Digital photography

Using the flash sync to turn the sensor on? How does it know when to turn off though? You could set the ISO with a little dial on the digital back. Also, film advance would be difficult.

So yeah, I think a cheap aftermarket digital back would be a crap idea. The only real advantage would be the 'feel' of using an old camera (i.e. metal knobs and levers rather than plastic buttons). Otherwise DSLR + old lenses.

you'd have to set iso on both camera and back at the same time then: and adding a knob to the back of the digital bit would mean somehow modifying the existing film back, which either means ruining the camera's film capabilities, or creating different models of the digital back for each camera and thus ruining the 'compatibility' element of the hypothetical product. so yeah sorry for the ramble, it's a shit idea.

what i would be interested in is a cheaper digital body without lcd, with a high quality sensor, an m42 or pentax k mount, with the exposure and aperture controls in the traditional place, and the ability to shoot aperture priority.

is that too much to ask?