On 1/27/06, Olin Lathrop wrote: > I have long wondered why someone couldn't offer a digital film back to > existing SLR film cameras. I have a Nikon F3-T, which was popular with > professionals and high end amateurs in its day. There must be a lot of F3s > out there. Why not something that is mechanically like a film cartrige that > extends a sensor out to the film plane? Or if more space is needed for > mechanical reasons, a replacement to the swinging door back that has the > digital sensor built in. In theory this should cost a lot less than a full > digital camera, and it would preserve the existing investment in > accessories. > > I'm guessing the reason why not is that digital sensors aren't tractable at > 24x36mm for a reasonable price. I think sensors equivalent to the > resolution of my scanner (5-8Mpix) are considerably smaller than that. There's a company that hyped a product for exactly that in the late 90s, but it was not successful. I'm guessing the reasons are the same as you've described. It looked like a 35mm film canister with a thin cable to a 35mm size sensor. It was self powered, and so most of the space in the film canistor was power - leaving little room for memory. I suspect also that noise is an issue since it can't always tell when the shutter is released and must be scanning the sensor continuously. I believe another company makes digital backs for large format cameras ($20k to $200k) as well. But the underlying issue is that it's going to cost the same as a new camera, and since the process is different, then by building the camera around the sensor (instead of the sensor around the camera) you can take advantage of the features of the sensor, and compensate for its weaknesses. -Adam -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist