Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/01/25

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Subject: [Leica] Another annoying CCD technology question (The Shape of Things To Come Revisited)
From: Javier Perez <japho@cunyvm.cuny.edu>
Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2000 01:54:34 -0500

Ok
Let's say we're living 20 years in the future. CCD technology has blown away
all forms of film and super high resolution backs are available cheaply for almost
all cameras, even brands from companies that went out of business years ago such as
Contarex and Leitz among others. The camera body is now merely a lens holder and
focusing aide.
The first generation of these these affordable backs must be plugged into
a PC via an rs232 port or something if you want to have super hirez 24 bit colour
images that rival or surpass the best you could have gotten with your favourite
film. . Later generations are even cheaper and have enough gigabytes onboard to
allow the user to shoot dozens of pictures at even higher resolution and colour
depth without connecting to anything except at print time. Of course the whole thing
works so fast that the image can be captured in a fraction of a millisecond. Or fast
enough and with enough resolution to see the land markings of a rotating incoming
bullet.  Anyway Here's my qiuestion, How does it work? Do I leave the shutter at B
and softcycle the CCD or do I use the shutter and if so at what speed. Does it
matter? This is a serious quuestion. I trying to get a feel for how this thing is
going to work. If shutterspeed
doesn't matter anymore then what happens to aperture. Do I set it at whatever I want
with my only consideration being depth of field. Or does CCD have a low light
threshold similar to film?
Also, is there an inverse proportionality sort of thing going on with aperture?
Similarly, is all brightness and contrast corrected during a printout/processing
phase. If so then it sounds super: To be able to shoot at any aperture you want,
probably your lens's favourite aperture without any consideration for illumination.
I'm sure someone here knows more about this than I do and has had experience with
current Pro-CCD stuff and I'de appreciate some
ideas/futurism
Best regards
Javier