eFilm

 

The previously-thought-of-as-vapourware company Imagek has changed its name to Silicon Film and is now touting a 24 shot, 1280 x 1024 insertable digital film cartridge solution for traditional 35mm cameras. With the addition of their "e-Port" PCMCIA adapter and "e-Box" in-the-field storage device (which supports CompactFlash Type I & II) this product is starting to look a little more attractive (although to me it's still storage and resolution limited). Priced at $800 for for complete EFS-1 solution and "said" to be available in "Late Fall 1999" (although we've been previously disappointed by press releases from this company). Only available directly from their website. According to their webpage The EFS-1 electronic film system features the eFilm digital image cartridge, the ePort™ download carrier and eBox™ mobile storage module. EFS-1 brings digital photography to 35mm SLR photographers, enhancing the value of their current photo investment. eFilm is an electronic film cartridge that slips easily into the back of the SLR body. It captures and stores up to 24 high quality digital images in it's compact design. Requires no SLR camera modifications Greater than 300 Digital Images per battery Uses standard SLR features 1.3 Megapixel CMOS CCD sensor 24 images @ 1280 x 1024 (36bit color depth) Stores in JPEG, BMP or TIFF formats ISO rating of roughly 100 Designed to fit (initially) : Canon EOS-1N, EOS-A2/5, Nikon F5, F3, N90, F90 ePort™ is a multipurpose carrier for eFilm providing a protective housing and a convenient interface to laptops or to Silicon Film's eBox image storage module. Download device for eFilm Supports PC Card Type II and USB connection Plugs directly into laptops and connects to desktops Acts as a protective carrier for eFilm Connects to e-Box for quick downloads in the field eBox™ is a convenient image storage product for use in the field. eBox accepts fast download of pictures from ePort to free the photographer to reuse- "reload" -eFilm for more shooting. Field down-load device Supports CompactFlash Type I & II storage media Allows fast storage of digital images without a computer Phils Comments: Ok, looks kinda interesting, not sure I'd pay $800 though, only available for a few Prosumer 35mm SLR's, the e-Box makes it more convenient to shoot in the field but would you really want to take it out of the camera every 24 shots and risk getting dirt and gunk all over the CCD? Resolution and internal storage of the e-Film are also kinda limited and we've not yet seen any sample images... only time will tell. The previously-thought-of-as-vapourware company Imagek has changed its name to Silicon Film and is now touting a 24 shot, 1280 x 1024 insertable digital film cartridge solution for traditional 35mm cameras. With the addition of their "e-Port" PCMCIA adapter and "e-Box" in-the-field storage device (which supports CompactFlash Type I & II) this product is starting to look a little more attractive (although to me it's still storage and resolution limited). Priced at $800 for for complete EFS-1 solution and "said" to be available in "Late Fall 1999" (although we've been previously disappointed by press releases from this company). Only available directly from their website. According to their webpage The EFS-1 electronic film system features the eFilm digital image cartridge, the ePort™ download carrier and eBox™ mobile storage module. EFS-1 brings digital photography to 35mm SLR photographers, enhancing the value of their current photo investment. eFilm is an electronic film cartridge that slips easily into the back of the SLR body. It captures and stores up to 24 high quality digital images in it's compact design. Requires no SLR camera modifications Greater than 300 Digital Images per battery Uses standard SLR features 1.3 Megapixel CMOS CCD sensor 24 images @ 1280 x 1024 (36bit color depth) Stores in JPEG, BMP or TIFF formats ISO rating of roughly 100 Designed to fit (initially) : Canon EOS-1N, EOS-A2/5, Nikon F5, F3, N90, F90 ePort™ is a multipurpose carrier for eFilm providing a protective housing and a convenient interface to laptops or to Silicon Film's eBox image storage module. Download device for eFilm Supports PC Card Type II and USB connection Plugs directly into laptops and connects to desktops Acts as a protective carrier for eFilm Connects to e-Box for quick downloads in the field eBox™ is a convenient image storage product for use in the field. eBox accepts fast download of pictures from ePort to free the photographer to reuse- "reload" -eFilm for more shooting. Field down-load device Supports CompactFlash Type I & II storage media Allows fast storage of digital images without a computer Phils Comments: Ok, looks kinda interesting, not sure I'd pay $800 though, only available for a few Prosumer 35mm SLR's, the e-Box makes it more convenient to shoot in the field but would you really want to take it out of the camera every 24 shots and risk getting dirt and gunk all over the CCD? Resolution and internal storage of the e-Film are also kinda limited and we've not yet seen any sample images... only time will tell. PMA 2001 show report / Silicon Film Silicon Film, after many years of press releases and delays have finally brought working product to a trade show. At PMA Silicon Film finally demonstrated their EFS-1 digital film product (along with various add-ons). Essentially the EFS-1 is a digital insert which replaces film in a normal 35mm camera and records the images digitally. There are still however several limitations, first of all the unit itself has a built-in capacity for 24 images (64MB) after which time it must be inserted into the E-Box and its contents either transferred to a computer or CompactFlash card. The second limitation is that the relatively small 1.3 megapixel CMOS sensor uses only about 30% of the center of the frame, this means that when looking through the viewfinder you have a small field of view (marked out by a supplied rub-on transfer) which equates to a 2.58x focal length multiplier, thus a 28mm lens becomes 72mm. Lastly it only currently supports certain camera models: Nikon F5, F3, N60/N90 and Canon EOS-1N, EOS-A2, EOS-5. That said, Silicon Film have brought this product to market and we hope are capable of producing similar devices with larger sensors and more internal capacity (or wireless transfer to storage devices). We were lucky enough to be allowed to take a couple of sample images away from the stand, I'll let you decide for yourself. Shooting an image writes an RAW file onto the EFS-1 which is then decoded by a Photoshop plugin which performs bayer interpolation, white balance, gamma and exposure compensation.