Digital Photography for Standard Cameras?

NightWhistler asks: "I've been hearing stories for some time now about digital modules that can be used inside normal photo camera's as a sort of 'digital film', effectively turning a standard camera into a digital one. If they exist and performance is good, I would love to get my hands on one of those babies... ;-) Has anyone actually seen one of these, or perhaps have experience with them?" There may have been one company that did this, but I think they went out of business, recently. I've always thought this was a neat idea, but is there really a market for this kind of modification?

Comments

Re:Digital cameras offer little control

[RussGarrett]

With a good digital SLR, such as the EOS D-60 or the Nikon D1-X you can control at least all the settings available on a top-of-the range film SLR - such as ISO number, shutter speed, spot focus area, and so on. However, the digital bodies can be up to twice the price of the equivalent SLR, some as much as $7,000 or $8,000.

A digital SLR can certainly produce pictures equivalent to those produced by a film SLR, but they have the advantage that you can review the shots to see what you want to print before printing them.

Digital camera backs

[Captain Pedantic]

I believe that what the poster is looking for is called a "digital camera back". Knowing that he should be able to find one that is suitable for him.

Re:Digital camera backs

[sskiles]

Moderators, please mod up this parent.

I had been browsing at 4 and the only comments I had seen were vaporware, digital lacks control, and obsolete concept. In the consumer market that may be the case, but in the professional market it is a different story. I have been looking into the Kodak DCS Pro Back 645 which is designed for the Mamiya and Contax 645 camera bodies. Take a look at

http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/produc ts/cameras/dcsProBack645/features.jhtml

This is not vaporware, an obsolete concept, nor does it lack control since it could be used with any of the existing lenses, extenders, bellows, etc. that are made for these cameras. It would seem the correct answer for the question posed is "Yes, it is possible to turn a standard camera into a digital camera and performance is good (ISO 100-400, 36 bit color, 16 megapixel sensor, etc.)." The only caveats are that it is made for professional high end equipment and it costs more than your car.

Obsolete concept

[NeonSpirit]

There was a company called Silicon Film which produced this. The disadvantage was that each unit was unique to the camera, i.e. no swaping between Nikon and Canon or even within Canon between models. DP review has an article from September last year that operations have been suspended.

With the cost of Digital SLR's comming down people seem to be opting for a new camera body to match thier lens collection.

Re:Obsolete concept

[Diamon]

Eek, not only that but it appears Silicon Film's (e) film was only rated at ISO 100 and was only suitable for 8"x10" prints or smaller. Talk about the worst of both worlds.

Vaporware

[Col. Klink (retired)]

The stories that you've been hearing have been vaporware. In fact, "digital film" has made Wired's Top 10 Vaporware lists twice.

See also: Wired Story and Slashdot discussion thereof.

6. Silicon Film's electronic film system: Last year, Silicon Film Technologies made our list for failing to deliver its intriguing "digital film" system, which purported to turn an ordinary camera into a digital one. The digital film, one year later, is still not available, to the chagrin of many readers.

They're still at it. Their Web Site says it will be available soon (last updated Feb 14, 2002).

Digital camera backs

[eXtro]

They're available, but they're very expensive. Kodak has the DCS line, which is an expensive option for expensive camera bodies, such as the Nikon F5 or medium/large format cameras. The Nikon F5 model has 6 million pixels which on the face of it is on par with a ~$1000.00 point and shoot digital camera.

A pixel doesn't mean anything unless its providing useful imaging however, and a digital camera back such as this can provide many more useful pixels than a consumer model and also has a colour depth of 12 bits.

Compared to a consumer digital camera the CCD area on these are huge, which means that each pixel receives more light. The list price is $7995.00.

Here are a couple of links to reviews and Kodak's web site:

• DCS 760 experience
• DCS 760 review
• Kodak's information

Re:Digital cameras offer little control

[funky womble]

Since the D-60 (around $2200 for the body) came out, the second hand market for the D-30 must be a little better than it used to be and even without using Genuine Fractals or SI Pro you can still output to fairly decent sizes from the dpi it captures...

You can review shots before you print using a film SLR, but it's not very convenient. (for example, just have films developed but not printed, which is usually quite cheap for negs, and use a film-scanner - the difference in price between a film SLR and digital SLR plus memory will buy a reasonable scanner and a lot of film - depends what you're after really).

Re:Digital cameras offer little control

[sshekels]

There are numerous ones available for medium-format cameras (read Hasselblad, etc.). They typically are VERY expensive, and require all sorts of support equipment. I believe one of the major problems is to sync the shutter and the CCD, thus resulting in the high costs.

One can do a search for Hasselblad 555ELD and Kodak DCS Pro Digital backs.

Re:Digital cameras offer little control

[b_pretender]

Coolpix 885. $400.

I've been very happy with this camera. It offers *complete* control over things such as ISO, focus, f-stop, shutterspeed, Noise reduction, etc. in addition to many nice P&S settings.

My only complaint is that low-light pictures turn out reddish no matter how I adjust the settings. If you want a manual focus that you adjust by rotating a lens barrel, then you won't get that either. However, the compact body of the coolpix 885 makes up for a lack of manual focus barrel and you are still able to selectively focus in pictures such as: this macro shot

I'm moving backward: digital - analog

[HWheel]

Two years ago, my boyfriend bought me a very nice digital camera for xmas. I used it a lot for year (sometimes driving him crazy, I'm afraid, with my "just hold on a minute because I want to get a picture of this" shenanigans) but eventually I discovered that I wanted more control than I was able to get with the digital camera. So this year for xmas, I bought myself a very nice rather high-end 35mm camera, and I'm really getting better at "photography." While the digital camera was really good for learning about framing and composition and such, I'm really not sure that I could have made this next step without a 35mm camera (and the experience with different kinds of film and lenses). I also discovered that scanning and photoshopping prints was an amazing process that really taught me about the "digital darkroom." Now I want a great digital camera very badly but I'm discovering that none of them match the film speeds and lenses available with the 35mm (except at the >$2000 level, which is a little out of my range right now, but considering how much I spent on the 35mm camera...). At any rate, I'd love a digital back for my "better" 35mm so I can use my lenses, but only if it also simulates ISO 100, 200, 400, 800, and 1600 film. I'm not sure how much I'd be willing to pay, but I think it'd be a lot if it really did simulate the "analog experience."

Sure, if you have $10000+

[shoppa]

The item you are looking for is known as a "digital back", and indeed it is a detector that sits on the film plane.

The problem for you is that your cameras probably do not have interchangable backs. There are very few 35mm cameras that have interchangeable or digital backs; see this web page for an example that does. In the "professional" medium format (2inch x 3inch negative) and large format (4inch x 5inch negative) worlds, there are many cameras and digital backs available. Plan on investing, at a minimum, $10K to get started; some digital backs run $50K to $100K.

Digital back makers

[shoppa]

A quick search turned up these makers of digital backs for cameras that take interchangable backs:

• Better Light. Prices range from $10000 to $20000.
• Fuji Film. See this distributor's page on one model. Prices run from $13000 up.
• Kodak Digital Camera backs. $12000 to $25000 range.
• Leaf digital backs. $10000 to $25000.
• Megavision. $25000.
• Phase One. $12000-$25000.

Mostly for medium format cameras

[acomj]

If you have a medium format camera with interchangeable backs, they sell digital versions.

Medium format cameras (6x6 ,6x7 etc) are much more expensive than 35 mm ones but were designed to take different backs. The larger size negative means more megapixels.

However those backs are very expensive.

As cameras become more computer like they seem to also to be coming more disposable