The problem with interchangeable backs on 35mm cameras is not patents, but technology. It is simply that digital sensors have not been on the surface of the chip but buried behind a protective surface and then maybe an antialiasing filter over that.
What does that mean? Well, look into the back of your camera. See the shiney rails the film rides on? Now look at the shutter curtain see how close it is to those rails? Now the film has to ride on those rails for the image to be in focus. If the surface of the chip is placed on the rails the actual sensor is too far back to bring the image into focus. If you use a smaller chip and push it down into the film aperture between the rails it interferes with the shutter. So neither option will work. The reason they don't have that problem with medium format magazine back cameras is that the film rails are in the magazine a few millimeters behind the physical back of the camera body which allows enough clearance to place the sensors exactly at the focus point. Now, what seems to be the difference with the sensor for the proposed Leica back is they have managed to place the sensors right at the surface of the chip (actually, inset less than 7 microns). That is a major breakthrough. However, you may have read in the article that there is no antialiasing filter. That is simply because there is no room between the chip and the shutter. Silicon film has an even more difficult problem because it has to fit between the film rails and the pressure plate of the existing back. I would imagine that the problem they have found insurmountable so far is making a sensor that thin that is not also so fragile that it is useless in the real world. I have explained this before, but it was probably back when we were talking about the MZ-D which was quite a while ago. Ciao, Graywolf http://pages.prodigy.net/graywolfphoto ----- Original Message ----- From: "whickersworld" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Neither would I! But I like the concept. > If Leica can somehow break the strangle- > hold that Silicon Film seems to have on > this market, I would expect other camera > manufacturers to follow suit.
