News Anyone for a Digipod?

[Lightmancer]

DigiPod | Indiegogo

This has been tried before, of course. But technology has moved on so maybe it is something whose time has come. The romantic in me would love to see it a success, and I have pledged accordingly. If it doesn't happen at least I won't be one of those who has sat back in their armchairs and poured cold water on the idea from a great height. Have a look for yourself and see if you agree.

 

[pdh]

Good for him.
Not for me, but I hope he's successful ... Though I suspect he'd have a greater chance had he gone with Kickstarter

 

[ReD]

Excellent would love to see this a success (I'll now google Kickstarter)

Thanks for posting

I take a certain satisfaction that a Brit is responsible (not that its relevant)

 

[entropic remnants]

Fun -- though he did struggle with whether he was singular or a plural at the beginning, lol.

Not interested, but I wish him well.

 

[Lightmancer]

I'll watch this with great interest. I have donated via paypal; the way it works is that my money has been debited, but if they don't make the target, it gets refunded. I really hope this gathers momentum - it would be great to see old cameras that have been put to one side being given a new lease of life. I still use my film cameras, but I know many do not and they are missing out on the physical experience, I feel.

 

[Luke]

making this thing at anything less than full frame seems pointless to me since that is what the cameras and lenses have been designed for. Right? It's a clever idea and I wish him well, but I have no desire to put a tiny sensor into a wonderful old 35mm camera and take images of a much lower quality.

 

[BillN]

He needs to be certain of his market ....... I would think that it is quite small ........... even amongst 35mm users

It may appeal to a few Leica "nuts" who like to experiment or maybe if he produced an affordable digital back for the film Hasselblads and the like it could be interesting

Good luck to him ....... but I cannot see it being commercially successful

 

[Luke]

well that's the beauty of this website (or Kickstarter). He's guaranteed to be successful (or it never gets started). He won't proceed with building them until he raises £199,000 which presumably has his profit built in. If he falls short of his goal, he can return to taking low res photos with his prototypes.

 

[Lightmancer]

I look at this differently. It won't appeal to the Leica pixel-peeping sharpness freaks who will simply buy an M and pour scorn on an initiative like this. Furthermore those of us with film Leicas are pretty happy using them as Barnack intended. Where I can see it having an appeal is the countless thousands of decent camera bodies that are sitting unused because film is no longer "mainstream". If it saves some shelf-queens from seizing up it will be a success. In any event, who ever thought Lomo would be the success it is?

Sent from another Galaxy

 

[trisberg]

making this thing at anything less than full frame seems pointless to me since that is what the cameras and lenses have been designed for. Right? It's a clever idea and I wish him well, but I have no desire to put a tiny sensor into a wonderful old 35mm camera and take images of a much lower quality.

Exactly, I thought the same thing. My only hope is that Nikon will put a full-frame sensor into an FM3a body some day. Maybe call it FM4d . Don't even need an LCD screen - if they put in wireless connectivity I could review my pictures instantly on a phone.

-Thomas

 

[ajramirez]

I wish him all the success in the world, but I do not see the point. If it had a full frame sensor, it might serve as a cumbersome alternative to a fully integrated digital camera. With a 2/3" sensor, it makes absolutely no sense.

I do not feel any desire to shoot digitally with any of my film cameras; I have digital cameras that do that quite competently. I will, however, continue to feed them with film as long as it is available.

 

[Lightmancer]

You have all read the bit about the sensor getting bigger the more investors? I'n not expecting a perfect answer to a photographer's prayer straight out of the box, but see this as something that has the potential to grow and improve over a period of time. To that end I have put my money where my mouth is - time will tell

 

[ReD]

I do not feel any desire to shoot digitally with any of my film cameras; I have digital cameras that do that quite competently. I will, however, continue to feed them with film as long as it is available.

You would still be able too - reattach pressure plate & way to go

 

[ajramirez]

You may have misunderstood the tone of my post, as it was not meant to be argumentative in any way. It's just that, even if they were able to incorporate a full frame sensor, you would end up with a digital camera that would be much more limited in its function than practically any integrated digital camera.

Take my M6, for example. If you could use one of these Digipods in it, would it have an LCD screen to view shots taken? How would the camera shutter synchronize with the Digipod (I know that with some digital backs, e.g., the Hasselblad V-system back, the back synchronized with the shutter via the flash sync socket)? Assuming that the Digipod would go in the camera's film chamber, would you have to pull it out to change ISO, WB and other settings?

All of this seems unnecessarily complicated and would ruin (at least for me) the experience of shooting with the M6. Why would you chose to do this when you can readily purchase a digital M?

With film there is no need for the imaging sensor (film) to communicate with the camera. With digital, the sensor has to communicate with the camera for effective operation. With few exceptions, film cameras are not equipped for such communication. Considering the quality and variety of digital cameras currently available, I just don't see why anybody would bother. As much as I hope the venture is successful, I do not see a large enough market for it.

Regards,

Antonio

 

[kyteflyer]

I think I am completely missing the point of it all.

 

[pdh]

I think one has to look beyond one's own preferences for projects like this ... I wouldn't want one myself either, but I would not be at all surprised if an initiative like this could be made a modest (in terms of volume) but nevertheless profitable success.

After all, the Lomography crew seem to be doing quite well out of selling crappy overpriced plastic cameras and heavily marked up film, so there's clearly a market for slightly kitschy stuff (I'm not being snitty or APUGGY about this, they're a success story and good for them too)

The idea that you could have a genyouwine film camera (but be able to get real digital photos out of it) has real potential, it seems to me. I just think he should have used Kickstarter where he'd probably find a higher profile with one of the markets that really matters - the US; I bet it would go down a storm in Japan too ...

 

[ReD]

His best bet is to get bought out. I can understand keeping it low profile to start with & testing the market this way isn't stupid & gets early commitment.
I would have thought raising extra capital for further development would not be difficult if he reaches his 5000 target but that needs global support

Using my old SLR a few weeks ago was a joy to use but let down by quality of digitised scanned image - this item of his is around the same price as a decent scanner

 

[BillN]

you can buy a Nikon D3200 for £300, ($500), so why bother if you are a DSLR user

mad ....... if you want my view

 

[Ray Sachs]

Interesting thought, but as others have pointed out, you need a full frame sensor for it to be of any use - with a 2/3 (or even somewhat larger) all of the old lenses are telephotos and good luck finding ANYthing to work as a wide angle. I wish him luck - I love novel ideas. But I've got neither any film cameras left nor a desire to go back to using a "roll of digital" with a set ISO - maybe he'll build one with auto-ISO - but will it have a minimum shutter speed, etc, etc, etc.......

-Ray

 

[Luke]

Bill, lest you think we're piling on you, I don't think that's the case for any of us. I think it's great that you have put your money where your mouth is. A customer of mine did a kickstarter to fund a film he's making. The film will never be anything more than a low budget indie film. But I believe in him. And frankly, there's so little in today's world that I truly believe in that even if I were to shout it from the rooftops and no one cared, I'd still be glad to have shouted. It's nice to have something to believe in. And if it never gets fully funded, it's like you had a built-in savings account and can go put that money to some other cockamamie scheme.