 other two options? 8.3.3 35 mm Cameras as a Quality and Functional Performance Reference As users, most of us, consciously or subconsciously use 35-mm film cameras as a quality and functional performance reference. The Leica A, the first commercially successful 35-mm camera, was introduced in 1925. It was small, light weight, had a high top speed for fast action shots (a 500th of a second), 50-mm standard focal length lens, a focusing lever and infinity lock, a 50-mm viewfinder and built in frame counter. It could take 36 pictures without reloading. 000 units were built between 1925 and 1936 - a mass-market product by the standards of the day. Many camera phones today would struggle to match the image quality and functionality provided by this device and similar devices. 2 2 http://www.cameraquest.com/mguide.htm Making Telecoms Work Table 8.1 Digital camera performance benchmark 2005 Entry level Midtier High End Retail price £6000 Resolution 2.1 Mpixels 3.24 Mpixels 4.0 Mpixels 7.0 Mpixels 8.0 Mpixels 16 Mpixels Digital zoom Optical zoom ISO rating 8.3.4 Digital Cameras as a Quality and Functional Performance Reference It is only relatively recently, around about ten years ago, that the image quality achievable even from high-end digital cameras matched that achievable from traditional film-based cameras. This is a function of the performance available from the sensor array and the image correction and image processing algorithms used. Digital cameras have replaced film on the basis that they are more convenient. They save on film cost and the preview facilities mean we can throw away all those vastly embarrassing pictures we took on holiday before they get developed. We have a choice today of low-cost entry-level fixed-focus digital cameras, midtier compact or digital SLR cameras and high-end digital SLR cameras. Table 8.1 compares a cross section of cameras available in 2005 in terms of cost, function- ality and quality using resolution, zoom capability and ISO sensitivity as the chosen points of reference. No