[abhaskare]

Stumbled upon this while reading on another site, looks like a very good concept that would have made all the film cameras into digital.
Not sure why it did not progress!or if it had any truth in it !!

Silicon Film demos EFS-1: Digital Photography Review

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Last edited by abhaskare; 02-09-2017 at 11:31 AM.

[G.E.Zekai]

I always thought this was a prank. And while concept sounds very cool i can see alot of problems coming with it. Like maintenance, battery life, durability, cooling.. etc

[skierd]

Consider that the only thing standard between 35mm camera's is the ability to load the cartridge and take a 36x24mm frame... the spacing between the film spools, pressure plates, etc is different on every body, so you'd need a new insert for every popular film camera ever made.

The Kodak system replaced the whole film back and battery grip to house the electronics. It could possibly be done that way today, but for which film bodies? Maybe the Nikon F6 since it's still in production, maybe for Leica, but for who else?

[rrstuff]

They weren't doing it at the right time. With current technology it would be doable. for example, it can use proximity charger to deliver power wirelessly. I am not sure if a price of a sensor + electronics would be worth it though - it might come close to fully assembled dSLRs that are produced in much bigger numbers.

[boriscleto]

It wasn't practical then and it isn't practical now. They never did show a working prototype let alone come close to shipping a final product.

[stevebrot]

It wasn't practical then and it isn't practical now. They never did show a working prototype let alone come close to shipping a final product.

What he said ^ ^ ^

The issue was and continues to be signaling for the exposure sequence. There have been a few DIY efforts using user-activated buttons and cabling to either the hot shoe or PC flash fitting. Another possible option today might be a RF signaling device triggered by the hot shoe.*


Steve

* Also required is a wake-up button since running the sensor hot would soon deplete the battery.

[UncleVanya]

This was closer to the mark but never made it either.
Silicon Film Strikes Back?: Digital Photography Review

Look at the weight by the way...

[abhaskare]

This looks like a good idea. It separates data processing from the camera as a PC can do it much nicely. That leaves the camera to only supply the raw data. That would take out most of the complications.

[photoptimist]

Sadly, the EFS-1 had a ton of disadvantages

* a tiny crop sensor: smaller than micro-4/3s
* no way to review a shot or get data out of the camera
* only 24 shots before having to remove the cartridge for transferring the data

Probably the deeper issue is that the kind of people who could afford a high-end film camera (i.e., one worth converting to digital) could also afford a purpose-built and optimized digital camera with much better specs and handling than the EFS-1.

[E-man]

I remember around that time thinking that it would be cool if there were a digital back I could put on my Minolta X-570 that would use the data back interface to work with the camera body. Even if somebody would have made such a beast, I'm sure it would have cost a whole lot more than just replacing the whole camera.

[Marcus Rowland]

I often test lenses for a lot of different cameras - currently I own four film bodies, which I use to make sure that things like autofocus and aperture work properly under camera control. What I can't do in most cases is test the optical quality of the lens by taking an actual picture, except possibly in macro mode or through an adapter that adds another lens to the mix. And then sometimes I can't stop down, or can't open the aperture, to get a fair result. Something like this would be great for that.