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compare and contrast a digital camera and a print camera?

Public Comments

1. As good as they are getting, there is no digital camera that can compete with a film camera (yet) any more than there is a digital music disc that can compete with vinyl recordings or 15" per sec. tape.
2. Digital advantages Instant feedback, including histograms to check exposure is spot on, colour balance etc. After the initial (expensive) investment in computers, printers etc. it costs nothing (or nearly nothing, a bit of disc space which is cheap and re-usable) to take pictures. Film is expensive, about 50p ($1) per frame whether it's good or bad. (35mm prices, more than double for 120 film) Easier manipulation in 'Digital Darkroom' again with instant feedback. Things such as HDR and bracketing shots for all sorts of reasons (Depth of field, moving the camera in macro shots to get a much enhanced depth of field and combining the pictures in Photoshop, colour balance, having different colour balance in different parts of an image) all become practical. Change colour balance from shot to shot including calibration on DSLR's. No need to change film mid roll. No need for a dedicated darkroom. 100's of pictures per card instead of just 36 exposures with film. No recipricosity failure night shots, low light shots are stunning, and much easier to do. Much more opportunity to experiment is another advantage of the instant feedback, and it makes learning about Photography a lot easier as there is no time lag between pressing the shutter and results. This is more important than it might seem, as it frees you from the limitations imposed by film and can release the artist in you. Much faster turn around, very important for commercial photographers like myself. Film advantages. Wider exposure latitude. Shooting digital is like shooting with fast slide film, theres not a lot of exposure latitude. Burnt out skies are common, easily avoided but common. The new sensors in the Nikon D3 and Pentax have addressed this problem and now offer a tonal range of 8.25 exposure stops (EV), which is similar to medium speed B&W film. Due to the limited tonal range of digital sensors, exposures have to be spot on (within about 1/3rd of a stop, which is why I compared it to fast slide film which is similar) Film also reacts to light in a lograthamatic, (it's sensitivity decrease as the subject gets brighter), which is pretty much as our eyes react. Digital sensors are linear and put much more emphasis on bright areas which leads to the problem outlined above. In other word it's easier to get a correctly exposed print from film. This is one of the major reasons why professionals switching from film to digital are disappointed. Print longevity, this has been reduced or even eliminated by the introduction of pigment inks. And that's about it. Print quality film vs digital. The vexed question of print quality. Here we venture into the what the film aficionado's think is their trump card, and it's true if they use plate cameras or even 120 film medium format (though the new sensors from Nikon and Pentax have eliminated this) but they choose to ignore certain facts such as, photographic printing paper has a maximum resolution of 200dpi. This can easily be proved by scanning the prints. Scan at 200dpi and you'll get a print size depending on the original size, scan at 300dpi and you'll get a print that is half as big again, but, importantly, no more detail. Digital on the other hand will increase detail up to the maximum determined by the Mp count of the sensor, which is a tad over A4 for a 6Mp camera and A3 plus for a 10Mp camera (this is the 'native' print size without adding or removing pixels), you can of course print a lot larger (or smaller) than that. I sell large (6ft X 4ft) prints commercially for board rooms and the like and all my customers have commented on the increase in quality (mainly no more grain in skies,just beautiful tones) and this from a 10Mp APS sized sensor, hardly cutting edge. And they appreciate the turn around time of hours rather than weeks. I used to use 120 medium format for this and at this magnification grain was a real problem. What digital is not. Digital will not excuse shoddy workmanship and lack of knowledge, it will exaggerate it. GIGO (Garbage in Garbage out) is paramount and really matters. It's not a 'snappers' charter, it's not a 'quick fix'. It's even more important that you know what you are doing because digital will make it worse. If you've got this far - well done, but I've only really scratched the surface - honestly. LOL. Chris