Anybody using a film camera around here?

[bobtrips]

"Just how you compare a continaul tone medium to a pixal medium is beyond me because once you digitize the film they are both forms of digital images..so lets turn the usall comparason around.. take the same image on 35mm velvia slide film and on a 6mp dslr pump up the saturation and whatever else you want to do to it in PS to make it match the velvia slide then write the digital file to a film reader and output it as a slide, then project both images on a 8x6 screen and you sure as hell will see what a lack of pixal resolution is like..now thats a test instead of the usuall converting the film to digital."

Crafy - is this something that you've actually done/seen or a speculation? (And I ask this as a question, not to be argumentative.)

While I have many (35+ years) experience of shooting slides and a few years of shooting digital I have little experience in direct comparisons.

A few weeks ago I was a guest at a camera club in a nearby town. The presentations were via print, slide (Kodak and Agfa projectors) and a digital projector (a rather basic unit borrowed from the local elementary school). I was very surprised at how much better the digital projections looked in spite of the very low resolution. The slides were from various photographers, were generally good work, and seemed to be about the quality that I was used to. The digital projections (largely from low pixel/consumer cameras) just plain smoked them. The film images looked soft and fuzzy in comparison.

Now I have no doubt that the transparencies held more detail than a ~2 meg digital. And the projection level was probably in the neighborhood of 1 meg. But at normal viewing distance the extra resolution of the film didn't jump out and grab your attention.

[paulsilkphotography]

Hi Bob..yes i have done it...its not so much the sharpness as the tonal rendition and depth of color that suffers...especally at large projection sizes (at my club we project at large sizes due to the size of the room and membership, affordable digital projectors just do not project large enought at the moment, but when they do and are cheaper then slides which are already in decline at camera clubs they will become a minority .

I have just photographed some raptor birds on my 300D and have to admit I'm amazed at the detail and clarity as good if not better than film, but having said that I still prefere the portraits I take on film , they just have a different feel (for want of a better word) ...but then again if it was not for different tastes and percieved differences and one medium or digital camera was best for everything would we not all be shooting with the same digital camera or film .

Paul