Digital back for M film cameras

The real problem is that by the time that you work out the kinks, many other marketplace options will be available at a cheaper price and will have full control of the digital media. Real life projects do not stay within budget, nor do they go quickly...
 
bwcolor said:
The real problem is that by the time that you work out the kinks, many other marketplace options will be available at a cheaper price and will have full control of the digital media. Real life projects do not stay within budget, nor do they go quickly...
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If so many people are more than willing to pay 'big bucks' for a 'special edition engraving' why not the same for a digital back.
We are talking 'Leica ' here after all.
 
parsec1 said:
If so many people are more than willing to pay 'big bucks' for a 'special edition engraving' why not the same for a digital back.
We are talking 'Leica ' here after all.
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You just need to convince a very smart investor of the above and you can take a swing at the ball. Hard sell, but maybe it can be done. You are not really talking Leica. You are talking aftermarket limited edition back which will not be nearly as functional as many other digital systems. So, film Leica folks just might go for low tech digital. Of course, they can always go for the real deal, so price can not approach the real Leica digital product. The last point puts real constraints on such a project. If you miss your price point, you just might not sell many of the product.
 
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I would be half interested depending on the size of the unit to be attached. 1000-1500 for the reformed guts of a Canon 550D in a back would be fine, but not much more for 1.6x crop.
 
Avotius said:
I would be half interested depending on the size of the unit to be attached. 1000-1500 for the reformed guts of a Canon 550D in a back would be fine, but not much more for 1.6x crop.
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What would Jeremy Clarkson do ?

Put petrol in his lighthouse film in the gas tank and memory cards into "Oh bugger I've forgotten ".
Mind you he does listen to a lot of Genesis so he can't be that bad a photographer !

Have to go now..'Suppers Ready'.
 
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bwcolor said:
The real problem is that by the time that you work out the kinks, many other marketplace options will be available at a cheaper price and will have full control of the digital media. Real life projects do not stay within budget, nor do they go quickly...
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Ironically, this venture is protected, so long as one does not try to be a beat-every-thing-Leica-or-others project:

Leica won't do it, or the Return-on-Investments on the M8/9/10... would be severely retarded.

Other name brands won't do it...avoiding being labeled second-fiddle to Solms.

Kobayashi-san won't do it, because he was said to dislike digital...more likely under standard trade restriction as a sub-contractor building the R-D1...Epson could not be so dumb as to allow Voigtlander making a simple knock-off after investing serious money, could they?

Epson won't do it...again. The R-D1x fulfills the 10,000 unit promise (contract) with Voigtlander. [See an R-D1 serial number survey elsewhere.]

Zeiss is believed to be not interested...despite close partnership with Sony. Yet Zeiss can build 130 mega pixel cameras, why not a mere 24 Mp job. If Zeiss did do it, it would be a digital Ikon for their own lenses.

The business opportunity is obvious. 100,000 units even at $1000 is $100 million...even a mere 10% is good DIY income.

As to cost, Sony did the whole APS-C NEX at $600 MSRP. A NEX adapted to M-mount wide-angle lenses with an optical VF is a basic digital M...

Has anyone looked at the concentric rectangles around the NEX sensor? What are they for...larger sensors? ;)
 
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I dropped in at my friend's shop today to show him my M2. He is still interested in this project and is aware that full frame would be the best thing.
 
This would be a replaceable back for M cameras. A bit thicker back with a winder-sized unit below the camera body.
 
I missed it, what was the solution to the dust issue with old..dusty shutters? Sensor cleaning is my least favorite part of digital. I guess that I should be equally tweaked with dust on my film, but it somehow seems low tech, so that is ok.
 
Sensor cleaning with a removable digital back is simple. Take the back off, clean the sensor. This is a 5 minute job with the DCS200.

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Today I had developed the Very Last Roll of Film I Ever Shot, which I found in my old, unused Leica M6. July 2006.

I will not be returning to film.

I have an M6, M3 and M2.

What an UTTER waste.

Is it really not beyond the wit of some enterprising engineer to strap a full-frame CCD to something that fits in the back plate slot on an M-series camera, with the controls and batteries in a winder-sized box?

We've gone on about it for YEARS on this forum, and I'm getting impatient.
 
flyingoko said:
Today I had developed the Very Last Roll of Film I Ever Shot, which I found in my old, unused Leica M6. July 2006.

I will not be returning to film.

I have an M6, M3 and M2.

What an UTTER waste.
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Well, if you sold those three bodies you could easily afford a second-hand M8 . . . problem solved surely ?! ;)
 
I say leave the M film Leica's as they are and let's get Zeiss to make a f1.5 or f2 Sonnar lensed full frame digital rangefinder for about $3,500 (lens on) $2,500 lens off

Tom
 
MartinP said:
Well, if you sold those three bodies you could easily afford a second-hand M8 . . . problem solved surely ?! ;)
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1) I don't want to part with them; I'm sentimentally attached to them.

2) We all know about the M8.

3) Advances in CCD technology mean that a 1:1 (or even 1:1.06) sensor will fit.

4) I'd happily pay $1,000 to $1,200 for an M-series digital back.
 
I've seen a couple of Barnack cameras which have been converted to digital. This is not done by adding a film "back", but rather a permanent conversion. The conversions are made using the internals of a Canon point-and-shoot camera, but it allows the use of whatever L mount lens you like. I don't much like the crop factor, but it's interesting to see what looks like a 30's era Leica from the front with a digital screen and controls on the back.

Rather than making a brand-specific digital back for film cameras, it would be nice if someone could make a digital image recording kit which fits within the dimensions of a 35mm film canister, film leader, and spool. Something which could be installed and removed with a minimum of hassle and time.
 
Frontman said:
Rather than making a brand-specific digital back for film cameras, it would be nice if someone could make a digital image recording kit which fits within the dimensions of a 35mm film canister, film leader, and spool. Something which could be installed and removed with a minimum of hassle and time.
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That is actually doable. I can picture the whole thing in my head, just don't have any knowledge about putting it down on CAD or something similar. Give me two weeks with some engineers that are willing to make this happen and I'd have it all mapped out.
 
Pirate said:
That is actually doable. I can picture the whole thing in my head, just don't have any knowledge about putting it down on CAD or something similar. Give me two weeks with some engineers that are willing to make this happen and I'd have it all mapped out.
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Elsewhere I have posted at length the very same ideas in retrofitting Leica M and Nikon F cameras.

The cylindrical space for the film cartridge and take-up spool is standard, so is the film rail width and the pressure plate space behind it. Flexible circuit board/ribbon connecting the 3 compartments is about the thickness of films...

Imagine a flat box housing the CCD and associated chip set; a cylindrical one housing the on-board CPU and micro-SD, and the battery takes up the other cylindrical space...

My blasphemy was much denounced by the Leica experts.
 
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