While it could be a leftover April Fool’s joke, as some people have suggested, the RE-35 Digital Cartridge sure sounds exciting. Sized like a traditional 35-mm cartridge, it fits into old analog cameras in place of film and picks up all shots digitally.
Designed for classic analog 35-mm cameras, the device has a pull-out sensor that performs the analog-to-digital conversion. Called Flexisensor, the “highly-flexible” detector consists of three layers that facilitate the capture of shots and their storage into the onboard flash memory.
The RE-35 can take images in JPEG and RAW formats, which you can subsequently transfer to a PC via USB. An included transfer software (good for PCs and Macs) runs directly from the cartridge, as well as a bundled graphics editing program.
The cartridges themselves come in three models that can each take varying levels of image resolution, namely 4, 8 and 12 megapixels. Each cartridge will need to be charged (via USB) before being used in an analog camera.
Again, the RE-35 could very well be an aborted April Fool’s prank that didn’t quite come out right. Or it could be an interesting product that vintage camera enthusiasts can find plenty of uses for. It’s supposed to be ready for shipping in the fall, so we’ll know whether it’s real then.