cptrios
12th of August 2009 (Wed), 19:43
Just saw this (http://www.dpreview.com/news/0908/09080601sonycmos.asp) on DPReview. It's definitely interesting (though we'll have to see how it actually turns out on a still camera), but it made me think of a conversation I once had with a coworker who's spent most of his life as a pro photographer.
He told me that somewhere in the late seventies he'd been approached by a friend looking for people to test out a new device he'd been working on. Apparently this guy had found that the particular film he liked to use required some concrete number of photons to activate it before it could even start recording an image. Figuring that this meant that a decent amount of the light coming through a lens was wasted on "energizing" the film, he devised this little in-body insert that basically consisted of two LEDs that gave off exactly the number of photons it would take to get the film going. My coworker claims that the results he got in his brief bit of testing amounted to something like ISO 51200 film with very little grain.
He says the guy offered to sell him the device but he didn't have the money to buy it. Later, he found out that the guy was creating the thing for the military, and that the project had been scrapped once night vision rolled around.
Clearly this could be complete BS, but hey, who doesn't love a nifty little story like that?
He told me that somewhere in the late seventies he'd been approached by a friend looking for people to test out a new device he'd been working on. Apparently this guy had found that the particular film he liked to use required some concrete number of photons to activate it before it could even start recording an image. Figuring that this meant that a decent amount of the light coming through a lens was wasted on "energizing" the film, he devised this little in-body insert that basically consisted of two LEDs that gave off exactly the number of photons it would take to get the film going. My coworker claims that the results he got in his brief bit of testing amounted to something like ISO 51200 film with very little grain.
He says the guy offered to sell him the device but he didn't have the money to buy it. Later, he found out that the guy was creating the thing for the military, and that the project had been scrapped once night vision rolled around.
Clearly this could be complete BS, but hey, who doesn't love a nifty little story like that?