DigiPod - Digital Film Cartridge -Would you do it?

[kshapero]

Check this out.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/digipod

Yes, no?😕😕

 

[GaryLH]

According to the site.. The campaign closed a long time ago.. And they did not get close to what they required to fund the project.

Something similar was started in the 80s. They supposedly had a prototype done but ran into funding and technical issues. Fast forward to now... It is possible to do this, but not sure even w/ today's technology what can be achieved for a given price.

Gary

 

[jsrockit]

I would love to see this, but if it was easy to do... it would have been done by now.

 

[Keith]

No .... not while there is still film available. A digital insert in my M2 or any other film camera wouldn't interest me personally.

 

[daveleo]

This is an old idea (as said earlier) that never got off the runway.
At this point, I thinks it's way too late to be a marketplace success.
Would I do it? . . . I'd drop $100 on a cartridge/sensor just for the experience of it.

 

[jsrockit]

I can't see something like this being $100 though...

 

[daveleo]

Oh, I agree. I meant that the experience would be worth $100 of my money. I'd guess this would be a $500 (?) marketplace item, depending on the sensor.

 

[B-9]

Its more like 315$ USD, which to me sounds cheap enough to try.

I would NOT however be interested in a 1" or even 4/3rd sensor.

They will get my attention when they can fit a APSC at a good price point. (Maybe 500$?)

 

[jsrockit]

$315 is reasonable... but yeah, I need at least APSC.

 

[Godfrey]

When a thin-film, flexible sensor in 120 format arrives on the scene, I'll be the first to nip one up and fit it into my Hasselblad SWC. Meanwhile, I'll make do with ACROS 100, XP2 Super, and the Leica BEOON ... ;-)

G

 

[GaryLH]

At the end of the day...I believe the reality check will be determined by the availability of film and the price vs how dearly u like using film vs the film camera/s in question. When that day comes, maybe more people will be willing to found such a project...

There is going to come a time when film prices (film, develop and print/scan) are going to be much higher than u are willing to pay or the choice of film available will be very small. I have my doubts that film will ever disappear. Look at 8x10 or 9x12 sheet film as an example of formats that can still be found today in stock..

For me.. I would be happy if they could do something like a 12mp apsc one day. Ff or bigger would be nice... 120 brings in a bunch of formats from 645 to 6x9.. Not sure if that will ever happen.. But then again sensor technology may get to the point where the yield and cost of ff will be so cheap that 645 size may not be that bad.

Gary

 

[drewbarb]

I loved this idea when it first surfaced 15-ish years ago; and while technology has certainly advanced a great deal in a variety of ways that may make something like this far more feasible today, there are still a host of technical concerns that would make it difficult.

Note that the link was to an old campaign that didn't get enough traction to go forward. The founder said that unless he got at least 1000 people interested enough to contribute, the project wouldn't proceed. He got about 115 backers, I think. Presumably there is just not enough mainstream interest today to make such a thing happen. For those of us who love old film cameras, perhaps this is a shame- but perhaps not. Film is still being made, and certainly has handling and imaging characteristics that differentiate it enough from digital that the two can coexist. It would be nice to drop a film or a digital cassette into the same camera and be able to shoot either medium seamlessly; but the hurdles are pretty huge and I think we have moved on.

 

[kshapero]

Of course it has been bounced around for awhile and even pranked, but it would kind of be cool. The closest I think we ever got to this was the digital backs for the Leica R8/9's. BTW what ever happened to those?

 

[Godfrey]

Of course it has been bounced around for awhile and even pranked, but it would kind of be cool. The closest I think we ever got to this was the digital backs for the Leica R8/9's. BTW what ever happened to those?

Technology lagged behind the current edge, other DSLR products improved enormously. This limited the market considerably and made it unprofitable.

That's likely why Leica decided to push forward with a new, larger format system (Leica S), designed from scratch around digital capture and not in competition with other 35mm derivative systems.

G

 

[honozooloo]

Not sure if this has been posted on RFF already but I always thought this was a cool DIY Project:

FRANKENCAMERA

Basically, someone 3D printed a replacement film door that protruded back from the camera to accomodate Sony NEX APS-C sensor, LCD, and internals on a Konica S3 (yay, rangefinder!).

Based on the design, I didn't see any reason why this wouldn't be possible on any number of cameras (SLRs, RFs) with the right 3D printer and the proper engineering background...and with the advent of compact full-frame Sony A7 cameras, it seems like a matter of time till someone guts one of those and tries this.

EDIT: Credit where credit's due, there's a thread dedicated to Frankencamera on RFF already:

http://rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=144458&highlight=frankencamera

 

[Bille]

BTW what ever happened to those?

Very expensive for what they were (1.4x crop digital backs) and discontinued about 8 years ago.

 

[Roger Hicks]

I would love to see this, but if it was easy to do... it would have been done by now.

Exactly. Sooner or later, hope shades into fantasy.

Cheers,

R.

 

[kshapero]

but....but....but

 

[rbelyell]

$300 to turn my Xpan and retina reflex into digicams??!! i'd pay it every day of the week and twice on tuesday!