Hi all;
A bit of input on the digital debate.
I just returned from Fry's Electronics where, amoung other things, I
browsed the latest issue of 'American Photo'. In it was a brief article
entitled something like "What the well-equipped digital photographer
will take into the field this year". The poor guy was loaded down with
cell phones, GPS system, a camcorder, a Power Mac notebook computer and,
oh also a camera. It was the Kodak DCS520 (some of the specs for this
camera I've copied below from the Kodak web site.) This got me thinking
a bit about capabilities and functionality.
Now this looks like a pretty impressive camera. It is a Canon EOS-1 with
Kodak digital hardware and software added. And a battery pack. It's
about twice the height of a normal EOS. This camera is the
state-of-the-art in 35mm digital, to my knowledge. It's got an 1152 x
1758 pixel CCD. Producing 6MByte files for each image. This is actually
challenging the resolution of good slide film which I believe can be
approximated by about 2500 x 3700 pixels, about 5 times better assuming
100 lines/mm resolution. Anyway, what about the rest of the story?
This camera has the capability of fast 'burst-mode'. Heads above
anything else. This means that it can take images at 3.5 frames/sec.
That's about as fast as a 2SP with a motor drive. Pretty good. (Not as
fast as a 4T with MD2 or a regular EOS) How many of these images can
the camera store? 12. Then you simply download the images (72 MBytes) to
your Power Macs' PCMCIA port (via Firewire - IEEE 1394 high speed serial
bus.) Now you're ready for another 12 images. It's that simple. Oh,
but be frugal with the images, as the battery will need to be recharged
after 300 images.
So, I want to summarize: The STATE_OF_THE ART digital camera system vs
an OM-1
DCS 520:Max 12 pictures before pausing to down load.
OM-1 Max 36 (or 250 w/250 back) before changing rolls.
DCS 520:Resolution appx 2 MPixels
OM-1 Resolution almost 10 MPixels
DCS 520:Very big and bulky. (Not counting the notebook computer.)
OM-1: Very small and light.
DCS 520:Storage medium: Floppy disk (24 images per) or hard disk.
OM-1 Film canisters 36 images per.
DCS 520:Necessary peripheral equipment: Power Mac or equiavalent
with
the biggest hard drive you can get. Say $2000.00?
OM-1 None. Well, there is room for 2 more bodies w/diff films.
DCS 520:Battery life before recharge: 300 images (less than 8 rolls)
OM-1 Years.
DCS 520:12 images at 3.5 images/sec
OM-1 36 (or 250) images at 3.5 images/sec
I guess this, then, might be the way you'd work in the field: Carry the
extra weight of the DCS hardware, battery pack and the notebook
computer. Stop to take some photos. 12 max. Power up the Power Mac.
Wait for it to boot. Load application. Wait while images download.
Repeat til done here. Power down the Mac. Go to next location. Shoot,
boot, wait, download. Do this until you've shot the equiv of 8 rolls of
film. Go home and recharge the battery pack. (Or maybe you're carrying
another one, who knows.) Do this until your hard drive is full. (300 x 6
MBytes = 1.8 GBytes per battery charge.) Move images off hard drive to
some other storage medium. (Ooops, another peripheral needed!) Or maybe
buy another hard drive. No, then you'd have to reload the operating
system. Oh, and you'd probably be walking most of the time since the
system has cost you ABOUT THE SAME AS A MIDSIZE CAR!
So there's your present state of the digital camera. I think I'll wait
awhile.
*****************************************************************
The award-winning KODAK PROFESSIONAL DCS 520 Digital Camera (Innovative
Digital Product of PMA 98) elegantly combines the three attributes that
you need the most:
high ISO (200--1600),
6 MB image files,
and a rapid burst rate. (3.5 images per second.)
The DCS 520 Digital Camera lets you instantly analyze your images right
on the LCD panel with the Kodak- developed histogram and highlighted
exposure features. Then you can transmit them quickly, all over the
world from your laptop computer. Yet, with all these digital
conveniences, you won't feel like your learning about a whole new
camera.
This camera is a digital SLR built around the CANON EOS Camera
subsystem. And, because there's no image sensor framing, what you see
really is what you get.
Improved image quality. The auto white balance, calibrated
through-the-lens (TTL) flash, and anti-aliasing technologies work
together to give you unbelievably crisp images.
New charge-coupled device (CCD) technology allows you to
capture 2
mega-pixel images giving you improved color quality in your digital
images.
Improved digital performance. The DCS 520 Digital Camera lets
you
produce superior digital images without trading off ISO speeds or camera
burst rates. It allows you to capture up to 12 continuous images before
the buffer is filled and downloaded to the PC Card. Simply shoot and
view. It's that simple.
--
george :>)
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