Your Thoughts Gentlefolk?

Harlequin565

Harlequin565

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OK. Premise: https://imback.eu/home/product/ibp-new-im-back-mf/

tl;dr: Digital back for [certain] medium format film cameras. Using a Sony micro 4/3 sensor (!?!?!). Cost 449CHF+Adapter (roughly another 200CHF) = £580ish

Looks like the adapter + back almost triple the length of a standard 6x6 body, so it looks like 2 backs on your camera instead of one. No pics of it on a Pentax 67 presumably because it would look ridiculous, like it does on the Yashica. On the Hasselblad it goes back so far your chest would get in the way of the viewfinder. Some ladies would have to stand to the side.

The 'how it works' blurb looks like it was formatted for 90s internet by someone who didn't know how to make paragraphs... Made my eyes sore reading it.

I want to dismiss it out of hand. It looks dodgy, unwieldy, impractical, expensive for what it is and whilst it's a solution to using a digital back on your film camera, it's the wackiest I've seen in a long while. But I have to admire the determination to bring it to market.

It's crazy right?
 
The I'm Back project has been trundling along for several years now but I haven't seen any sign that they've sold this product to anyone.

If there's anyone who's put money into this and received a working product, I'd really like to hear about it.
 
My thoughts? Total waste of money, IMHO... based on an exhaustive analysis of the 20 seconds worth of reading I've just done (so not even worth the paper it isn't printed on!). But IF it's a 4/3 sensor stuck behind a MF lens, the crop factor would be huge! However, I suspect there's a focusing screen at the film plane, and the back takes a photo of that (presumably from the back... which would invert it, L-R, no?). If so you'd get at least some benefit from the MF lens, focus fall-off etc?

Anyway, deffo not for me!
 
The fact that there are no pictures of the actual operating end of the digital back raises warning flags for me.

But even if it's all above board, the unwieldy nature of it would put me off. I think I'd rather just use a micro 4/3 camera given that's the sensor size it's using. It would be a better experience.
 
While it may be possible to make pictures with it, it's hard to see why one would want to when there are better photographic options available. It's not like they have simply created the equivalent of a digital back for your medium format camera.
 
I read (quickly) their write up, looked at the pictures of it on cameras, and looked up the Sony sensor. The sensor seems to be also used in dashcams, and our dashcam is rather smaller than the device (and cheaper), so if out and about with any medium format camera I own, I'd rather pocket our dashcam :) than this. Or a cheap digital compact.
 
Way back in the mist of time there was a Polaroid back available as an after market accessory for 35mm cameras, think Nikon F3 and similar using a relay lens to image a 35mm frame onto a full (ish) frame P669 pack.
It looked like someone had taken a hacksaw to a Polaroid oscilloscope / instrument camera and if I recall correctly used a mirror to fold the light path such that the film pack was below the host camera allowing reasonably un obstructed use of the eye level finder. NPC is the name that comes to mind but the NPC backs simply replaced the camera's standard back and gave a 24x36mm image, so not NPC.

The above is recalled from the late 1980's camera shop that I worked in after college and I can't remember more detail like manufacturer to look it up but I suspect this uses a digital sensor and relay lens in a similar way all be it to reduce the image size not enlarge it.

Edit: It was the Speed Magny and was available as P100 or 45 size images.

nikon speed magny at DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo. Privacy, Simplified.
duckduckgo.com duckduckgo.com
 
As per the posts above, the sensor is a 1/2.3” sensor that’s used in dashcams and microscopes (6.17mm x 4.55mm);

www.ebay.co.uk

16M CMOS Microscope Video Digital Camera with SONY IMX206 1/2.3" Sensor | eBay UK

16M 1/2.3". Sony professional CMOS sensor. The resolution of the captured image can reach 3072 x 2048. Images taken at low magnification readily resolved. The use of Tucsen's core ISP color-interpolation algorithm effectively corrects the color deviation of the sensor's spectral response, to...
www.ebay.co.uk

Hence the need to place it about 47 feet back from the film plane to cover any kind of frame, and it looks like it’s focusing on an image projected onto a secondary ground glass held at the film plane, hence the description of the images it produces;

“The result, as you can see in the photos published here, is something very special: although it is digital, it keeps the genuinely warm and grainy vintage pictures.”

Basically, it’s going to give a terrible image that is nothing like a ‘proper’ digital MF back.

I like the ingenuity of the I’m Back ideas but this, coupled with their recent (massively funded) interchangeable camera system that’s literally a Go Pro Hero 5 with C mount lenses screwed on, just looks like they’re raiding parts bins and pitching them as something much better than they actually are.
 
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“I’m Back was designed not only for professional photographers but for ordinary people who are passionate about photography and for technology from old cameras, for anyone who wants to have fun like they used to, even when the photo was not good and it was a source of anger and also a laugh. Good times!” Note for professional photographers: “I’M BACKMF® was created with the intention of reusing the old analog in a digital way, but maintaining a “retro” aspect in the photos thanks to the focusing screen. It is not intended to have the quality of a digital camera of the last generation, therefore, it is not an accessory to be at par with a digital or even an analog. I’m back given a unique result in its genre. Similar solutions, like “Pinhole”, “Lomography”, give photos with the use of a “Scanner” and another art form, yes, the art of photography is after all an art form and not something to be judged by the number of pixels or any less.”
 
So basically the equivalent of a Polaroid for the digital era, but without the 'instant charm'.
 
Or IQ!
 
Like many products do to varying extent, it seems to hinge on the old marketing pitch that if you talk about something enough, someone somewhere is going to want one. Which has never in itself made something any good ... :-(

We seem to be gathering a consensus here ... :-)
 
Just checking my Fediverse feeds, and I see one person I've followed has just taken delivery of a different version of this idea from the same people. He said "I had been aware of their earlier efforts but always shied away because it involved an intermediary screen that was shot by the digital sensor. I went for this one because it had light hitting the sensor directly like an actual digital camera and seemed less hinky [sic]. I still think it’s an intriguing idea, but an actually elegant implementation may require smaller electronics than is possible today." EDIT: Quote was from
Ralph Brandi @thereisnocat@toot.cafe.

See https://imback.eu/home/product/ibfilm-im-back-film/ if you've got a handy 799 Swiss Francs! Still based on a micro 4/3 sensor. If you look at the pictures on the left of that page, you'll see that installing it is a bit... interesting!
 
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Doing lots of studio work with MY MF film camera I would possibly find it useful as a Poloroid back replacement; these cost £150 and Polaroid film is expensive - this could be good to check lighting set-up etc.
 
LiveWire with a trailer?
 
From what I can gather the sensor photographs a focusing screen, hence the "genuinely warm and grainy vintage pictures" and "It is very important, before you take pictures, to make sure that the surface of the focusing screen which will record the image is clean."
I dont remember all my MF images being warm or grainy, not unless I used high iso film. One of the reasons for using it was the fine quality.
As they say in Dragons den. I'm out.
 
droj said:
Like many products do to varying extent, it seems to hinge on the old marketing pitch that if you talk about something enough, someone somewhere is going to want one. Which has never in itself made something any good ... :-(

We seem to be gathering a consensus here ... :)
Click to expand...
In which case there really is a market for my special running shoes with kneedles in the sole for jogging over fields of balloons.... (they are supplied with ear plugs... :exit:
 
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This latest iteration looks as if it might be a better attempt than their previous efforts.

On the other hand Mssrs Heath Robinson and Rube Goldberg are fighting their way back from the grave, to sue these guys for plagiarism!
 
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