digital dummy

WVBill · May 14, 2003

Wouldn't it be great if someone made a reasonably priced "digital back" for an old Nikon (or whatever) SLR?!
You could switch to the film back when you wanted to do film and the digital back for digital. Same body, same lenses.

looch · May 14, 2003

WV - you're on to something. I'm thinking more of a 35mm digital film cartridge. Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if this is already being worked on.

MikePA · May 14, 2003

The closest I've seen to this are the digital bodies that allow people with a Nikon, for example, to continue to use their Nikon lenses.

frank_f15 · May 15, 2003

that would be a great workaround, that way i could use all those expensive lenses, and such and still get the bennifits of digital when i wanted.going to see my grandson this weekend for his 2nd birthday, and it very hard to work 3 cameras, the minolta 35 mm, the digital, and the camcorder. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif a grandpops work is never done /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

GaryM · May 15, 2003

( WV - you're on to something. I'm thinking more of a 35mm digital film cartridge. Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if this is already being worked on. )

Two companies attempted this within the last three or four years. First one went bust. Second one bought them out and also failed.

Apparently several things caused the failure.

Quick drop in price of digitals after the high priced first units.

Expense of creating a CCD or CMOS imaging sensor that would aproximate 35mm film size.

No way to change out the memory. Had to download to PC.

Difficulty of exercising control over the unit with a camera that wasn't designed for such.

Check this URL: http://www.imaging-resource.com/NEWS/1032460933.html for more information

AMP762 · May 15, 2003

Thanks much guys,I'm beginning to think I understand /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gifI know from past that is dangerous.
one more guestion all the digitals seem to have very small lens compared to 35mm this has to cut down field of vision does it effect anything else?

Paul

GaryM · May 17, 2003

Doesn't cut the F.O.V. at all. Because the image sensor is MUCH smaller than a 35mm film size. That's why the digitals focal length is listed as 35mm equivilent. My Nikon CoolPix 995 has a true F.L. range of 8-32mm. But it's 35mm equivilent is 39-152mm. Not all manufacturers use the same sensor size, although they are close. So listing the F.L. as a 35mm film equivilent makes sense.

And it lets you use smaller filters too! BTW, don't spend money on any glass filters other than a polarizer and perhaps neutral density. About all other effects can be done better with manipulation on the PC.

mwechtal · May 17, 2003

I don't think that they were available seperately, but the Kodak professional digital cameras were "just" backs for a particular Nikon model. As near as I could tell, the camera body was unmodified. Last I checked, the price started at about $10,000. They do have 35mm size ccd chips in there, and the chip has to be a substantial portion of the price.

There was a UPI model that I believe was B&W only, and had various interfaces to transmit images via various types of phones.

They probably still make them, but I haven't looked lately.

Mike

GaryM · May 17, 2003

( They do have 35mm size ccd chips in there, and the chip has to be a substantial portion of the price.

Mike )

That may have been the case with some models. But if you look at the specs for the currently available Canons and Nikons you'll find that there is about a 1.5 X focal length increase for the lenses when used on the digital models. That's because the sensors are smaller than a 35mm frame size.

mwechtal · May 19, 2003

Gary,
Remember, I'm talking professional models here. We're talking about 14Mpixels. Kodak has had about 15-20 models of professional digital cameras that are essentially an EOS or F5 body with a Kodak back. At first these all had 35mm format CCD chips, but I see the current crop are CMOS chips. They seem to have only one model SLR at this point, with backs for medium and large format available also. The SLR version is now on a custom Nikon body. Here's a url (hopefully) Kodak DCS Pro 14n

That said, the prices are a bit much for the average Joe. The DCS Pro 14n is about $4,000. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif Shoot, I wouldn't have the computing power to process the images!
Mike