Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/09/25
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Hi sorry if this is another digital thread again......but it's a burning question inside me......so pls hear me out :) Before i got my M system about 3 months ago (i think), i was using a Canon EOS D30 extensively in conjunction with an EOS 1v. I shoot freelance as well as my own personal shoots, and the D30 found extensive use at weddings, events, concerts and other photojournalistic work, including regular contributions to a local Church magazine. Digital was a huge convenience but was never a strict necessity though - i never had to deal with fast turnaround times like in the papers. I was a firm digital believer. After i got my M system, i decided i wanted to have a way to digitise my images and do my own digital darkroom processing and printing instead of leaving that to a lab. The D30 had depreciated much by then, Photokina was a couple of months away, and i wanted to cut losses on that so as to get a new digital body later. And besides, with my M6 TTL now occupying the slot of the ONE FAVOURITE CAMERA i would bring to that proverbial isolated island, i figured i would be shooting a lot more film than ever before. So i sold my D30 and in return, bought a Nikon Coolscan IV. The M system is fantastic, delivering stunning images of excellent technical quality. (but of course we already know that ;)). What that is the problem, however, is translating all that optical goodness into digital form. I can't seem to do it. :( No matter how i see it, the D30 images always seem more luminous (for lack of a better word). The colours are more accurate, the overall image has a crystal clarity unmatched by the scanned image. Especially for high ISO images. The Coolscan images are 70 mb conpared to the 17 mb of the D30 - both 16 bit TIFFs. But despite the apparent increased resolution, the D30 images still look better to me. The lack of visible grain helps a LOT in APPARENT resolution of fine detail, and at ISO 400 to1600, the D30 images clearly surpass scanned images in terms of clarity, grain / noise, sharpness. i've tried all sorts of film, slow to high speed. I miss digital most for concert shoots where high ISO is mandatory. I've tried scanning slides (including pushed slides), which does give good quality, but under available indoor light, the color casts are horrible, and it isn't always easy to correct that, especially in mixed lighting situations. The D30 handled mixed lighting with ease, and white balance is much easier to correct with the D30 digital files. A badly underexposed D30 image also corrects very easily in Photoshop with minimal degradation. Can't say the same for that of a scanned image! Sharpening scanned images introduces grain, while the D30 images sharpens very well. I don't think this has anything to do with using a 2900 dpi scanner - i believe even with a 4000 dpi scanner i'm going to be seeing the same results. Using a lightbox and a good Rodenstock loupe i could see the goodness of all that Leica glass in all their glory. i understand that making your own b/w prints will allow one to see it as well. But are we then limited to these conventional means of viewing the images? With the advent of all the latest 11 to 14 megapixel digital SLRs on the market by Canon, Kodak etc, i keep wondering if digital is truly upon us right now. The D30's only 3 megapixels. These new cameras _should_ blow film scanned images right out of the water, no? i mean, look at a scaled down output from the upcoming EOS 1Ds: http://www.canon.co.jp/Imaging/EOS1DS/downloads/Portrait2L.JPG The only reason i'm using film is because of the Leica M system. And that's scary, cos i'm putting up with a multitude of inconveniences (processing costs, film scanning times, scanning woes) but not getting results that are at least as good as digital! wat am i doing wrong? how do you guys eke out that last bit of quality from scanning? Red Dawn ps: i regret selling the D30. They say it's not a pro body and too plasticky, and wouldn't last. Mine functioned perfectly for more than a year, in rain, at the beach, survived hard knocks etc and refused to break. They say the shutter might wear out, but i had close to 25,000 shots and it's still working perfectly. They say dust will cloud the CMOS sensor, but mine never had any dust problems, and i'm not the most careful person in the world. - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html