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Carl Schofield
31-Jan-2006, 10:03
Saw this posted in the DPR Sigma forum.
http://patents.globalspec.com/partnerContent/PatentDetail?docId=41213424365&SrchItem=16&query=%22foveon%22

John Berry ( Roadkill )
31-Jan-2006, 10:22
That would take a lot of what I consider the fun part out of it for me.

Bill_1856
31-Jan-2006, 10:55
How would you know until you tried it?

Daniel Grenier
31-Jan-2006, 11:03
"The computer LCD acts as a large screen viewfinder for the camera and has the "feel" of a professional type view camera rather than the "feel" of a computer..."

Good lord. An LCD Ground Glass! I'm in only if the image is upside down and backwards.

chris jordan
31-Jan-2006, 11:22
I'm waiting until they come out with a plastic underwater one that you can throw away after ten exposures.

adrian tyler
31-Jan-2006, 11:41
or a laser guided one that can get you the shot from while you sit on your arm chair eating doughnuts...

Terence Spross
31-Jan-2006, 11:43
I'm very surprised this was granted a patent:
Patents are not supposed to be granted if they are a normal extension of the art.

Although I often use my video camera on a tripod that is actually a light stand with a remote viewer on the lower level of the tripod where I can easily view it. This gets the camera over the heads of people milling about at a wedding reception for example. Then I can get a view of people in a reception line without any problem. So I didn't think anything of it when I was trying to get a photo of a birds nest, using the same stand with my 4x5. I never used that stand before with the 4x5 and I had to use some rigging to make sure it wouldn't topple over, but it was a windless sunny day and the only thing I didn't want to do was scare the bird away with my presence. The camera was about 15 feet up above a board platform and at the bottom of the tripod I had my video display. For entirely different reasons there is a standard 1/4" mount just above the film plane of the 4x5 and I attached my video camera there and used it as a viewer. Yes, there is parallax and the sensor isn't at the focal plane as in the patent but I was using a remote viewer mounted on the tripod. Yes it was a video display and not a laptop screen, but on another occation I have used the output of the video camera live through a converter to a laptop as the screen simply because it was bigger and it was available.
Also I've seen a photographer use a laptop as a remote viewer with his DSLR with the laptop on a folding table next to his tripod to help get that shot. (In that case the photographer was handicapped in a wheelchair with some neurological disease such that he could not hold steady, and this allowed him to take photos he would not otherwise be able to do.)

If I had a digital sensor on my 4x5 this would be a natural thing I would do without thinking of it being an "invention".

I can't afford that yet - but for me this would make my 4x5 much more fun. I don't particularly like using $2 to $4 of film each time I trip the shutter release. As a cheapskate I only use my 4x5 when there is a reason to. If I had a digital image sensor for my 4x5 that would give me the desired resolution I would use it more often. If I had a digital sensor using the laptop as a viewer would be one of the first things I would think of. Mounting it to the tripod would be the second thing I would think of as I'm used to attaching all kinds of stuff to my tripods. In fact the mount I now have on one leg of one tripod to hold the video viewer will directly accept a slide projector board I have - and I could set a laptop on that board. It would be a natural. Not only a viewer but it would be straight in to Corel paint Shop Pro and I could have a printer mounted on another leg on the tripod. Why I could have this set up in no time, if I only had an image sensor for my 4x5 or even a DSLR or other reasonable res camera.

John Berry ( Roadkill )
1-Feb-2006, 02:29
Where do you put the FILM. I went back to film as I realised I enjoy the whole process from click to pic. For me a monitor just doesn't have the magic of a tray.

ADG
1-Feb-2006, 05:07
John,

Take an old developing tray, cut out a monitor sized rectangle out of the base and watch from above..

Craig Wactor
1-Feb-2006, 13:49
Isn't that basically a Sinar P3 with all the options?

Bob Salomon
1-Feb-2006, 14:16
"ar P3 with all the options?"

Or the Camdynamics CD 1 which was patented and shown in prototype form at several shows but was not produced.