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Re: [OM] 35mm film lost the battle against digital ?

Subject: Re: [OM] 35mm film lost the battle against digital ?
From: "C.H.Ling" <chling@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 07 Oct 2002 12:16:05 +0800
As a diehard OM fan should I say anything negative about film system?
Honestly say the color and tone reproduction of higher end DC already
better than slide, check it out yourself. There is also no Zuiko can
reach 120lpmm not to mention together with film, forget about it. The
resolution of Velvia 160lpmm is measured at 1000:1 contrast different,
at 1.6:1 it is only 80lpmm. Don't ask me to do a calculation, just
based on my experience on the E-10 and microscope analysis (yes, it is
a Olympus... MPlan 10x, much much better than any projection lens on
earth) of some test slides, I would say a 20MP will be equal to the
best 35mm film system. Ok, just a guess.

C.H.Ling


"John A. Lind" wrote:
> 
> Tim,
> Now that all your OM gear is worthless, you won't even be able to give it
> away.  For a small fee, I'll be glad to haul it off for you.  All I'll
> charge you is the postage to send it to me.  Others would likely charge
> more, especially if there's risk of any nasty, radioactive rare earth
> lenses that would be considered hazardous waste.  :-)
> 
> More seriously, let's do some quick math:
> Presuming the use of high resolution lenses that support 150-200 lppmm, I
> can only conclude you've never seen very fine grained chromes projected to
> 40x60 inch size using *high*quality* projection lenses and white matte
> screens, or seen what can be created with them on a high quality optical
> enlarger using fine-grained print materials.  A Pro Photo CD creates a 72MB
> file when the highest resolution 4096 x 6144 image is extracted from
> it.  This is a 25 Megapixel file with 24-bit color content at about 85
> lppmm, and it is *still* coarser than the resolving power and color
> gradation of very fine grain 35mm film.  Velvia goes to nearly twice that
> at 160 lppmm, and Provia 100F and Kodachrome 64 are hot on its heels.
> 
> For sake of argument, consider lens and film system limiting at 120 lppmm,
> less than all these films and lenses.  A line pair is has a two pixel
> width.  This is 240 pixels per mm.  A frame of 35mm film limited by optics
> to 120 lppmm contains 5760 x 8640 pixels, or about 50MP, over 4X that of
> Canon's new wonder.  Color gradation is also greater than 24-bit which
> would create 150MB image files (zero compression to avoid any information
> loss).  48-bit color which is closer to film content (but still not
> completely there) creates a 300MB file.  A single 36-exposure roll of film
> contains well over 10GB of information content.
> 
> Bottom line:
> There is very fine grain 35mm film available with resolution at lens
> optical limits.  Velvia is 160 lppmm and Provia 100F is 140
> lppmm.  Kodachrome 64 is about the same as Provia 100F based on what I've
> seen of all these films projected to large screens using very high quality
> projection lenses.  Don't confuse this with rms diffuse granularity
> numbers; Kodachrome has higher edge definition and a much thinner emulsion
> that compensates for slightly coarser grain.
> 
> BTW:
> How are you going to store all these 32MB files?  I can put an entire 36
> exposure roll of Velvia, Provia 100F or Kodachrome 64 in two archive
> pages.  A 3-inch binder can hold at least 75-100 rolls of 35mm film in
> slide mounts.  If a roll only contained 10GB, a total of 750GB to 1000GB of
> information is stored in a single 3-inch binder.
> 
> My conclusion:
> Digital cameras with form factors approximating the size of a 35mm SLR have
> a long, long way to go before it can create the information content 35mm
> film is capable of containing.
> 
> -- John

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