[Leica] questions from digi-space

[george at imagist.com (George Lottermoser)]

Thoughts from digital photo space - this from a chap who has been using the
$25,000 medium format backs for nearly a decade.

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So clear something up for me.  Are we *really * limited by available 
technology,
or are we more limited by...um...marketing or something else <G>???

We were talking about the limitations of the amount of area available for 
pixels
on a full-format 35mm DSLR camera and we were being told by someone that the
size of the sensors was going to limit our ability to put more on a chip. 

Hmmm. 

So I was poking around dpreview and noticed that some of the 1/1.8" sensors
(this is an arcane measurement left over from '50's TV camera TUBE 
technology),
which are actually about 7.2 x 5.3 millimeters are sporting 7 megapixels and
actually doing a pretty good job of it (I think the Canon G6 has one of 
those,
from Sony). 
So that's 7million pixels in a 38 square millimeter area. 

A 35mm full format is about 24 x 36mm or 864 square millimeters. If we packed
those little sensor suckers in at about the same rate, we'd be putting in
183,438 sensors per square millimeter, or about 158 Million Pixels. Sensors.
Whatever. In other words, we have the technology right this second to pack an
order of magnitude more pixels into the same area than what we're getting 
from
the likes of Canon and Kodak, at the 35mm full-format level.  And that's just
reflecting what's happening at the under-$1000 happy-snap end of the digital
spectrum. Makes you wonder what's in a spy satellite, donut?

One other observation. Those cameras are managing to do a credible job of
imaging onto those teeny 7 MP sensors with focal lengths ranging from 5mm to
20mm (real focal lengths, not "equivalents") or so, where a normal focal 
length
for the format would be about 9 mm. Makes one wonder what it would take to 
image
158 MP on a 24 x 36 mm chip?

Just noticing, that's all. The random ramblings of a deranged mind. 

Yr Fthfl Srvnt,

david
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Fond regards,

G e o r g e   L o t t e r m o s e r,    imagist?

<*>Peace<*>   <*>Harmony<*>  <*>Stewardship<*>

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