Kickstarter Digital Back for 35mm Film Cameras

It is not only the result but also the tactile feeling when using a vintage camera. A vintage camera that produces digital pictures is quite appealing to me.
 
I'm interested if the price is reasonable; I have several Leica and Canon RF bodies sitting on my shelf gathering dust. Film is now about $20 (Australian Dollars) and developing adds another $10 per roll - that's almost $1 per frame. I shoot street which has a low keeper count (for me!) and the cost is restricting my film use. Sure I have some digital bodies, but I would love to use my existing film cameras more.

It's a shame the current design necessitates the external "battery pack" style attachment. It would be excellent if the battery/electronics could be housed in a second canister that resides in the camera body where exposed film is wound into. I suspect many film users would be comfortable working without a rear screen. A Wi-fi connection could link to your phone to set various parameters and chimp if required.
 
I think the people producing this are out of step with the current reality of film photography, which is many if most film shooters already have a digital camera and shoot film because they like shooting film. Also one can easily adapt their older film lens to digital by picking up a used micro 4/3 digital camera and probable get much better results than what you'd get from something like this.
 
CameraQuest said:
"I'm Back" 16MP digital back



I like the idea,
but the prototype seems to be a bit clunky in design with its large bulge on the back,
plus the relatively small 16MP will likely be met without much enthusiasm.

Stephen
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This idea has popped up again and again since the late 1990s. So far, none of them has materialized into a useful product. We all keep hoping, but so far it just seems to be the truth that it's far easier and far more profitable—and far less expensive—to design and build a digital camera from scratch than it is to adapt digital capture to an existing film camera system as a production piece.

But lest it seems I'm overly negative, I keep hoping and keep looking at every attempt like this to see if it might work... :D

The most successful adaptation of digital capture to an existing film camera that I've seen has been to buy a new Hasselblad 907x with CFVII 50c, and put the CFVII 50c back onto my 1978 Hasselblad 500CM. The resulting camera is perfectly integrated and works exactly as I would want, albeit that it's also fairly pricey. Such is life ... As one famous science fiction author penned, "There's no such thing as a free lunch." :ROFLMAO:

G
 
I was initially very interested in this digital conversion first arrived on scene. I'm not buying any color film due to the ridiculous prices, and even Fomapan is now beyond what I consider reasonable. A system that would let me use my old film cameras and do away with the need for scanning with my old Epson flatbed was also very attractive; that is close to an all-day task.
Now, recent articles I've come across show that most of the proposed system is outside the body of the camera and the price is projected to go to $800+. That is disappointing, but also suggests that this digital conversion will not be economically competitive with good used digital cameras like the Fujifilm XT cameras which are compact and require less attention to those irritating menus.
 
shawn said:
It might if it is aligned with the face of the circuit board. Think there will be some limits to cameras based on how far the pressure plate will move back.
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Maybe you could remove the pressure plate altogether. And use a thin sensor stack? I find it hard to picture given that the camera expects a <0.15mm "sensor".
 
OlivierAOP said:
Maybe you could remove the pressure plate altogether. And use a thin sensor stack? I find it hard to picture given that the camera expects a <0.15mm "sensor".
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The pressure plate is going to be holding the sensor in place. The camera doesn't expect any thickness, it expects that the focus point is just behind the film rail. Realistically, the sensor might (probably will) extend in front of the rail at least as far as the cover glass and IR filter. The sensor stack thickness has no real bearing on the focus point... just stuff ahead of it.The key is the imaging plane of the sensor needs to be at the proper position. If there is stuff (rest of the sensor) behind that it doesn't matter as far as focus is concerned. But it could be an issue if it sticks back to far and prevents the rear door from closing.
 
I think you're right. On the Fuji X100-series the film plane indicator is only ~7mm from the rear including the screen. So it could work. On a Sony a7r-series it's 25mm!

At anyrate. If one enjoys using film cameras, I doubt one will like framing a photo on half the focusing screen. Maybe with a mask à la Rolleikin? Or splice two sensors side by side for the old-school panoramic crop :D
 
Between the Two SP's, Two S3's, and Two S4's- I have Six Backs that are all compatible. If needed- I can modify one to bring out the cable.

Sometime in 1987- we had a meeting with Kodak to discuss sharing technology. My Boss asks- what will you do when your chosen profession makes your favorite hobby obsolete, meaning shooting classic cameras. Told him I had a spare F36 and would convert the Nikon F to digital.
 
Whether this device would change anything for you depends on what your hobby truly is, if you're honest with yourself.

For those whose hobby is "photography" and images are what matter the most, then you're likely happy with either film or digital or both and the camera itself or medium itself doesn't matter much aside from maybe imbuing a certain look to the image. So, this invention gives you new opportunities.

If your hobby is "using film cameras with film", then this invention is not for you. I am in this camp; I enjoy both film cameras and using film itself.
 
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