From: Judy Seigel (jseigel@panix.com)
Date: 09/12/00-08:47:40 PM Z
I'm wondering if what y'all are talking about is the announcement by
Foveon yesterday that they'd given a prototype camera to an LA photog, who
"used it to make a portrait of a cowboy [in which] no pixels or dots were
visible to the eye even with the photograph blown up to ... 8 by 14 feet."
There was a story about it on NPR which was so garbled & perfunctory (I'm
sorry to say) that a person, even one who even knew a tad on the topic,
couldn't make head or tail of it.
A much better, more complete (and pretty amazing) account was in
yesterday's hometown newspaper, The New York Times. In the business
section (Mon. Sept 11) by John Markoff, headlined "Low-Price, Highly
Ambitious Digital Chip." The theme was that Kodak had announced a chip 2
weeks ago; but this one was "capable of the same resolution" except not
with CCD, rather made by a method that could be much less expensive.
"The Foveon chip is based on a low-cost semiconductor industry technology
known as Complementary Metal-Oxide, or CMOS." Expected to have big role in
many other technologies, and the whole thing when you read it is almost
scary. In any event, "We're headed to flat-out replace the film camera,"
and so forth, said Carver Mead, founder of Foveon....
Meanwhile, folks, it don't seem to matter what miracle-of-the-future you
hand a photographer, some of 'em are just gonna photograph a cowboy. Right
soulful-lookin fella with a dreamy look & his shirt open, but no chest
hair, no chin stubble, so what kinda cowboy is that? Like my old pappy
useter say, schlock is schlock no matter how many pixels ya shoot it with.
(Or mebbe them are the only kind of cowboys they got in LA. We got some
right mean & hairy lookin' ones here in the Village.)
best,
Judy
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