RE: [Leica] Is the Leica an endangered species?

[Five Senses Productions <fls@5senses.com>]

I would consider a digital camera IF and only IF:

1.  It were feasibly portable and not too big
2.  It could work with a laptop as a field camera for outdoor use
3.  It produced STUNNING images, AT LEAST as good as the 
     ones I get from scanning Leica chromes onto PhotoCD
4.  It had a recycle time under a minute
5.  On the computer screen, an image created with it could not be
     told apart from a high-res PhotoCD image


Does anyone here know much about 3-CCD digital video machines like
the Canon and the Sony?  How about the Optura?  I have seen an Optura
demo at Samy's in LA and on a 32" TV screen its quality was extremely 
good with 400 lines of resolution.  I am not sure what would happen when
trying to get those images onto computer.  

Francesco





At 01:14 PM 6/22/98 , Jim Laurel wrote:
>From what I can tell, the S1 is a dedicated high-res studio camera -- pretty
>big and ungainly.  And someone on the list mentioned that you have to wait
>60 seconds between frames???  Yikes!  The 6m pixel DCS460 takes 3-4 seconds
>between frames to record the image to the PCMCIA card drive which, in
>practical use, I found much too slow.  The new Canon EOSD2000 can shoot 12
>frames at 3.5 fps before it has to write to disk -- not bad, but the D2000
>is only a 2m pixel camera.
>
>--Jim
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From:	Five Senses Productions [SMTP:fls@5senses.com]
>> Sent:	Monday, June 22, 1998 12:03 PM
>> To:	leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us;
>> 'leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us'
>> Cc:	'B. D. Colen'
>> Subject:	RE: [Leica] Is the Leica an endangered species?
>> 
>> What about the S1 or 4x5 digital backs?
>> 
>> 
>> At 10:55 AM 6/22/98 , Jim Laurel wrote:
>> >Sorry, B.D., I've got to take issue with this.  I've shot features with
>> the
>> >Kodak DCS460 (billed as the highest resolution digital camera in
>> >production).  The quality was nowhere near 35mm, particularly when it
>> comes
>> >to very contrasty scenes.  Reciprocity failure was a constant problem for
>> >exposures over 1/4 second or so.  It's not just price...there are some
>> >significant technology issues to overcome.  And there is significant
>> >degradation when you use these digital backs at high ISO ratings as well.
>> >Digital still has a long way to go to overtake 35mm.
>> >
>> >--Jim Laurel
>> >
>> >
>> >> The quality is essentially here now, it's the price that's the
>> >> issue - to which I note that the computer on which I send and receive
>> >> E-mail
>> >> goes today for literally less than half what it cost when I bought it 9
>> >> months ago.
>> >> 
>> > 
>