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I’m Back Gives Old School Film Cameras a Digital Back

Chris Gampat
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10/16/2017
2 Mins read
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I’m Back: A digital camera back for your old school film camera.

A new Kickstarter called I’m Back is finding a way to give old school film cameras new life in the digital world. Not that many of those old film cameras need it, but the ability to shoot digital with the older style film cameras has always been a dream of many photographers. Many attempts weren’t successful, though it seems like this one may be.

The digital back idea has been done for many years now but hasn’t successfully taken off at all due to parts, costs, etc. And granted, I’m Back doesn’t seem like it will be perfect either. The Kickstarter says that the camera will have a 16MP CMOS sensor from Panasonic–which tells me that it’s probably a Micro Four Thirds sensor, but it doesn’t specifically state this anywhere on the Kickstarter itself. That may let a number of photographers down unfortunately as the dream is to have something full frame. I mean, why use this when you can take the lenses and put them on your OMD or GH5 camera instead? I’m Back also only shoots JPEG files though it has a storage capacity for 128 GB of photos. Plus there’s WiFi built in as some of the videos show off the camera being used with an iPhone so that they can see through the lens.

In fact, I’m Back doesn’t seem to have much of an LCD screen on the back from the videos, but they’re claiming that it has a 2 inch capacitative touchscreen.

Camera Details (Assembled)

  • Sensor: 16Mega CMOS Panasonic
  • Lensïĵš7G+IR F=2.5 f=3.0mm
  • LensïĵšClose-up
  • Video ResolutionïĵšUHD24ïĵˆ2880*2160ïĵ‰ QHD30ïĵˆ2560*1440ïĵ‰ 108OP60/30 720P120/60/30 VGA240
  • Picture Sizeïĵš 20M 16M 12M 10M 8M 5M 3M VGA
  • Video FormatïĵšMP4 H.264
  • Picture Formatïĵš JPG
  • Storage CapacityïĵšMax 128G
  • USB interfaceïĵšUSB2.0 Displayïĵš2.0″capacitive touch screens
  • HDMI Outputïĵšyes
  • Auto White Balanceïĵšyes
  • Auto Eve ïĵšyes
  • WIF:I yes
  • Menu LanguageïĵšEN FR ES PT DE IT CN RU JP
  • Batteryïĵš3.7V 1050mAh

I’m Back will offer compatibility for a number of cameras. Some of them are not the most iconic; and I’m shocked there are is no Canon AE-1 offering.

There have been a number of cameras and Kickstarters trying to digitize the old school film appeal as of late. And if anything, it may be a big new trend in photography. I wish the I’m Back project well, but I’m not sure it’s going to be as successful as it would have been if they had secured a 16MP full frame sensor. Will it still be successful? I’m sure. But if you’re using your old film camera, you often want to be able to use the entire area of those lenses.

Here are some image samples:

You can check out more details about I’m Back over on their Kickstarter page.

camera digital digital back film back I'm Back kickstarter panasonic sensor
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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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