http://homepage.1000words.kodak.com/def ... em=2388083 After 74 years, Kodachrome has been retired. ; While this has been brewing for many years, especially since I don't think Kodak even still processes it - you have to send it to a private lab in Colorado if you want a roll of it developed - it's still sad to see it go.
I want to be sad at this.. I want to mourn the passing.. But I haven't touched film in a very long time. ; And honestly I never shot slide film. ; I always thought that some day I might buy an old EOS series film camera, one of those high end monsters that can follow your eye movements for AF control and such. ; But I really don't want to deal with film. ; Actually what I'd like to do is retrofit something like an Elan 7e with a digital sensor, but I don't know if that can really be done. ; I mean I'd be quite happy if I could take the sensor from my first Digital Rebel and stick it in to an Elan 7e, that'd make a fun addition. ; I always wanted to handle one of those cameras. But even without increasingly narrow film availability.. I just don't want to shoot film. My heart goes out to all who are still shooting film, I have nothing against it in principle, I respect the various reasons people may have for wanting to stay with it. But it's a digital world... ; the economy of scale is a harsh master.
At one time a company was working on a film-camera back. ; Best vaporware of the early part of this decade. ; If the Nikon rumors are true, we'll see this soon. ; (replacable sensor backs since the camera will probably be okay, and it would be cheaper to upgrade the sensor only) I still don't know why Canon hasn't continued the eye control AF. ; It was wonderful on the EOS-3.
Canon developed the ability for the viewfinder to have a sensor that can track your eye, and the camera would AF on the point closest to where your eye was looking. They even had a depth-of-field preview sensor so all you had to do was look in a specific corner and it would stop the lens down. I think it was only on the Elan IIe, A2e, Elan7e, and the EOS-3. ; Sony has eye-activated AF where as soon as you bring the camera up to your eye it will activate AF, but not choose the AF point.
Yeah they have some whargggggrbl about "consumers didn't want it" or something like that. ; Nothing to do with the fact that Nikon was kicking their rear at the time or that their entire marketing budget was going to Andre Agassi hawking the Rebel line.
After I wrote that post I did a little googling on replaceable sensor backs. ; I think I ran into that vaporware. I think we'd need third party companies developing it. ; Canon and Nikon want us to be buying entirely new cameras every few years. ; They don't want us to be able to buy just a new sensor. ; It's the same reason why Canon and Nikon are much happier selling us stabilization on a per lens basis instead of letting us buy it once in a body. I still want to get an Elan. ; If I ever get the chance to get one for a low enough price I'll probably still do it. ; And if someone dangles an Eos 3 in front of me.. oh yeah, MINE. ; I could run a few rolls of film through it for that old timey feeling, it really is quite inexpensive to have film developed at my local Costco and they can put them on CD for cheap too. ; I don't know how high quality their scanning process is.. but from what I understand their film process is to develop the film, then scan it, and then print the scans digitally. ; So I'd guess they just take the scans and put them on disc instead. That really would rock if I could buy a custom back for a camera like that. ; I don't need high specs, a 6 megapixel back would be FINE. ; A modern integrated DSLR is going to be better in most ways, I'm sure, but I want to know what it was like to use one of those classic models. ; My path is that I started out on an entirely manual DSLR, then got a low quality P&S back when they were just first coming out, and then went straight to a DSLR. ; I never used one of those more evolved film SLRs. I do know that they were getting fairly fancy. ; I remember a feature that let you shoot part of a roll of film, then rewind it and switch to a new roll, and then go back to that earlier roll and the camera could automatically go back to where you left off. I mean, it really makes me appreciate the convenience of digital.. but dang that's fancy. ; Then again I seem to recall that it also kept you from using IR film because it used an active IR sensor to count the sprocket holes in the film, or something like that.
i just want canon to put their top of the line film body af in all the dslr bodies, or at least down to the 5d level, that was one fine af system
Gary, they boxed themselves into a corner on that one. ; They have to have some major reason to differenitate the 5DMkII with the 1DsMkIII, other than dual storage media/durability (and the durability is needed for photojournalists, not studio people!). ; Speed is about the same, and the 5D's sensor is better. ; But the cost difference is huge. Nikon finally put the pro level sensor in their upper end bodies from the D3x to the D700 and D300, which is one of the reasons I did decide to switch. ; There are big differences between the models still, like the D700, which share's the D3's sensor, can't shoot as fast. Granted, we may see Nikon get into the same corner shortly if they release a D700x with the D3x's sensor.....
