Nikon patents digital back for 35mm film slrs

[Overkill-F1]

Furthermore, only few of the old lenses are suitable for digital sensors.

?
As far as I know, any lens that can be mounted at the right distance from the sensor for infinity focus, and has an image circle big enough to cover the sensor, is suitable. There are hundreds of old lenses that I can adapt/mount on a Canon EOS DSLR.
...Terry

 

[shadowfox]

As an entrepreneur, I see it as a necessity to revisit "dead" ideas.
Don't forget that a lot of things has changed since back then, including infrastructure components that would make some of those ideas feasible today.

Go Nikon. For the rest of us, start hoarding good copies of F3 😛

 

[newsgrunt]

I have to admit, as a frequent user of manual focus lenses on SLR's (film & digital) that I really miss the brightness and contrast of a viewfinder for a non-AF SLR, where there is no secondary mirror redirecting part of the light that might otherwise all go to the ground glass for AF sensors, etc.

yup, nothing beat manual focusing with a Nikon F3 (or F4) Type B screen. Screens had bite back then, now they're too smooth and hard to snap into focus. sigh

 

[rbelyell]

i put in a preorder for my xpan.
tony

 

[pvdhaar]

I don't want to dampen anyone's enthousiasm, but a patent is not the same as a product.

Even though sometimes a patent can indicate that a product is coming, its primary goal is to protect an idea or technology. Though it shows a digital back and an ordinary SLR, it goes into detail about how to adjust sensors to the image plane, and then protect them, and that seems to be the core of this invention. That's applicable to DSLRs too (the AF issue of the D800 comes to mind)..

Or, it may be that Nikon wants to offer replacable and opening backs on their future DSLRs to allow swapping AA filters, UV/IR blocking filters, different sensors.. But it's also possible that this is not intended as a user feature; a back that can be opened only by a repair facility to make product recalls less expensive.. who knows?

 

[Buzz40]

Yes, it is only a patent. No, I don't expect to ever see it in production. It would, however, be pretty much everything I've wanted. In the meantime, I am happily shooting away with my Fujifilm X Pro 1 and adding lenses. It is the closest I can find to a traditional film slr or rangefinder camera. When leica dropped the ball with the DMR and then killed off their R system and long promised R10, I left them and went to Nikon. I really disliked the modern DSLR life and dumped that system for the Fuji. As much as I love my X Pro, if Nikon or Leica brought out something like this, they would get all my business and appreciation. FWIW.

 

[steveclem]

As above ^^^^^^.

 

[Ronald M]

D600 full frame is $2000 and uses Ai lenses. Fred Miranda forum has a 3000 page thread going on manual focus lenses in digital cameras.

 

[zauhar]

A while back a marketing group staged a brilliant fake ad campaign featuring a system with a flat sensor connected to a dummy film can with the electronics in it, the idea being that you installed it like loading a roll of film.

THAT would take off, but unfortunately it was a clever troll to get attention for their agency.

I think as someone suggested above, this is a preemptive patent.

Randy

 

[Sid836]

It is not utterly a company trick. There had been many products in the past like the EFS-1 silicon film that had reached production but did not go well in the markets.
As for being a pre-emptive patent, I don't think so. Spending too much to maintain a patent and not just in the US just for pre-emptive reasons does not pay back.

 

[one90guy]

Would love to have one but doubt if it would be affordable for me.

David