Digital camera back
Digital camera backs contain image sensors for digital image recording. They are attached to the rear of modular analog camera housings and expand the corresponding camera system into a digital camera system . They are particularly widespread in the field of medium format and large format cameras . In the case of medium format cameras, the back is attached instead of the roll film cassette . Manufacturers of these backs include the companies Eyelike / Jenoptik , Imacon (takeover by Hasselblad 2004), Kodak , Leaf , Leica , Phase One and Sinar .
history
The first such digital back for a 35mm SLR camera was developed in 1987 for military purposes by Kodak on the basis of a Canon New F-1 : The Canon New F-1 Electro-Optic Camera . As a result, further "military applications" - but here based on a Nikon F3 - were developed, which were called Hawkeye II .
The first available digital back for a 35mm SLR camera was offered in 1991 (also by Kodak), but it was only sold together with a modified Nikon F3 as the Kodak DCS 100 . Kodak offered further digital backs for SLR cameras from Nikon and Canon until 1999 , until 1995 these represented the complete range of digital SLR cameras. In all of these cases Kodak sold the digital backs together with the associated Canon or Nikon cameras. A complete overview can be found on the website of the developer James McGarvey.
From 2005, Leica offered the Leica Digital-Modul-R for the Leica R8 and R9. In 2011 Nikon applied for a patent for a digital camera back for its old F-series cameras.
The still video backs , which were offered by Minolta since 1986 and by Chinon since 1988, do not count among the digital camera backs .
variants
Digital camera backs are offered in two different designs:
Scan backs
Together with a scan back, an analog camera becomes a scanner camera . According to the scanning principle, the pixels are not captured simultaneously, but line by line one after the other. Depending on the resolution, this results in acquisition times of around 40 seconds to several minutes. Backs are currently available that achieve a resolution of over 14,000 × 17,000 pixels (over 250 million pixels without interpolation).
Chip backs
As in commercially available digital cameras, a CCD or APS chip is used, but it has a larger area and a higher number of pixels. At present, chip backs with 150 million pixels mark the technical standard. With the availability of high-resolution chip backs, digital image capture has established itself in almost all areas of professional photography.
Big amounts of data
With resolutions from 20 million to over 250 million pixels and correspondingly large image processing sensors, a back wall often costs over 20,000 euros, which is why they are almost exclusively used by professional photographers. Due to the high number of recorded pixels, there is a large space requirement for storage, the file sizes can reach up to 1500 MB for an image.
In studios it is possible to connect the camera directly to a computer so that there are no problems with storing large amounts of data. Many cameras can be controlled directly via the computer, the image is then available for checking directly on the monitor.
Web links
Manufacturer
- Leaf (english)
- PhaseOne.com (English)
- RENCAY
- Seitz Phototechnik AG
- Sinar
Individual evidence
- ↑ The Electro-Optic Camera - The world's first DSLR. Made by Eastman Kodak Company in 1987. In: jemcgarvey.com. March 15, 2012, accessed March 15, 2012 .
- ^ The DCS Story - 17 years of Kodak Professional digital camera systems 1987-2004. (PDF; 4.0 MB) In: http://eocamera.jemcgarvey.com . June 1, 2004, accessed December 21, 2012 .
- ^ The DCS Story - 17 years of Kodak Professional digital camera systems 1987-2004. (PDF; 4.0 MB) In: http://eocamera.jemcgarvey.com . June 1, 2004, accessed December 21, 2012 .
- ↑ golem.de: F3 et al Nikon patented digital camera back for analog SLRs. Retrieved January 14, 2013 .
- ↑ phaseone.com: XF IQ4 150MP Camera System. Retrieved September 1, 2019 .