www.siliconfilm.com

I think its called "vapor ware", its been talked about a little but nothing real yet (over a year at least)

Is there anything that competes with this product in the digital market? (vaporware or not)

It isnt vaporware; more like no taxes; peace in the middle east; the 100MPG carburetor; the paperless office or paperless bathroom; a woman who has only one pair of shoes; kids who dont ask for money; etc.

Kelly,

Best answer I've ever read regarding this gizmo!
LOL!

Cheers!

It's a nice dream. There's nothing else like that on the market, besides film scanners. As we've been told here, I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for this product. If it comes out at all, there's a fair chance that it'd be priced out of reach / reason.

The technicolor pipe dream would be that it would be priced low enough to reach the masses -- those who have old film cameras and have not gone into DSLR's because of price / lens incompatibility, and also not been satisfied / enticed by point & shoot digital, in time before Canon and others have brought the price down futher and resolution up further.

Pass the pipe -- it's worth a puff. If a decent one came out now for say $500, I'd probably buy one, even though I have a DSLR. Why? So that I could use the combination. Hmm. Might be fun to put it in some vintage cameras. <cough> I think I've had enough, thanks.

The "silicon film" is not as great as it sounds.

It would probably be expensive (especially if it would have a full-frame sensor) and it misses the flexibility of a real digital camera: no LCD screen to review your photos, and how are you going to change settings like ISO, sharpness, contrast etc.? If it wouldn't have a full frame sensor, it would be very difficult to know what would be in the photo and what would be cropped out if you look through the (full frame) viewfinder.

I don't think this thing will ever be commercially attractive, unless there's a way it can be produced and sold very cheaply - but I don't think that will happen, because the sensor is the most expensive part of any digital camera.

I have an imaging device that fits into the back of my Canon Eos30. It records superb images at a resolution of 400 megapixels and gives me pictures at least 70K x 60K. Limited capacity, though - it only stores 36 pictures. It's called Fuji Velvia 50, 135-36.

The siliconfilm web site says "Wholly owned Subsidiary of Voyager One Inc". A search for Voyager One Inc in Google shows about 2 or 3 SEC 8K reports filed this year.

It is interesting that the web site has an Illnois address; instead of an Irvine California address. Maybe they just got a another shot of cash to work/play/golf/invest/try/pay for tooling?

I first heard of this idea "digital back idea for 35mm slr cameras" when I used Photoshop 3.0; and my top Photoshop computer was a Pentium 90; with 16megs of ram. The 16megs of ram and Photoshop both cost 600 dollars each.

The average manufacturing labor cost in China is 90 cents per hour; according to the Wall Street Journal; page one; far right column; June 10; 2004. Germany is at the top; with 33.00 dollars per hour.

I think you are out of luck regarding your Nikon N80. But if you would switch to a Leica R8 or R9, you might soon get a digital back.