Digi back for film camera

FrozenInTime said:
In practice, I'm sure a custom back would be required for each camera - so limiting it to a few models.
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This is indeed one of the main questions. We don't have an answer yet, positive or negative.
The digital sensor would need to be triggered form the flash sync - limiting the mechanical shutter speeds ; an electronic shutter would require an extra dial to transfer settings.
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Also this: From an inventor I'm hoping for an elegant solution approach triggering the capture using the original shutter button.
As demonstrated by the M8 and M9, the processing power needed to grab the sensor data and push it to a SD card are never fast enough without using an ASIC.
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What is fast enough? If a first version would have only a slow frame rate as drawback, I could live with it.
People will want a LCD or Bluetooth to phone connection - bigger battery and antenna.
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Who are "people" you refer to? I don't.
Sorry but it's just too impractical and with so many low cost digital SLR and CSC camera the time for such a device has long passed.
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I wouldn't buy things like that because it is practical or cheap, of course. If I look at my whole photo equipment I should sell most of it and keep just a practical and cheap modern CSC or P&S. I neither do it 😀
 
Let's revisit this idea again when full-frame sensors are cheaper to produce and procure.

Shooting with my film cameras and getting 2x crop factor (or more) is not something I'd enjoy.
 
seen also such projects coming and then disappearing, some were linked here too. good luck nevertheless, but am not holding my breath.

I think nowadays when camera makers old money cows are dying, they will learn to listen enthusiast and niche groups better. that's better chance of getting your dream digital retro camera, rather than these projects.
 
I was in the photo lab on the aircraft carrier I used to work and live on back in 1998 talking about this very thing. We had seen somewhere that someone was developing a digital "film" canister that would just go right into a camera that had DX contacts. That was when we were also using technological breakthroughs like the Kodak DCS 700 and then the Fujix. Monstrosities but they got the job done. Us shooters never thought digital would get off the ground since carrying the DCS was like a Nikon F3 with a microVAX glued to the bottom (hyperbole, yes.)

So, it's a fun idea to play with but it's been 15 years and it hasn't gotten much further than the optimistic drawing board or the opportunistic entrepreneur looking for "investors" to back this new and exciting idea. 😀

Phil Forrest
 
I think nowadays when camera makers old money cows are dying, they will learn to listen enthusiast and niche groups better.
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That's a sensible comment, in my opinion.

Cosina certainly seem to have done well out of providing lenses for "obsolete" cameras.
 
I Hope the digital back for 35mm cameras have success sooner than later...

Perhaps a real prototype would help a lot in raising funds....because that white empty frame and a digicam stuck in the slr chamber won´t make me give out no fund.

😉
 
Lenses have much improved

Lenses have much improved

Having placed many old Nikon, Voigtlander, Contax, Canon and even a Sigma on various micro 4/3, Sony NEX, and Samsung mirrorless cameras, I think this will come up short. The manufacturer's are tuning the microlenses on the sensor to their lens optics. The Voigtlander vignettes in the blue like crazy, with a purple haze on the outside edges. Even putting a 24mm Nikon AIS on a Canon 5D and the chromatic abberation is horrible. Film has something than digital will never have, cosine response. So there is science to back up Keith's opinion. Worlds collide. It's unfortunate, but seeing some of the new lenses on digital, like the 40mm Canon pancake and the Fuji X series lenses, there really seems no need for this. Quality digital has come down in price.
 
I don't care much for a digital back. I already have a very potent DSLR that serves me more than enough. I have started using film again for the love of it. I have my DSLR for clicking the hell out of it and my film cameras to force me think a bit more before that click.
 
I think one have to look beyond one's own preferences when looking at projects like this ... I wouldn't want one myself , but I would not be at all surprised if an initiative like this could be made a modest (in terms of volume) but nevertheless profitable success.

After all, the Lomography crew seem to be doing quite well out of selling crappy overpriced plastic cameras and heavily marked up film, so there's clearly a market for slightly kitschy stuff (I'm not being snitty about this, they're a success story and good for them too)

The idea that you could have a genyouwine film camera (but be able to get real digital photos out of it) has real potential, it seems to me. I just think he should have used Kickstarter where he'd probably find a higher profile with one of the markets that really matters - the US; I bet it would go down a storm in Japan too ...
 
That idea / project is obsolete in today's consumer market. Not a chance.
Even it can be made working it's just too much of a crutch and no comparison to any basic digital camera on the market. Only for nostalgic reason somebody might want to transform an old camera that he used 20 years ago into a digital body. Otherwise there is no reason to pursue this.
 
Slightly OT but:

You know what I miss most in my DSLRs compared to my old manual-focus 35mm SLRs?

Weight, as in the lack of? (to some extent)

Size/form factor? (close, but no cigar)

VIEWFINDER!!! We have a winner! Even top-notch FF DSLRs have pretty dismal viewfinders compared to film SLRs. The focusing screens are not much good for MF (and Canon decided to drop the interchangeable screen from the 5DIII, a terrible idea IMO) and the magnification is low, low, low... making manual focus even more of a chore (and addding eye-strain) with fast lenses.

A digital back would have some definite pluses (as long as it was 24x36) but for a lot of the reasons already mentioned in this thread I just can't see it happening 🙁
 
ssmc said:
Canon decided to drop the interchangeable screen from the 5DIII, a terrible idea IMO)
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the 6D has interchangeable lens screens so not actually such a big loss. buying a 5DIII and using it on MF is a bit of a waste IMO.

---

my biggest concern even if this were to be successful in manufacturing is the ability to keep the sensor held in the right place at all times. even a marginal shift in the film cartridge area will lead to a large change in focus.
 
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