What if?

Hi everyone,
What if this joke was a real thing? How many of you would buy this?

http://re35.net/index.​html

If this is not the place or if the subject has been discussed, moderators please feel free to do whatever is necessary.

Nicu

Awfully big leap to get from what they designed as an exercise to having something like that in reality.

Given the astronomical explosion in digital, I don't think you could sell enough to recoup your development and marketing costs because I don't think there are enough people who still have film bodies in any significant numbers.

Having said that, if something like this ever does really come to market, sign me up for a couple!

...looks like fun...but at what price?

This has actually been done!
Never made the market though.

http://www.epi-centre.com/reports/ima​gek.html

@PaulB do you know more about where they failed? I would buy a device like that.
Was it a technical problem or a market problem?
Cheers,
Nicu

Hand raised

NicuB wrote in post #13793005
What if this joke was a real thing?

"Joke" is an understatement.

The Imagek device was promised fourteen years ago, went through several alleged changes, and never got to market. Those who followed digital imaging at that time remember it as one of the worst ever cases of vaporware. There were too many real-world engineering drawbacks to the device and it never had a chance.

It's not missed.

Yeah the cost would most likely be in the 7D price range....

Challenges I could see is that the sensor would have to be very thin (ie.. film thickness), many of the controls that made a SLR work were mechanical and not electrical, how to power the unit within the camera, dust on the sensor, etc...

My Olmypus OM-1n was a great camera, but I much more prefer today's dSLR cameras and the ability to instantly see the results along with information such as a histogram to be able to make changes on the fly. The days of taking a picture and waiting until you get the film developed to see if the picture worked are long gone for me......

@DC Fan - very good information . I did not know that. When I said joke I did not want to offend any effort on someone's side. I only saw it as a joke because that website was presenting it as joke.
I'm not sure if it's missed or not, but still I think that this would help people that have an old system.
Nicu

Yeah - I remember reading about the Imagek back when they first started playing it up. Practically, a "universal" drop-in isn't likely to be released due to the space needed for the electronics, battery and storage. Removing the film pressure plate might give you enough space for the sensor, but even then it would be tight. You'd almost need to design a module that replaced the camera's back and/or base, which would mean a custom design for each of a few select models. But the digital successors for those have generally surpassed their film progenitors in many areas other than just resolution (frame rate, shutter speed, automation and customization features). If the camera supported DX coding and had external access points, you could probably deal with changing ISO on the fly, but otherwise you'd pretty well be relying on the film model of "set and forget". Yeah, bluetooth or other RF channel could be used to communicate with a strictly internal insert, but that adds electronics and power demand (hence bulk) to the device too.

@Jon I totally agree that the biggest problem nowadays is that the digital is so far ahead that economically speaking it would not worth the trouble. Still I wish that this was real.
Thanks for moving the thread to the right section.
Nicu

No, I wouldn't buy it. It's too late to the market. Digital bodies are here to stay.

Would be a neat gadget to own. I'd buy one if a viable and useful incarnation of it arrived to Market.

I've got a Leica M3 and M5 that would have these installed the day they came to market.

If this was real I would bash my head against the wall and cry big tears over selling my old Nikon film gear a few years back. Dang, I would love the idea to be true.

Dave