Today's digital camera didn't just drop out of the sky, fully formed. Even though digital cameras are a relatively recent innovation in the 165-year history of photography, the road to all-electronic digital photography has been a gradual transition, extending over decades. Solid-state technology began to intertwine itself into the workings of conventional cameras more than 20 years ago, as electronic metering was joined by electronic shutters, programmed exposure modes, automatic focus, and other computer-oriented innovations in film cameras. If you first became active in photography in the digital era, you may be surprised to learn that many of the key features of modern digital cameras were first found in film cameras.
Indeed, since motorized film transport became common, advanced film cameras and the most sophisticated digital models that followed have had more in common than not. Some of the newest cameras with interchangeable lenses—both film and digital—use electronics to set both the shutter speed and lens aperture. Nikon's G series lenses, for example, don't have an aperture ring at all. You set the f-stop with camera controls. Many of the early high-end digital cameras were little more than 35mm SLRs with a sensor located where the film plane ought to be. If you're comfortable using one of the latest film cameras, you'll be right at home using many of the current digital models.
Studio cameras have needed even less modification to enter the digital world. Electronic studio cameras frequently have been built through the simple expedient of designing a digital back that replaces the sheet-film holder of a conventional view camera or the rollfilm back of a medium format camera. Mamiya has a particularly nice digital back for its 645 line, so the Mamiya ZD digital back makes an excellent complement to the Mamiya ZD digital camera. Catalog photographers in particular favor solutions of this sort because they can alternate between capturing digital and film images seamlessly. Mitsubishi, Kodak, and Fuji are among the vendors of digital camera backs for Hasselblad, Mamiya, Bronica, and Contax, priced between $12,000 and $20,000.
Basing digital camera design on existing film cameras made a lot of sense when digital cameras were expensive to produce (the sensor of a professional digital camera sometimes cost as much as the rest of the camera) and sales of such an expensive device were low. Instead of designing a new camera body, vendors patterned digital models on existing film camera systems and used many of the same parts, including lenses. That was cost-effective from a developmental point of view. But, as we'll see, that wasn't a very good way of designing a digital camera which has, after all, its own set of requirements, ranging from sensor size to lens parameters.
Fortunately, when the cost of high-resolution sensors became reasonable, new cameras were designed from scratch to take advantage of their capabilities, and to sell at lower prices. Today, even expensive digital cameras and their accessories have less and less in common with their film counterparts. Olympus, in particular, with its Four-Thirds designs, has pioneered creating digital cameras that are built from the ground up to meet the needs of electronic imaging.
This chapter will help you understand how digital cameras work. You'll also learn about the differences between film and digital cameras, particularly the features that digital cameras have and film cameras do not. You'll find this nuts-and-bolts information especially useful when shopping for a new camera, because not every camera has every feature. But even if you already own the digital camera of your dreams, you'll still find this chapter helpful in sorting out the most useful features from those that are likely to be more trouble than they are worth.
Indeed, since motorized film transport became common, advanced film cameras and the most sophisticated digital models that followed have had more in common than not. Some of the newest cameras with interchangeable lenses—both film and digital—use electronics to set both the shutter speed and lens aperture. Nikon's G series lenses, for example, don't have an aperture ring at all. You set the f-stop with camera controls. Many of the early high-end digital cameras were little more than 35mm SLRs with a sensor located where the film plane ought to be. If you're comfortable using one of the latest film cameras, you'll be right at home using many of the current digital models.
Studio cameras have needed even less modification to enter the digital world. Electronic studio cameras frequently have been built through the simple expedient of designing a digital back that replaces the sheet-film holder of a conventional view camera or the rollfilm back of a medium format camera. Mamiya has a particularly nice digital back for its 645 line, so the Mamiya ZD digital back makes an excellent complement to the Mamiya ZD digital camera. Catalog photographers in particular favor solutions of this sort because they can alternate between capturing digital and film images seamlessly. Mitsubishi, Kodak, and Fuji are among the vendors of digital camera backs for Hasselblad, Mamiya, Bronica, and Contax, priced between $12,000 and $20,000.
Basing digital camera design on existing film cameras made a lot of sense when digital cameras were expensive to produce (the sensor of a professional digital camera sometimes cost as much as the rest of the camera) and sales of such an expensive device were low. Instead of designing a new camera body, vendors patterned digital models on existing film camera systems and used many of the same parts, including lenses. That was cost-effective from a developmental point of view. But, as we'll see, that wasn't a very good way of designing a digital camera which has, after all, its own set of requirements, ranging from sensor size to lens parameters.
Fortunately, when the cost of high-resolution sensors became reasonable, new cameras were designed from scratch to take advantage of their capabilities, and to sell at lower prices. Today, even expensive digital cameras and their accessories have less and less in common with their film counterparts. Olympus, in particular, with its Four-Thirds designs, has pioneered creating digital cameras that are built from the ground up to meet the needs of electronic imaging.
This chapter will help you understand how digital cameras work. You'll also learn about the differences between film and digital cameras, particularly the features that digital cameras have and film cameras do not. You'll find this nuts-and-bolts information especially useful when shopping for a new camera, because not every camera has every feature. But even if you already own the digital camera of your dreams, you'll still find this chapter helpful in sorting out the most useful features from those that are likely to be more trouble than they are worth.
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