i dont know if this is the right place to ask this but here goes: has anybody heard of/seen a "digital film insert" for conventional 35mm slr's? i remember seeing something in a magazine (or website?) regarding this, but i didnt make a note of who made it or where to look for it. here's the deal: its a little unit shaped much like a 35mm film cannister with a flat piece of plastic (?) that extends across the shutter (i supposed this hold the sensor array to capture images). i remeber reading that currently they are being developed only for more modern autofocus/electronic slr's at the moment. thats all i can remember about it. thanks for any help in advance. take care. Jerry

-- Jerry Hazard (hazard01@earthlink.net), February 04, 2000

Answers

The company involved have been tantalizing us with that one for 3 or 4 years now. I believe that the consortium that holds the patent rights has been bought and sold by quite a few larger companies recently.

I think if it was technically possible at a reasonable price, Nikon Canon, Pentax & co. would be offering us digital backs to go on our existing SLRs.

The purveyors of this rumour should either put-up or shut-up IMHO.

-- Pete Andrews (p.l.andrews@bham.ac.uk), February 04, 2000.

Look at www.siliconfilms.com They have the kit you are after, but only for certain SLR's, Canon and Nikon, I think.

-- Richard Underwood (rfunderwood@compuserve.com), February 04, 2000.

The product you are talking about is at

siliconfilm.net

and looks great to me!

Its parent company Irvine Sensors has a lot of other neat high tech stuff they are working on, check this out:

http://community-1.webtv.net/SYZYGIAN2/IRSNShareholder/

Phil

-- Phil Jacobsen (jacobsen2@home.com), February 04, 2000.

Has anybody actually seen one yet? You'd think an item that was due for release in the next couple of months would have had preview/proof of design/proof of manufacturing type samples doing the round of shows, etc. Fortunately for all of us the computer industry doesn't make a practice of allowing the marketing people to hype non-existent products or trumpet unrealistic availability dates. :) An $800 device that allows me to use a $1200 17mm lens as a normal lens. Wow! To get pictures to 8x10. Wow!

-- Craig Gillette (cgillette@thegrid.net), February 05, 2000.

The address is actually http://www.siliconfilm.com/ (not 'films'). The product has been 'due for release in a couple of months' for years now.

-- Alan Gibson (Alan.Gibson@technologist.com), February 05, 2000.

I've just visited their website. 1.3 megapixels from a spot meter size area in the centre of the frame! I'm impressed (yawn)

Also see their little disclaimer at:

www.siliconfilm.com/d isclaimer

I think it speaks volumes.

-- Pete Andrews (p.l.andrews@bham.ac.uk), February 07, 2000.