I’m Back digital back for analog M bodies

[TheGodParticle/Hari]

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Dear All,

Any experience with this digital back on your analog M’s? 

I am considering getting one, would love to hear your thoughts.

Thank you,

Hari

[Huss]

https://imback.eu/home/new-model/

 

It takes a beautiful, small camera, and makes it a huge ungainly thing.  So not for me.  The idea is cool, just the implementation is, well, awkward.

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[david strachan]

Just buy a digital camera built from the start. It's silly and ugly trying to turn a lovely film camera into something it's not.

 

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[Fotoklaus]

Maybe fun for some shots but in the end: Wasted Time and money. Shoot some film and let it be developed and scanned in a good lab.

Edited October 17, 2022 by Fotoklaus

[evikne]

I'm glad Leica has already managed to put a digital sensor into their film body.

[Huss]

11 hours ago, evikne said:

I'm glad Leica has already managed to put a digital sensor into their film body.

And kept the camera the same size!

[TheGodParticle/Hari]

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Looks like the overwhelming consensus is against getting one of these 

I’m in contact with the Founders, maybe I’ll get a test unit and try it out for some time 

[adli]

The back seems to project the image on a ground glass and use a small camera on the backside to take a picture of the ground glass. A bit like taking picture of a focusing screen with an iPhone. This gives a rather poor image quality compared to ordinary digital backs.

[madNbad]

It may not be digital but the same idea:

 

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Speed Mangy 100 Polaroid back for Nikon F

 

 

[pippy]

21 hours ago, TheGodParticle/Hari said:

Looks like the overwhelming consensus is against getting one of these 

I’m in contact with the Founders, maybe I’ll get a test unit and try it out for some time 

It certainly adds quite a bit of bulk to the original camera body but I think it's a rather wonderful concept!

If I had a bit of spare playtime and a few hundred pounds in loose change I think it would be a lot of fun to buy one main unit with some dedicated backs and go out snapping with some of my old film gear. It will also allow this same old kit to be used in 'video' mode. Using, for example, a 1936 Contax II & 50mm Sonnar as a movie camera? Intriguing concept!

It would be very interesting to know exactly what the IQ is like. In the link the manufacturers state;

"...I'm Back®35 uses a focusing screen, the images therefore are vintage, smooth and are not comparable to a standard digital photocamera, so the result will "resemble" something between analog and digital, or UNIQUE!..."

Hmmm.....not too sure what that all means. It does have a 16mp sensor so that's a pretty decent pixel-count but the demo images look very 'grainy'; much the same as a half-way decent - but not brilliant - scan from film done by a typical high street photo shop. I'd still like to learn more about this unit, though.

As far as the Polaroid back for the Nikon F goes; my first full-time assisting job back in 1988 was with a photographer who had an NPC ProBack for his Nikon F3. It was a much less bulky affair than the Speed Magny pictured above because unlike the latter design the one for the F3 only shot images in 35mm format. Once the original back was removed the NPC back simply clipped-on in its place;

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With a bit of careful use two frames could be exposed per sheet of Pola so, for example, trying-out different lighting / exposure-bracketing comparisons (etc.) were possible. It was a VERY useful tool for the sort of location shooting which was 'my' snapper's main work. I'm surprised there weren't more photographers using them.

Philip.

Edited October 18, 2022 by pippy

[Siriusone59]

20 hours ago, TheGodParticle/Hari said:

Looks like the overwhelming consensus is against getting one of these 

I’m in contact with the Founders, maybe I’ll get a test unit and try it out for some time 

Not something I would use on a 35 but wouldn't mind trying one on a 6x6.  Looks interesting but dang I wish they would freeze those pulsing images on their website!  Made me dizzy before I could gather enough info.

[earleygallery]

Hmmm image quality looks slightly less impressive than a Digilux 1 with a soft focus filter.

Seriously, if you want to use old film cameras, use them with film.

[adli]

2 hours ago, pippy said:

 

..... It does have a 16mp sensor so that's a pretty decent pixel-count but the demo images look very 'grainy'; much the same as a half-way decent - but not brilliant - scan from film done by a typical high street photo shop. I'd still like to learn more about this unit, though....

 

 

It does not have a sensor per se, it uses a camera like this one to take pictures of the ground glass:

http://www.camera-module.com/product/mipicameramodule/16mp-mipi-camera-module-sony-imx206-sensor.html

 

Of course this camera has an embedded sensor, but it is a tiny sensor with a lot of glass in front. And it is not Leica glass.....

[madNbad]

Not to be a negative Nellie, it would be a real bonus to all of us for someone to give a real report on if and how well it works. If they’re smart, you should get one just for the buzz if nothing else.

[Huss]

Leica did this a while ago with the R8 DMR, which was a digital back.  It actually could make some excellent pics!  And was way less bulkier than this new device.

Thorsten has some good info here:

https://www.overgaard.dk/leica_digital_back_R.html

[Al Brown]

I'm back sample image. freely downloadable from their website (detail) done with Leica M2.
Hard pass.

 

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Edited October 19, 2022 by Al Brown

[250swb]

1 hour ago, Al Brown said:

I'm back sample image. freely downloadable from their website (detail) done with Leica M2.
Hard pass.

 

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Thank you for posting one of the creepiest photographs on the internet, I'm glad I saw it this morning and not before going to bed. 

Overall I think I'd rather recommission an old 10mp DSLR or 3mp P&S for the low tech digital look, or take a modern file and give it a retro look in Photoshop.  

Edited October 19, 2022 by 250swb

[adan]

On 10/17/2022 at 1:36 PM, adli said:

The back seems to project the image on a ground glass and use a small camera on the backside to take a picture of the ground glass. A bit like taking picture of a focusing screen with an iPhone. This gives a rather poor image quality compared to ordinary digital backs.

No ground glass, according to the diagram in the original link. It simply captures a "virtual" image focused in empty space where the film would be. The optics behind the shutter are permanently focused on the same plane, and transfer the virtual image to the sensor.

As noted, the Nikon Speed Magny did exactly the same thing, except that its transfer optics magnified the virtual image to cover Polaroid film, instead of "minifying" the image to fit onto a tiny sensor.

However, even without a ground glass, the image does have to go through an extra set of "I'm Back" transfer optics, and who knows how good those are.

Who might want it? Anyone shooting older orphaned camera systems for which (unlike the M) there is no modern digital body approximation. Or other systems that have done away with viewing systems devoted whole-heartedly to the dedicated manual split-image focus screens. Leicaflex and Leica R up through the R7, R8/9 (without the cropping of the DMR), and as promoted in the link, the top-of-the-line manual Canons (FD lenses, not EOS) and Nikons from 1960-1990-ish. A lot of those used external add-on motors that were about the size/weight of the "I'm Back," so not a huge leap.

[adli]

2 hours ago, adan said:

No ground glass, according to the diagram in the original link.

Andy, 

 

If you read the description, it it actually a ground glass, or focusing screen as it is described as:

In this Depth-of-field adapter “digital back”, the image is projected onto the focusing screen, is almost 24mm x 36mm. And then we use a digital camera to take a photo of this focusing screen.

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Hallo,

Look here: Leica M

[CPA]

Im my view, this digital back is probably one of the worst ideas of accessories for the Leica M. It looks inconvenient and unaesthetic.