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[OM] Silicon film-email them!!

Subject: [OM] Silicon film-email them!!
From: Joe Gwinn <joegwinn@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 21 Sep 2002 11:05:03 -0400
At 8:55 AM +0000 9/21/02, olympus-digest wrote:
>Date: Fri, 20 Sep 2002 17:42:32 -0400
>From: Rick <R.Adshead@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>Subject: [OM] Silicon film-email them!!
>
>I just went to the Silicon film site
>
>http://www.siliconfilm.com

This is almost totally content-free.  Just some promo photos of mockups.  I 
wonder if there are any engineers working there.

The thickness of the "film" is not stated, but it looks like a few millimeters, 
which most camera backs can accomodate.  But, see below.


>and they request that you email to them if you are interested in this
>product. We should ALL do this and mention that we need this product to
>support the Oly OM cameras. How will their marketing folks know what cameras
>to support if we don't tell them. This is our only chance cause if they use
>camera sales data to decide this, we are a lost cause. My guess is that they
>have no idea how many of us are out there. Over a hundred emails asking for
>OM support should impress the hell out of them.
>
>We are foolish if we don't give this a shot since it costs us only a few
>minutes time.

I think their purpose is to gather a case for continued venture capital 
funding; OM is neither here nor there.  There is no reason to believe such a 
thing would not work in OMs.


I can imagine how to build such a device, and working with existing camera 
backs is not hard if one mounts the CCD chips directly on the "film".  It need 
not be the thickness of a standard IC package.  The problem will be cost and 
perhaps fragility.  And storage capacity and transfer speed.

Cost.  At present, the CCDs would cost so much one could just buy an entire 
digital camera and be done with it.  And a real digital camera would not need 
to be so compromised.

Fragility.  The "film" is long and thin, and will bend easily, cracking the 
chips.  It will have to be made of a very strong, stiff material, and yet be 
thermally matched to the CCD chips (made of silicon).  If not thermally 
matched, the chips will just pop off after a few thermal cycles.  Cameras *are* 
thermally cycled as they are brought from heated buildings to arctic cold, etc. 
 This is a very hard problem.

Cleaning.  How do we get the dust and inevitable thumbprint off the faces of 
the CCD chips?  One assumes that there will be a full-frame glass coverslip 
protecting the chips and their wiring.  This coverslip will be easily broken if 
the "film" is bent.

Storage capacity.  A 35mm cassette isn't that big, and most of it's volume will 
be taken up with the battery.

Transfer speed.  It takes fast (power-hungry) electronics to handle the 
resulting digital files, so one may need to wait a long time before taking the 
next photo.  Unloading the cassette could be faster, because external power 
could be supplied during the transfer.


Other issues:  Induction through metal can work, but only for *very* low 
datarates, a few bits per second, too low to be practical for image transfer, 
and would require a lot of power from the battery.  IR transmission through the 
film-speed window can work, but will be fairly slow or will run the battery 
down pretty fast.  I would guess that the intent is that one opens the camera 
and plugs a cable in to "change the film", and that this cable also powers the 
unit during transfer.


I guess my bottom-line reaction is that silicon film, while possible, isn't 
likely to be economically practical, and one would be better off buying a real 
digital camera.  

The great white hope would be for somebody to make a digital back for elderly 
cameras.  I don't know that the market for OM digital backs will be large 
enough to make it practical for somebody to manufacture such a thing, unless it 
can be made as a minor mechanical mod to something intended for some other 
camera, or the product is pitched to multiple camera brands at once, with 
suitable adapters (or instructions on modification of existing backs).  Given 
the price of full-frame 35mm CCDs, it won't be for some time.


Joe Gwinn


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