Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/02/01

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Subject: RE: [Leica] digital vs film
From: "Kotsinadelis, Peter (Peter)" <peterk@lucent.com>
Date: Mon, 1 Feb 1999 16:45:29 -0800

Jim,

You should never assume.  OK, so if you look at today's technology you may
be right. But realize 10 years ago we could not wait to get a 30MB Hard
Drive, today you have Gigabytes on a PCMCIA card.  Technolgoy is changing
far more rapidly than ever before.  I understand the MegaVision S2, and the
newer S3 which I believe is a rectangle. Technology changes quickly.  And I
personally don't think it will be that far off when high resolution digital
images are here. Yes, you can get better resolution with film and a drum
scanner, but hey, isn't that digital technology too!!??  Why are you
comparing digital to digital?  I was comparing film to digital.

You may think I have shallow information, but hey, no matter what I try to
say you seem to put me on trial.  Shades of Johnny Cochran...so be it!
Today you have large 100-400 Megabyte files, wouldn't it be possible that
new compression could change that???  Perhaps there is a person working on
an algorithm that might improve storage??  Also, as memory gets cheaper and
larger quantity chips are available I think you will see some interesting
changes, but sooner than you think.

<snip>Imagine capturing a whole roll (36 exposures) of 100 MB files. 3.6
Gigabytes. <snip>

If you think in today's terms you are right.  But if you think forward, the
images could have better compression, larger amounts of storage on smaller
components, etc.  I bet one day you'll even walk into a music store and
using a blank memory chip pick out and download your favorite music and pay
electronically, and sooner than you think.

Hey, I enjoy film, but I see the future and embrace the changes. 

Peter K.
(Hey those arrows are getting to me!)