Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/09/26
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]It's not so much the fault of the film as it is of the fixed aperture of the lens. The film plane is like the retina of the eye. Forget about cameras and lenses for a moment. When your eyes go from a bright part of a scene to a dark part, the "aperture" (iris) in your eyeball changes automatically, you just usually don't realize it. The same goes for focus, which is why some people insist that the DOF of the human eye is unlimited. The human eye has spot autoexposure and autofocus, but the operation of these features is unconscious. If you attempt to take in the entire scene at once with the naked eye, without shifting attention to specific areas, some parts may be burned out, and there may be featureless black areas. (Also, parts will be out of focus.) No particular reason to expect much more from film than from the retina of the human eye Richard S.. > It surprises me that film has such poor latitude. Five stops is only a 32-to-1 > difference in illumination. The JPEG files on my PC can hold eight stops, as > can my digital camera. It's depressing. > > -- Anthony >