Film vs. Digital

The quality of digital cameras is frequently judged by consumers and amateur photographers merely by their pixel counts. Many more factors play into image quality - optical performance of the lens, complexity of the metering system, color depth (8, 12 or 16 bits per channel), color gamut responsiveness, file compression algorithm, and noise quality of the sensor to name a few. A detailed explanation of the mathematics behind defining image resolution can be found on Norman Koren's page 'Understanding Image Sharpness.' Continuing on the subject, Ken Rockwell compares the merits and weaknesses of film and digital media through the different metrics of camera features on 'Film vs. Digital Cameras.' In 'Digital SLR vs. Film Scans,' Steve Hoffman compares resolving power and lenscraft along with image comparisons. Lastly, examine Sally Wiener Grotta's article on ExtremeTech for another comparison of how the formats stack up against one another on different elements of image quality.

The bottom line comes down to simple rules of thumb. Digital cameras with a minimum of 6 megapixels can produce consumer quality 8x10 print images. 35mm film cameras still posess the ability to render more definition to images that are enlarged up to poster sizes of 50 inches. 'Point and shoots' of both film and digital models produce nothing more than amateur quality images. SLR cameras of the film genre provide the user dramatic improvements in versatility, metering and lens quality. SLR digital cameras tend to lag 'point and shoots' in pixel resolution, but offer onboard CPU algorithms and ultra-sensitive sensors to mirror the performance of 35mm film. Lastly, the domain of professionals remain medium and large format films, of several inches in size, whose quality no modern digital camera yet encroachs upon.

Star This to Save in Your Profile