At 05:38 25.06.2003, Gregg Iverson wrote:
Thomas Bryhn wrote back:
At 21:31 24.06.2003, Jim Brokaw wrote:
The OM line didn't start out with -everything- either.
You're right - it only had twenty-something lenses , 12 focusing screens,
dedicated macro equipment and accessories to mount it on everything from
telescopes to microscopes.
Look in one of the early manuals for the OM-1 and you'll find pictures
showing the system at the time of introduction. Now that's a SYSTEM
camera, not some p&s with exchangable lenses.
If you could find even one of some of the items in that manual you would
be very wealthy. Some of the items listed never made it to the
stores. Many of the items I never saw until the last few years.
That's true, except that Olympus still brought out 20-something lenses for
the introduction of the system. Several lenses also pictured in the manual
never made it to the stores, but my numbers are what was actually released.
I've also still not seen all the lenses introduced back in '72-73, and if
anything that should be proof that the OM system was a serious commitment,
quite unlike what we're witnessing now.
Oh, and in 1976 they had a system camera that could measure light 8 stops
lower than the E-1 can do today. I can see the need for digital pictures,
even AF and a more automated flash system, but at this point it can't
replace the OM system - only complement it for the more trivial tasks.
A few days ago, a link was posted for a way to digitally increase the
dynamic range for digital (and film) cameras. On that site was a link to
some software that allows the computer to amplify the light in a digital
file by adding multiple layers of the same photo onto the
photograph. This would be much less time consuming than the way we are
accustomed to doing now, and some amazing images of star trails etc were
included to support the concept.
I have the thread saved at work, but an unable to reproduce it from
here. Maybe someone else remembers the thread and url.
That would be interesting. Not only for photography, it could also change
all sciences dealing with noise and statistics. Imagine to be able to take
one measurement, run it through software and have an output with more
significant digits than the input. You could for instance make an election
poll by asking one person, feed his answer to a computer, and then get a
good estimate of the election result!
Sorry to make fun, but one measurement is still only one measurement, you
can't magically subtract noise from it and be left with the signal. That
kind of image enhancement is only possible in movies, the same ones where
they "zoom in" on a digital picture and bring out more and more details.
BTW, star trails have to my knowledge never suffered from lack of light,
one usually stops down to about f/8 and then exposes for several hours. The
exposure is only made this long to make the stars move across the
film/sensor. Digital cameras will suffer badly from noise with exposure
times longer than a few seconds, so someone has probably made a program to
stack several shorter exposures and subtract a dark frame. I would like to
have a look at that program, though.
Thomnas Bryhn
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