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

[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]

Subject: [Leica] Canon Optura
From: Jim Laurel <jplaurel@microsoft.com>
Date: Mon, 22 Jun 1998 15:43:27 -0700

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.
> >> >> 
> >> > 
> >