New 500 Mp camera

[Bruce Watson]

Thought this would be interesting to those who wonder when digital might finally catch up with LF film:

http://www.fnal.gov/pub/ferminews/ferminews04-05-01/p4.html

This is a 500 Mp camera destined for the CTIO 4-meter telescope in Chile. The purpose is to explore the nature of "dark energy."

The idea of making it out of 60 2k x 4k CCD cells looks interesting. Yet, it looks rather large, and rather heavy. I'm not sure I want to replace my 4x5 camera just yet ;-)

[Philippe Gauthier]

The cost in batteries alone would be prohibitive. ;-)

[Ralph Barker]

The larger question may be whether the dark matter will naturally gravitate toward the shadows of the cracks between the CCDs. ;-)

Between the size, weight, and cost of batteries, I think I'll pass.After all, a 4,000 DPI drum scan of an 8x10 neg or tranny comes out to almost 1.3 giga pixels. ;-)

[Kevin M Bourque]

It's not so much the sensor or the power supply....it's the damn 4 meter telescope you gotta carry around with it.

[Philippe Gauthier]

The 4 meter telescope is nothing. Unless you somehow manage to shoot the monster hand held, you'll need a very, very heavy tripod. Plus one kg of lintless cloth and one litre of washing fluid if your ever need to clean the lens.

[John_4185]

Astonomers' needs are a little bit different than ours. It's more about getting a pinpoint image, locating/docmenting/measuring then following it day, after day, after year.... You won't find much conventional picture quality in that thing. If you want the full scoop, write to them. Tell Tim I say Hello.