A digital film roll?
I read yesterday about a new Kickstarter project:
I’m Back Roll APS-C – Digital Film Inside Your Camera by Samuel Mello Medeiros
The terrible name aside ("I'm Back"??), the project sounds interesting. In short, it's a roll of digital "film" that you insert into your 35mm film camera, transforming it into a digital camera. So now, instead of taking your photos on film and waiting to have them developed, you can get your photos from your digital "roll" right away.
The feature for this is the trend most new cameras are jumping on: that you don't have a screen to give you instant feedback on a photo. Sorry, I should backtrack; that's one of the features, the most prominent being the ability to resurrect film cameras and use them again. The whole "no instant feedback" thing I feel has been added as a reason to pay $450 for this.
I won't belabour the point: I think this is an intriguing idea, but misses the point. People are turning to film cameras not because they want to take pictures without instant feedback1, but for the tactile nature of the photographing process. You need to load the film, manually (or automatically, depending on the camera) wind the film to advance to the next short, and then send it in to develop2. Then you wait a little bit. And then you get your pictures printed on 4x6 photo paper and possibly digital files if you ask for them.
The other part of "missing the point" is that when you click through the example photos, they're all lovely; but they are the same that you will get on a modern DSLR. Part of the experience of shooting on film — and why there are now so many filters to make digital pictures look this way — is the graininess and imperfection.
What I gather from this "digital film" is that you're getting the same digital photos that you're getting with newer equipment. The only advantage for this that I can see is if you don't already own a DSLR, but you still have a film camera with lenses to go with it. Paying $450 makes a lot more sense than the thousands of dollars it takes to get a basic kit.
I dunno. Neat idea, but it serves a narrow audience. I wish them luck.