Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1996/07/05
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 04:33 PM 7/5/96 -0700, you wrote: >regarding the possibilities of electronic reproduction. I'm almost 100% >ignorant of the technology, but it seems that the way we are going now, it >should not be too long before ccds will be able to record images to the >same standard as say kodachrome or velvia. In any case, I'd be interested >to hear from you as to where we are headed in electronic imaging. How >about developing an electronic back for the M-6? Would there be a market? >How small could it be made? It would certainly be a great It will be years before digital imaging will equal or surpass film. The main reason is that film keeps getting good. About six or seven years ago, Kodak was saying there could be a 10 fold increase in film quality based on the research they were doing before they thought they wouldn't be able to improve film significantly. Second of all, the better the resolution, the more expensive the CCD chips get. And for still photography, that's a technological challenge. You can't have any defects in the chip, or you will get color errors. Try making a perfect, or near perfect chip with 6 million pixels and it becomes clear why it will be a long time before it gets even up to Kodachrome standards, which is abou the equivalent of 18 million pixes. The closest digital 35mm camera to that is running at about $27,000 right now. (Six megapixels) The next one down is around $15,000 now. The next step is $10,000 and it's not even close to any film quality-wise. The $15,000 unit I've tried, and it comes reasonably close to 400 speed negative film at up to about the equivalent of an 8X10. You wouldn't want to put it on an M6, at this point. The digital backs make the cameras very big. They take a PCMCIA hard disk which at this point adds a lot to the size of teh camera. Not to mention your wide angle lenses become less wide. But the longer lenses get longer with no change in aperture. Even the memory card cameras (solid state memory storage) are big. Film is here for a long long time. Another point, digital cameras a like shooting chrome film in tonal range, though they are great for correcting color balance. They also are limited in speed. Up to about 1600. In that case, it could use a Noctilux come to think of it! <g> ========================== Eric Welch Grants Pass Daily Courier