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FILM VS DIGITAL AND IMAGES VS PRINTS

I've been shooting some film again and have taken a different perspective on my photography and work flow. For the longest time I've bought into the notion that digital was the way to go. Those in the know who have popular websites like the Luminous Landscape have made claims that DSLR's are better than film. The above mentioned site first said the old Canon D30 was better than 35mm and posted the 100% crop to prove it. Then when the D60 came out the new claim was that here is a camera that can equal 35mm. Hmm, seems the D30 somehow has now lost image quality and is no longer in the running. Then comes the king of digital the Canon 1Ds. Halleluiah folks throw away that film camera or display it on a shelf as an antique because this new dream machine not only beats 35mm but medium format as well. And it only costs $7000 (now) for the body.

All the above comparison scans have been done on slide film. I can't speak of high end scans on multi thousand dollar units but for home scanning print film scans much better, has a huge exposure latitude and seems to holds more usable detail and info than slide film. Doesn't blow out the highlights either. The popular landscape slide film Velvia is very tough to scan because of it's high contrast and dense blacks. Slide film was designed for projecting, not printing.

Seems to me for that for web display and home prints, digital delivers nice, sometimes impressive quality and and unbeatable convenience but I want to state flat out that none of my DSLR's come even close to delivering the the quality file I get from 120 film scanned on a simple Epson 2450. Not even in the ball park.

Another point. Some of the images we see here at PB look great on screen but have been cropped to the point that they will never deliver a decent print. Also because of file size limitation a landscape shot on a digicam is going to look about as good as one taken with 4x5 view camera. Which raises another point. Has our art come down to showing off a 120mb 640x480 image on a computer screen? I wonder how many here are even interested attempting a fine art print? How many here are even capable of doing so? How many 9 photos would get 9's when seen in print?

Don't get me wrong I love my digital and viewing 640x480 images on a computer screen but for those who really want to take their work to next level I think.we need to explore all possibilities and don't think film should be counted out. My old Mamiya 645 in decent shape cost me $350 used including a 1st class lens and is a 40 megapixel wonder IMHO.

Mike

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