Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/11/23
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Rick Dykstra wrote: > Hi Alistair. You've posed exactly the question I've asked of Leica, > though no response yet. > > The lab I use does high end scans (though not the highest - were not > talking drum scans here) which are 6144 x 4096 pixels and around 75 to > 100 MB in size (depending on the variety of colours I suppose). I expect that is an 8 bit scan. For reference when I scan at 5400 and 16 bits/channel you get roughly a 200 MB scan (If I had it over to do, I'd have bought the Nikon 5000 because the Minolta 5400 while giving good scans, is much slower). > I get these printed to 20 x 30 inch. The DMR sensor is 3872 x 2576. > So how can this sensor make images reproduced at 20 x 30 in of the > same clarity as film scanned to 6144 x 4096? And I could get these > trannies drum scanned to even higher standards. Because of the film grain you need to scan at a considerably higher resolution (oversample the grain) in order to extract all the information out of the film, and to avoid aliasing. Also scanners are different, so pixels from a scanner are not equal to those from a digital SLR (for example). > > I'm not knocking the DMR - I want one or two - but will it be as good > as my Velvia? I can't see how. Again, not necessarily a problem, I > just need to know before I spend the money. :-) I've also heard it > will be upgradeable and that's good. Any comments on this? It certainly *could* be as good or better -- the proof will be in the implementation -- probably for certain things Velvia will be better (e.g. gamut) but for others the digital back will be 'better'. Think of it like a different kind of film --- one that will be very cost effective after you use up the initial 1000 roll order :-) Jonathan