Luminous Landscape Forum

Equipment & Techniques => Medium Format / Film / Digital Backs – and Large Sensor Photography => Topic started by: lowep on February 04, 2018, 05:06:51 pm

Title: Do digital backs last forever?
Post by: lowep on February 04, 2018, 05:06:51 pm
Whenever I think about buying a used camera one of the first questions is always: how many shutter clicks?

How about a legacy MFDB with a heat sink cooling system (not a moving fan) that was part of a kit with over 120,000 actuations?

Do the same considerations apply?

These old boxes seem to be as solid as a brick restroom.

But maybe legacy CCD MFDB sensors like the brick restroom that used to be the pride of my grandparents garden are also subject to decay?

Title: Re: Do digital backs last forever?
Post by: chapel on February 04, 2018, 08:20:13 pm
I had a Leaf Aptus II with 453,000 clicks. I has a cooling fan and the back worked like new. I only sold to to get a cmos sensor camera that is better for walk about photography.
Greg
Title: Re: Do digital backs last forever?
Post by: Two23 on February 04, 2018, 08:47:39 pm
I don't see how anything electronic can last forever.  Most all of the electronic light meters from the 1950s and early 1960s have died and can't be replaced, for example.  Eventually either solder will corrode, or something like a capacitor will degrade.


Kent in SD
Title: Re: Do digital backs last forever?
Post by: lowep on February 04, 2018, 10:37:17 pm
I don't see how anything electronic can last forever.  Most all of the electronic light meters from the 1950s and early 1960s have died and can't be replaced, for example.  Eventually either solder will corrode, or something like a capacitor will degrade.

Kent in SD

If not forever how about "almost" forever, say 10 to 15 years?
Title: Re: Do digital backs last forever?
Post by: tom b on February 04, 2018, 10:54:41 pm
In many respects I don't think it will be the back.

I just bought a smart TV, I tried to connect it to my cordless headphones. Hey, the TV doesn't have a headphone connection. Software can be a huge problem too.

How many of you still have cassette players?
Title: Re: Do digital backs last forever?
Post by: Two23 on February 04, 2018, 11:03:26 pm
IHow many of you still have cassette players?


Cripes, I still have my 8-track recorder! ;D


Kent in SD
Title: Re: Do digital backs last forever?
Post by: yaya on February 05, 2018, 05:43:43 am
I know a few service bureaus in Europe who use several 2006-2007 Leaf backs doing 1.5-2.0 million frames every year. That is 5K/day, 6 day/week...

While the backs can certainly last a very long time, service and support become impractical at some point as some electronic components get discontinued and are impossible to repair or replace.

And at some point certain software bits may become incompatible with new OS versions, or computer hardware becomes obsolete or difficult to maintain...

BR
Yair
Title: Re: Do digital backs last forever?
Post by: eronald on February 05, 2018, 09:34:00 am

At some point a ccd can lose a column; you then need access to the remapping software.
I have a Leica M8 with this issue, and don’t think it is economicasly reasonable to send it back to Leica.

Edmund

I know a few service bureaus in Europe who use several 2006-2007 Leaf backs doing 1.5-2.0 million frames every year. That is 5K/day, 6 day/week...

While the backs can certainly last a very long time, service and support become impractical at some point as some electronic components get discontinued and are impossible to repair or replace.

And at some point certain software bits may become incompatible with new OS versions, or computer hardware becomes obsolete or difficult to maintain...

BR
Yair
Title: Re: Do digital backs last forever?
Post by: Alexey.Danilchenko on February 05, 2018, 11:02:49 am
How about a legacy MFDB with a heat sink cooling system (not a moving fan) that was part of a kit with over 120,000 actuations?
I am using two Kodak ProBacks 645M produced in 2001 - both work very well still (and those were not the most reliable amongst the backs).
Title: Re: Do digital backs last forever?
Post by: matted on February 05, 2018, 09:49:42 pm
While these backs certainly will not last forever, I think that unlike mechanical shutters, the exposure count does not necessarily indicate anything other than how often the back was used... I would think that factors such as abuse, time spent in extreme temperatures, and storage conditions would have a much bigger impact on the life expectancy than the amount the of exposures.

(Spoken from someone who is happily enjoying an 11 year old Aptus 22 with a few hundred k exposures and still going strong. )
Title: Re: Do digital backs last forever?
Post by: oyvindandersen on February 06, 2018, 01:50:04 am
Still using my Hasselblad CF-39 bought new from dealer in 2006, never had an issue or problemes with it :-)