battery, and memory (even an SD card). Biggest challenge of course the thin-ness of the sensor part, which will make it only possible for certain SLR models (depends on how the film guidance is designed). Usually there is only room form the thinkness of a film.
Of course, one could offer it with guidance for modification of the camera back (removing part of the film guidance), but then it is not easy to switch between film and digital.
Usability problems of course will be no LCD to have any feedback (histogram, image review), a set ISO, no JPEG shooting (no WB settings), limited battery performance due to space With all these drawbacks, I do not see a huge market for it and then the price will be very high.
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05-13-2012, 08:29 AM
(This post was last modified: 05-13-2012, 08:30 AM by Rover.)
If we could dream... the control and review could've been done wirelessly (Bluetooth?) But that would've exacerbated the battery life problem. At this point, of course, it's a non-starter because precious few people even own film cameras, and digital is so dirt cheap.
Indeed the DSLR camera's are cheap nowadays. But I was just wondering if there was a possiblity it would have worked in the past. But Brightcolours is clear it wouldn't be easy and cheap.
So, it was just a nice idea this efilm, but the rapid development and the price drop of digital camera's made it redundant before the product even got produced.
With kind regards,
Reinier
[quote name='Rover' timestamp='1336897788' post='18172']
If we could dream... the control and review could've been done wirelessly (Bluetooth?) But that would've exacerbated the battery life problem. At this point, of course, it's a non-starter because precious few people even own film cameras, and digital is so dirt cheap.
[/quote]
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In a way, the original Leica solution to digital was just this, although one had the replace the entire back. Never caught on either, too slow, expensive and too many compromises at the time.
These days it should be possible, although I doubt whether rapid fire shooting would belong to the possibilities. And Leica slrs were big already, too big if you ask me <img src='http://forum.photozone.de/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='  ' />.
Kind regards, Wim
Gear: Canon EOS R with 3 primes and 2 zooms, 4 EF-R adapters, Canon EOS 5 (analog), 9 Canon EF primes, a lone Canon EF zoom, 2 extenders, 2 converters, tubes; Olympus OM-D 1 Mk II & Pen F with 12 primes, 6 zooms, and 3 Metabones EF-MFT adapters ....
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[quote name='wim' timestamp='1336917519' post='18177']
In a way, the original Leica solution to digital was just this, although one had the replace the entire back. Never caught on either, too slow, expensive and too many compromises at the time.
These days it should be possible, although I doubt whether rapid fire shooting would belong to the possibilities. And Leica slrs were big already, too big if you ask me <img src='http://forum.photozone.de/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=' ' />.
Kind regards, Wim
[/quote]
The R8 and R9 had a digital back available, in fact the R9 was sold with digital back too. They should have been full frame (1.37x crop 10 mp CCD)... But then again, the Contax digital FF camera was not a huge success either.
I don't think the R8/R9 were big....
Canon EOS 5D mk II WxHxD: 152x114x75mm
Leica R9: WxHxD: 158x101x62mm
About the same weight as the 5D mk II too (790 grams without battery for the R9 vs 810g. for the 5D mk II).
With digital back, the R9 gets to be more like an EOS 1D series.
Biggest problem was the speed with certain/most operations, and the higher ISO noise performance. The biggest plus was the low ISO IQ and the lenses of course.
Still, I would not mind having an R9 with one or two nice lenses (like that 280mm f4 APO lens... *drool*
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