Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/06/22

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Canon Optura
From: Five Senses Productions <fls@5senses.com>
Date: Mon, 22 Jun 1998 16:27:52 -0700

Do you own the Optura?

At 03:43 PM 6/22/98 , Jim Laurel wrote:
>My lead picture of this dispatch was a beautiful Persian girl, drawing in
>Imam Square in Esfahan, Iran.  It was taken with the Optura, which Canon
>loaned us.
>
>	
>http://www.mungopark.com/container.asp?issue=199712&sec=exp&page=dispatches/
>d01.asp
>
>Also, the shots on this page of the Bedouin farmer woman and Bedouin
>Shepherd (near bottom of page) were taken with the Optura.  The surround
>video at the top of the page was taken with a DCS 460 on a Peace River
>Quicktime VR head.
>
>	
>http://www.mungopark.com/container.asp?issue=199712&sec=exp&page=dispatches/
>d05.asp
>
>
>Not bad for a little video camera...
>
>--Jim
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From:	Five Senses Productions [SMTP:fls@5senses.com]
>> Sent:	Monday, June 22, 1998 2:59 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?
>> 
>> 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.
>> >> >> 
>> >> > 
>> > 
>