On Thu, 07 Jan 1999 01:03:33 +1100, Frank Ernens <fgernens@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
jammed all night, and by sunrise was overheard remarking:
> Dave Haynie wrote:
> > Now if only we could get a digital camera back for the OM-series. With
> > USB port, of course.
> Digital cameras seem to have focal lengths on the order of 5mm,
> presumably because of the size of the CCD.
This is certainly true today. That doesn't mean that CCDs can't be made
larger (or optical systems adjusting for image size otherwise) -- in
fact, with the expensive digitals from the AP, Canon/Kodak, and Nikon (
in the $10K range, with pixels on the order of 10M) all based around
35mm hardware, it's clear you can have this if you want it, today, for a
price.
> The main thing I'm looking
> forward to in digital photography is not having to hump around
> all that glass. Imagine a lens equivalent to 500mm which is
> the size and weight of the Zuiko 50mm 1.8.
There is that. And of course, you can have it at f0.8 or whatever
without mortaging the tree farm. Not to mention gigantic zooms that
still fit in the pocket, like you have on video cameras today.
Of course, looking at it the other way, you'll get medium-to-large
format resolution at 35mm camera sizes, if they can eventually make
larger CCDs, even at today's mask sizes. There may not be enough
commercial interest to realize a digital OM back, given the current
state of Olympus's support, but I'm not really looking to swap my system
for something else, so I would definitely go for such an item.
There's also a promising though still immature CMOS imaging technology
(some of the Vivitar P&S digitals offer this, along with an innovative
fractal image compression, both perhaps not ready for prime time yet,
but maybe someday). The interesting thing about a CMOS sensor is that one
could integrate other stuff on the same device. Like a whole microprocessor,
RAM, ROM, etc. Ultimately making the digital OM back more practical, if
not necessarily any more likely...
--
Dave Haynie | V.P. Technology, Met@box Infonet, AG | http://www.metabox.de
Be Dev #2024 | NB851 Powered! | Amiga 2000, 3000, 4000, PIOS One
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