On 9 Jan 2004 at 23:42, Dag T wrote:
I agree, the cost of high quality silicon wafers per area has been constant for decades. More than doubling the area will increase the prize, as well as the demand for calculating power, memory, speed etc. It is in the professional prize range anyway, so why not based the FF sensors on the 645 system.
I could not agree less on both counts. Silicon wafer growth has been constantly
increasing in diameter as has purity and yield, silicon even as huge wafers is
getting cheaper by the day.
Pentax would be fools for not implementing a 24x36 mm sensor in a 35mm camera,
surely you'd expect that they'd fit a FF 645 sensor in a 645 body or are Pentax
shooters that damned cheap? :-(
Wafers have been growing, yes, but prize per area has not decreased much.
If you place an FF sensor in a 35mm system you get an expensive camera with a lot of lenses that are not good enough. They have some problems with this in the 1Ds.
If you place an FF sensor in a 645 system you get a camera within the expected prize range, most lenses are good enough but you lack the wide angle.
The photographers I know who uses the 1Ds sees it as an alternative to the medium format, so I guess this also defines the market.
DagT
