[Leica] Foveon on the Horizon

[Afterswift@aol.com]

You forget that for the average american schmuck, consumerism is akin to 
foreplay.  We've seem to collectively lost our ability to voice our opinions 
in the realm of politic and culture, so we exercise it in terms of buying 
stuff.  The newer, the bigger, the faster, the sexier--the better we can 
brag.   Computer stuff is a great boon for "consumeristas" since basically 
even the newest, fastest, biggest and most sexy product is basically obsolete 
 (or passe) as soon as it hits the shelves.  So even though I agree with the 
premise that going digital puts one on an endless technological treadmill of 
purchasing/consumption, I'm still not convinced the average schmuck is going 
to care. --Kim
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Dear Kim,

I've yet to give my Dell R450 with 128 RAM that I bought in 1998 a job it 
couldn't do. So I don't think obsolescence is a much a problem as it was 
before the gigabyte revolution. I think that revolution hit about 1997. 
Terabyte is probably the next one. And that's probably overkill. I recall 
seeing a 1930s ad for a luxury car featuring 16 cylinders. I know of no car 
in any price class that runs 16 cylinders. So I think the terabyte bit would 
be in the same class as the 16 cylinders.

As for going digital full tilt now, it's premature if for no other reason 
than Foveon arrays will soon be on the market. Ironically, Foveon operates in 
principle similarly to color film and can probably accommodate our standard 
lenses better than most other CCD systems.

br    
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