[Leica] digital angst

[Robert Appleby and Susan Darlow <laintal@tin.it>]

Bob Figlio wrote, in reply to Mark Rabiner:
>>You know, Mark, high-end audio went through the same kind of "digital and 
solid state revolution" some years ago. However, the leading edge of upper 
end audio is now back to tubes and some analogue. The analogy is not 
completely congruent, but I think the continuity and subtlety of silver 
images will prevail for the foreseeable future. Nonetheless, snapshots on the 
new high count pixel cameras look pretty good until you compare them to a 
silver image. Even then, the noncritical viewer       ( most people) will say 
that if there is a difference it does not matter to them.

I do fear for the longer future, though - maybe it doesn't matter? Enough 
pixels may do it.
>>

Bob, I'm not an expert on high-end audio, but some of my friends have such
setups. However, they're low production run, extremely expensive - the
exact opposite of what E100 should be. Sure, the future might see some
specialty manufacturers turning out small quantities of emulsion, but
that's not a viable solution for the working photographer. If a lot of
advertising and product photography (probably the most technically
demanding types of photography) are already shot on rather primitive
digital backs and everyone is already happy with that, how are the expense
and rarity of emulsions going to stand up to that in ten years from now.
I just hope I'm going to be able to mount a digital back to my M6. I'd hate
to lose manual focus/exposure. But in reality, even that is probably not
going to be an option. The most we can hope for (I suspect) is that digital
bodies will be available in all lens mounts. And even there, everyone seems
to be developing special lines of lenses to accomodate small sensors.
Call me a pessimist... But in the end , it'll probably be better for
everyone in terms of convenience and expense.
Satellite upload your images to your server while you're shooting in Tibet,
in real time! Now _that_ would be convenient. Nothing to break or get lost
on location, with a portable reader to review and edit your day's work. I'd
go for it, wouldn't you?
Rob the visionary.

Robert Appleby
V Bellentani 36
41100 MO
Italy

Tel: 0039 059 303436