5 Aug
2005
5 Aug
'05
2:52 p.m.
Have you seen the output from 6 or 8 megapixel
cameras? A 35 mm
camera doesn't easily beat that, if at all.
Hmmm.. I reckon that a good 35mm camera (good meaning a top-end lens and
fine grain film) is equivalent to 12-20 megapixels. Rmemeber there is a
big differnce between 'sharpness' (which can be fiddled later with a
digital camera) and resolution (i.e. the ability to see fine detail in
the image).
Large format film is between 0.5 to 1 _gigapixel_ IMHO.
Also, once you figure in the postprocessing all the way to press,
film isn't necessarily easier or cheaper anymore. Sure you get a nice
negative. Now you have to scan it, on a drum scanner if you want to
keep all those pixels. ...
True, but that's no reason not to record them in the first place. You can
always loose information (e.g. by scanning at a lower resolution), you
can never gain it.
In other words, if I take a large-format film picture of something, I can
always scan the negative or a print made from it and, say, produce an
8Mpixel image (which would be considerably poorer than the original film
image). But if you take an 8Mpixel image with a digital camera, no way
can you then produce something equivalent to my film.
-tony