aerial photography at night

In article ,
says...


I wonder if this Dicomed product ever made it beyond the prototype stage?
Other MF digital backs are selling, and they are neither full frame nor
all that much cheaper, even today. If the technology was what it was
supposed to be, a full-frame 6x6cm sensor would be attractive, even at its
comparatively low 16 mp resolution.



Oh, I think they sold quite a few at first - but you know, I have a friend
who is fond of saying, "If the printed book were introduced today as a new
invention, it would be considered revolutionary! It requires no batteries!
Contains vast quantities of information of every sort - It's light,
portable - you can take it in your vest pocket to the most remote
locations, share it with friends, even add annotations if you care to - put
it on the shelf and at the end of your life it's still there, exactly as
you remember it . . ."

I think these early large-cell CCD backs had people saying "Gee, film
really is a great medium after all . . ."


A roll of 5" wide film takes up about as much space as a rolled-up
newspaper - yet you would need to rebuild your airplane to accommodate a
vast computer (28V of course) to harbor as much information in digital
format.

G Faris

"Greg Farris" wrote


A roll of 5" wide film takes up about as much space as a rolled-up
newspaper - yet you would need to rebuild your airplane to accommodate a
vast computer (28V of course) to harbor as much information in digital
format.

I don't think your argument holds water. A fast notebook can process
pictures of that size comfortably. Storage is not a problem either.

There are external USB 2.0 disc drives of 250GB out there, reasonable
priced. When one gets full, swap another in, or have multiple drives
plugged in at the same time.

This is not to say that film does not still have its advantages, but there
are situations where the digital is desirable, mainly for the instant
availability.
--
Jim in NC

Morgans wrote:

This is not to say that film does not still have its advantages, but there
are situations where the digital is desirable, mainly for the instant
availability.

I would also love it for the ability to change the ISO from shot to shot.

George Patterson
Drink is the curse of the land. It makes you quarrel with your neighbor.
It makes you shoot at your landlord. And it makes you miss him.

In article , says...


I don't think your argument holds water. A fast notebook can process
pictures of that size comfortably. Storage is not a problem either.

There are external USB 2.0 disc drives of 250GB out there, reasonable
priced. When one gets full, swap another in, or have multiple drives
plugged in at the same time.



Agreed - but the devices in question were introduced between five and ten
years ago. At that time, the data transfer rates and storage capacity did
present a big problem. At the time, scanning backs were offered at very
high cost to advertising studios, with huge Macintosh computers and RAID
drive arrays, all for a result that took several minutes to produce and
paled in comparison to the 8X10 ektachromes the studios were using. You can
imagine how enthusiastically these were received!

Don't get me wrong - I am absolutely convinced that digital acquisition
will prevail (and should prevail) in all of the applications we are talking
about, and there is every good reason for this. In Europe, some
photogrammetric survey teams are already replacing their 9X9" vertical
cameras with digital systems. These are mastodons though, with three
separate cameras for RGB and huge storage banks - and even with this I'll
bet there is some compromise - they've probably decided they don't really
need "all" the information they get out of those 9X9" films. They are doing
this because they can output these files directly into their map-making
production process, without having to go through the whole scanning
routine. And they are probably already discovering some other advantages as
well. Digital acquisition will continue to make inroads into traditional
film processes, and this will happen very quickly. For right now though, we
should remember that film is a very compact, rapid and easy to use medium,
with a data storage capacity far in excess of any commercially available
digital format. This is of prodigious interest in aerial photography,
where, more than other types of photography, we are concerned with the
highest possible resolution and data acquisition.

G Faris

The firm I work for (Dayton OH) has two digital aerial cameras. You say they
are 'mastadons', they went in the same planes the RC-30's came out of. I am
positive they are color, but they may be single 'chip'.

"Greg Farris" wrote in message
...
In article , says...

In Europe, some
photogrammetric survey teams are already replacing their 9X9" vertical
cameras with digital systems. These are mastodons though, with three
separate cameras for RGB and huge storage banks - and even with this I'll
bet there is some compromise - they've probably decided they don't really
need "all" the information they get out of those 9X9" films. They are
doing
this because they can output these files directly into their map-making
production process, without having to go through the whole scanning
routine. And they are probably already discovering some other advantages
as
well. Digital acquisition will continue to make inroads into traditional
film processes, and this will happen very quickly. For right now though,
we
should remember that film is a very compact, rapid and easy to use medium,
with a data storage capacity far in excess of any commercially available
digital format. This is of prodigious interest in aerial photography,
where, more than other types of photography, we are concerned with the
highest possible resolution and data acquisition.

G Faris

In article ,
says...


The firm I work for (Dayton OH) has two digital aerial cameras. You say they
are 'mastadons', they went in the same planes the RC-30's came out of. I am
positive they are color, but they may be single 'chip'.


Maybe they're the Intergraph Z/I system, which has a footprint similar to an
RC-30 or RMK TOP. I don't think they're single-chip though (correct me if I'm
wrong) I recall seeing three or four lenses on the bottom of them. What does
trhe data capture/processing system look like? Are there new equipment racks
in the planes?

G Faris