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.