Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/12/08
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Take a look at this article on photo.net http://www.photo.net/digital/cameras/choosing They expain why the quality of film is the highest, followed by scanned film (3 CCD one for each color) and the last one digital cameras (only 1 CCD with mixtuted colors) and 8 bits. Very intesresting article. Rafael --- Martin Howard <mvhoward@mac.com> escribió: > > I subscribe to Photo Techniques, the US magazine > primarily for LF > weenies, but also a great bogroom read for wannabees > like myself > (actually my real reason for subscribing to it is > David Vestal's > column). While seated upon the aforementioned > facility this evening, I > came across an article by Paul Schranz in the latest > issue (Nov/Dec > 02). He writes about "conventional" and digital > photography, a sort of > personal odyssey through technology and back. In > this, we can find the > following sentences: > > Film is still the best means of recording an image. > The best scanners > do > not yet meet the richness of data that is available > on film. > Inevitably, > that time will come, as will digital camera > quality. > > I, for one, don't think that that time will ever > come. Like most areas > of technology, what drives development is economy. > If there is little > or no economic incentive of developing a digital > sensor for cameras, or > a scanner, that matches or surpasses chemical film, > then it is unlikely > that it will happen. > > Fine art photographers seem to be split in two > communities: those who > vow to continue with film, printing on fibre paper > to archival > standards, and those who dabble with digital images > at some point in > the process. (An interesting aside is a group who > belong to the > former, but still use computers to produce masks > which are subsequently > sandwiched with the original negative for [contact] > printing.) The > most fervent arguments about quality seem to be > raged in this > community. Is digital good enough? Can you tell > the difference > between a chemical print and an inkjet print? > > In reality, fine art photographers don't count worth > a toss. They're > about as important to the those that fund the > digital photography > development as the super-heavy-weight vinyl LP > weenies are to the music > industry. > > What matters are large volume, commercial > photographers and the general > public. I'd guess that the commercial photographers > that count are (a) > advertizing, (b) press. Both of these are > characterized by a degree of > ephemerality where convenience and "good enough" are > more important > than whether something is qualitatively the same as > a archival, > selenium toned, fibre print at 20x24" from an 8x10" > T-MAX 100 negative > observed through a 5x Schneider loupe. The same > goes for the general > public: good enough is good enough. > > What will happen is that digital (camera) technology > will improve to > the point where three things coincide: (a) tiered > quality and pricing > ("consumer", "prosumer", "professional"); (b) > quality improvements > until "good enough" (given the application area) has > been reached; (c) > ease-of-use issues, convenience, and infra-structure > break above the > cost-of-entry for new consumers. > > Once this happens, improvements will not be in the > direction of the > information capacity of the digital technology and > this will probably > happen well before digital devices come even close > to (i.e., several > orders-of-magnitude away from) capturing the amount > of information that > film does. > > And, just as you can still buy tube amps, and play > new LPs on recently > manufactured turntables, I suspect that film will be > around for a long > while yet. Existing in a somewhat marginal role, > but still existing in > parallel with digital imaging. > > M. > > -- > To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html ___________________________________________________ Yahoo! Sorteos Consulta si tu número ha sido premiado en Yahoo! Sorteos http://loteria.yahoo.es - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html