Didn't see a question for this, so--is there an digital photography adaptor or other device for my 35mm camera? I'd hate to give up my assortment of Olympus lenses and dedicated flash to go digital. Yes, I know I can have my photo processor put 35mm images on CD-ROM, but I'd really like the advantages of digital and the power of my current equipment. Any hope? Any pointers?

-- Bruce Wheelock (wheelock@aa.net), July 09, 1999

Answers

Never mind--found the archives and discovered that this has been asked before. Seems the one and only answer is http://www.imagek.com, and they don't have a product for sale yet.

Why is nobody interested in this? I would imagine that people with expensive long zooms and high-quality macro lenses would jump at an opportunity to get a digital way to use that top of the line equipment.

-- Bruce Wheelock (wheelock@aa.net), July 10, 1999.

The problem is it is hard to produce, or grow, a silicon crystal waffer the size of 35mm piece of film. Also since 35mm film is very thin it doesn't give much room for the waffer and something to mount it to. Also the compartment for the roll of 35mm does exactly leave a nice place for a flat circuit card and batteries. I haven't seen to many curved ones since silicon dies are flat. They could make a whole new thicker camera back but you probably wouldn't be able to get you eye up to the eyepiece. It's a catch 22. Also how do you know when the batteries have gone dead in the imager since there is no interaction between it and the camera to say no don't take the shot.

-- Bob G (rgreg88721@hotmail.com), July 10, 1999.

The ccd or cmos sensor doesn't need the be the size of a frame of film , it only needs to be the "apparent size" of the frame. This can be done with a lens or lenses. "Circuit boards" can easily be curved surfaces and not flat ones if they are constructed from surface mount components bonded to a circuit printed on a flexible substrate like Kapton Film(TM Dupont). If I'm not mistaken, from reading the Imagek Site, the unit is[will be?, may be?, might someday be? :-)] designed to drop in and beep to inform you of what is going on when taking pictures.

While all that sounds great, it's certainly not a substitute for a digicam. One of the best features of a digicam is the ability to display the image captured immediately afterwards. The drop-in ideas don't address this one. I think if image quality is the holy grail, then 35mm and scanning seems appropriate. I think if making sure you got what you saw is most important then the digicam has a slight edge.

Personally, I can't wait for the "newness" to wear off so we can get to the point where a digicam comparable to a good 35mm camera is available for a few hundred dollars. It seems to me that with 4-8 megapixels, standard 35mm lens mounts, a large memory capacity/quick cycle time, long lasting batteries, and a slightly higher than current resolutions LCD capable of easy viewing in light(like the Epson "Solar Prism" backlighting) and dark conditions or a tiny lcd built-in as a pseudo-optical viewfinder we'd have a nearly perfect digicam. Look at the current consumer models offered at a low pricepoint compared to the original digital models with astronomical price ranges. We're getting there!

-- Gerald M. Payne (gmp@francorp.francomm.com), July 10, 1999.