Digital BW, The Print

I too greatly respect Michael Reichmann's views, and given his 
familiarity with high quality gear, including the likes of Rollei 
6008i, Pentax 67II, Toyo 5x4 etc, and his succcess as a photographer 
he is well placed to give the opinion you quote.

But I go only some of the way with him.  My Fuji S1 is superb for 
some work, delivering results that I prefer to medium format 
(portraits mainly,).  But I don't wholly agree with Michael, as with 
some subjects, image quality, although still very good, is not quite 
in high quality 35mm league.  This is I think where colour pixel 
interpolation (as Austin has mentioned) is probably kicking in.

What is surprising, however, is how close a 3+ mp camera like the S1 
or D30 comes to 35mm, and that is even subjectively (to me) seems to 
better it for some applications. 

I'd say you need around double the pixels from scanned film to equal 
direct digital capture, but the exact figure varies according to 
subject.  I can give one practical example to back this up:

Whiling away the time between too much food and drink over the xmas 
break, I compared two identical still life images.  The first I took 
with a Wista VX 5x4 camera, Schnieder 90mm lens, using FP4 plus sheet 
film, developed in DDX, and scanned at 3,200 dpi.  The second used 
the same camera, but used a Dicomed scan back at its max resolution 
of 6,000 x 7,500 dpi (tri-linear Kodak CCD, no interpolation).

The scanned FP4 gave a file more than twice the size of the Dicomed.  
In terms of resolving power, there was little in it, although I 
preferred the "clean" Dicomed scan. Both seemed to have similar 
resolution at any given viewing size, but the Dicomed could be rezzed 
up and sharpened more due to the complete absence of grain, or even 
S1 type noise.  The Dicomed edges were razor sharp.  Not bad for 7 
year old technology :-)  This proves nothing, of course, as I was 
still judging matters subjectively.  I also guess the outcome might 
have been different if I was using Tech Pan (although I'd then run up 
against lens resolving power limitations).

--
Quentin


--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "hsitz" <hsitz@n...> wrote:
> --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "Austin Franklin" 
> <darkroom@i...> wrote:
> > Hi Jerry,
> > 
> > > Have you ever read this:
> > > http://www.luminous-landscape.com/d30_vs_film.htm
> > 
> > Yes.
> > 
> > > From what I see -it (digital) tops it (film) already.
> > 
> > Well, for snapshots and web images, that is probably true...but 
for 
> an
> > enlargement of any size, not even close.  Remember, what you are 
> viewing is
> > at 72dpi, and on a computer monitor...and most anything looks 
good, 
> even
> > shots from a Pentax P&S!
> 
> 
> Austin -- Digital is not just better for "snapshots and web images".
> 
> At least, Michael Reichmann, whose opinion I value highly and who 
is 
> the author of the Luminous Landscape article you say you read, 
> disagrees pretty vehemently with you.  You can read the quotes I've 
> included below and see that he thinks the digital D30 is preferable 
> to Provia 100F film even up to 10" x 15".  Moreoever, he believes 
> that the digital pictures have a higher "apparent resolution":
> 
> "All this is lead-up to my current opinion; unvarnished and without 
> reservation. Prints that I can make from D30 images are better than 
> the prints that I can make from 35mm film. Period." 
> 
> "The D30, whether because of its unique CMOS imaging chip, 
> electronics, software, magic fairy dust or whatever, allows me to 
to 
> make prints that are superior in apparent resolution, colour 
> saturation, shadow detail and overall image quality than what I am 
> able to produce from film. ( I should also make clear that D30 
images 
> are the first digital camera images that to my eye don't look 
> digital. They look like film.)"
> 
> "Quite a statement, isn't it? But, after just 4 days and a few 
> hundred test images, that's my opinion. Others may find 
differently. 
> So be it. But I can only tell you that if I were to head into the 
> field today with my Canon gear and wanted to come back with an 
image 
> from which I could make a print for gallery exhibit or sale, in a 
> size up to about 10 X 15", I would use the D30 in preference to the 
> EOS-1V using Provia 100F. That's where, as the current saying goes, 
> the rubber meets the road."
> 
> -- Herb Sitz