Digital Camera Back - Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantages and Disadvantages

While dedicated digital cameras suitable for advanced use are available, there are advantages in being able to use a film camera to take digital photographs. A single camera can be used for both film and digital photography. Cameras with features not available on digital cameras (e.g., view cameras) can be used to make digital images.

Digital backs which are used in place of the normal film back are available for most medium and all large-format cameras with adaptors which can allow the same digital camera back to be used with several different cameras, allowing a photographer to choose a body/lens combination best suited for each application rather than using a body/lens system which represents a compromise of design to fit a variety of applications.

Users with large investments in existing camera equipment can convert it to digital use, both saving money and allowing them to continue to use their preferred and familiar tools.

Exposures longer than several minutes are obscured by image noise when captured with a 35 mm digital SLR, but exposures of up to about an hour at room temperature and as long as 17 hours in extremely cold situations can remain noise-free on a digital camera back. In practice a 30-second exposure on a Sinar 75 evolution with a built-in fan-assisted Peltier-cooled CCD represents the state of the art for practical purposes.

The resolution of digital camera backs (in 2011, up to 80.1 megapixels) is higher than any digital SLR (in 2011, up to 60.5 megapixels) and captures more detail per pixel due to the omission of an anti-aliasing filter. Each pixel is also able to capture more dynamic range due to higher quality electronics and larger pixel pitch. The use of active cooling systems such as internal fans and Peltier effect electric cooling systems also contributes to image quality.