Re: New 3D business opportunity -- let's get rick quick!!

[P3D Gregory J. Wageman <gjw@xxxxxxxxxx>]

John Roberts wrote:

>This whole discussion of digital versus film has been pretty pointless -

Has it been?  I don't think so.

>the digital folks are talking about what's possible for the future, and
>the film folks are talking about what's available right now.

Then you haven't been reading it very carefully.  This "film folk" has
been looking towards the future as well.  I fully accept that sooner or
later, digital image capture technology will achieve (and even surpass)
film resolution.  At that time, all of the advantages that people have
correctly pointed out about the "virtual" medium of digital vs. the
physical one of film come in to play, and they are substantial.

What *I* have been trying to point out as a counter-balancing opinion
(not "Luddite" as was intimated) is that there are certain capabilities
that we have now with film that I *don't* see being developed in the
digital realm-- and that since these technologies are rather sophisticated,
we are at the mercy of commercial developers to provide them, or we must
do without.  Specifically, a cheap, portable digital stereo viewer and an
affordable mass viewing system a la stereo projection.

People, being people, are going to continue want to come together and
share images at NSA conferences, etc.  While teleconferencing and
the  Internet make for a great *extension* to this, allowing people to
participate who cannot physically attend, they will not replace people
physically gathering together and meeting.  So as great as the advantages
are (or will be) on the image capture, manipulation and storage fronts,
they may be offset by the loss of several convenient display modes.

The technology proponents seem to thing these things will simply
materialize out of thin air (or perhaps a "replicator"), but for a group
who have been lamenting the fact that we can't even get somebody to
produce an inexpensive modern stereo camera, that seems awfully optimistic
to me.  This is the last I will have to say on this particular topic.


	-Greg W.


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