Bill Pearce wrote:
> I still prefer an optical print of film to anything else. It
> has a character all its own...
Never more true than comparing B&W images. Scanned 35mm film
looks rot-gut in comparision to the same neg enlarged on
light-sensitive paper.
Also, I do have a big problem with comparing images ON SCREEN.
Digital capture will always outperform film in this method
because of the aliasing that goes on with the pixels of the
screen. Grain is being spread across the pixels without benefit
of dot-gain. Comparing final printed output is really the only
truely fair comparison. We get all anal about uprezzing or
downrezzing images so we can pixel-peep to see which one is
"sharper" or whatever other nonsense we can think is important.
But this is like comparing songs to see which one sounds better
by looking at a waveform.
What illustrates this point beautifully is the old saw that we
keep repeating about how a certain pixel-count sensor can only
be used for prints up to a certain size. However, film (even
scanned) doesn't have the same restrictions. I think about MR's
30D/Provia comparison. Does he truely believe that a 30D is
capable of as good of a 20"x30" printed image as a 35mm provia
negative? 8x12" and below, he's probably right, but some of
that "rightness" is perceived improvement due to cleanliness.
(the old digital-audio is better than analog-audio because it
has a better SNR). In reality, it's pretty hard to tell the
difference between ANY film size or digital format in an 8x10"
print or smaller.
Yet, the biggest problem with film is the apparent loss of
resolution due to lateral halation. People mistake this with
grain-clumping or even poor lens-quality. All films have this,
but some films, like the Fujichromes, are worse than others.
Positional accuracy is maintained, but the ultimate resolution
is limited in raw comparisons to digital. This is an area where
medium and large format films have an advantage because the
halation as a percentage of the surface area of the film is much
lower.
AG
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com
==============================================
List usage info: http://www.zuikoholic.com
List nannies: olympusadmin@xxxxxxxxxx
==============================================
|