Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/02/02

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Subject: [Leica] Re: digital vs. film
From: Pete Su <psu@jprc.com>
Date: Tue, 02 Feb 1999 10:22:29 -0500

>Today you have large 100-400 Megabyte files, wouldn't it be possible that
>new compression could change that???  Perhaps 

No. This isn't the case. There are fundamental limits to how much you can
compress data and still be able to reconstruct it. Information theory tells you
this. 

On the more general question. It is interesting to me that there are, right
now, 4x5 scanning digital backs (BetterLight) that have reasonably high
resolution (8000x6000), and can actually hold more contrast (e.g. 9 stops as
opposed to 4). The main problem with them is that they need a lot of light and
long exposure times to use.

Storing the digital files in the field, and getting decent prints out of them
cheaply are also still big hurdles.

View camera magazine did a write up on these backs. It was interesting.

Pete