An innovative electronic film, which enables conventional cameras to take digital pictures, could breath new life into two of the stock market’s least favorite companies. Irvine Sensors Corp, a Californian specialist in compact micro circuitry has teamed up with Vision Group Plc, a tiny Scottish company specializing in CMOS imaging chips, to produce a tiny digital imaging unit. Shaped like a 35mm film and containing flash memory and a small battery, the ‘Electronic Film System’ sits behind the lens of any conventional camera, mimicking a chemical film, but enabling up to 30 digital pictures to be snapped and stored. Priced at less than $1,000, but potentially as low as $500, the unit is said to be ready for release this summer. And it will arrive bundled with digital image manipulation software and cabling to connect it to a PC or Mac. Imagek, the division of Irvine Sensors responsible for marketing the new product, has released only cursory information on the product so far, but initial interest from photographers has been staggering says Bruce Toddy, Imagek’s vice president of marketing. Because the tiny device will fit into all popular SLR camera bodies, it protects photographers’ existing investments in expensive cameras and lenses. And in the projected $1,000 price range, current digital cameras have nothing but novelty to offer the serious camera user. The Imagek EFS will incorporate a 1.3 million pixel CMOS vision sensor, the highest pixel density currently available in the low power CMOS format, and well above the resolution of most high street digital cameras. Additionally, the EFS allows denser arrays to be added quickly without changing the body of the device, speeding time to market as technology improves. Initially, Irvine worked with the older CCD vision chips still commonly used in most digital cameras, but the limited battery space available inside a unit the size of a 35mm film case prompted a change to low power CMOS devices as soon as the technology became available. Irvine would not admit to an exclusive deal for its chips with CMOS specialist Vision Group, but the two are collaborating closely on the project, and Vision claims to be the market leader in this ‘camera on a chip’ niche. Each frame currently requires around 4Mb of memory to store, restricting the EFS to 30 frames before transferring the pictures to a PC. But as flash memory improves, this figure will reach a more acceptable size. The other major drawback is the lack of real time viewing and editing functions, which make digital cameras so appealing. But from its initial feedback, quietly gathered at photography shows, Irvine is confident of the products appeal to existing camera owners. And the company is in dire need of a best seller. Shares in Irvine Sensors have been depressed for months. The company has been loss making for several years, prompting one Californian newspaper to call it a longtime Wall Street doormat. And Vision Group, which trades on the London Stock Exchange, is at a fraction of its former highs, having failed (so far) to capitalize on its technological lead.
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