Whats better? Film or Digital?
- Thread starter The_Necromancer1
- Start date
Well, it's basically a choice between durability and quality. Do you want something that'll stay on your computer forever, or do you want really good looking 8x12s? Durability isn't even so much an issue if you don't mind keeping negatives or scanning the pictures into your computer.
And to those of you that are voting that digital is way better than film, you're crazy. Print out a digital picture on a full sheet of paper, and compare it to an 8x12. No practical/affordable digital camera right now comes even close to the quality of film. Now, if you're keeping the pictures on your computer, or if you only want to print smaller pictures (like 4x6), then this isn't so much of an issue. But the fact remains that film is MUCH higher quality than digital.
And to those of you that are voting that digital is way better than film, you're crazy. Print out a digital picture on a full sheet of paper, and compare it to an 8x12. No practical/affordable digital camera right now comes even close to the quality of film. Now, if you're keeping the pictures on your computer, or if you only want to print smaller pictures (like 4x6), then this isn't so much of an issue. But the fact remains that film is MUCH higher quality than digital.
http://www.ubergizmo.com/2004/09/gigapixel-digital-camera.html
http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/how_about_gigapixel_camera.html?992004
gigapixel digital camera! even though it is 170 cameras stitched together
also:
http://www.gigapxl.org/
http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/how_about_gigapixel_camera.html?992004
gigapixel digital camera! even though it is 170 cameras stitched together
also:
http://www.gigapxl.org/
Kage
Golden Master
- Messages
- 13,873
Yeah Film is still better than Digital, though to get a really good film camera, expect to pay an awful lot.
Does anyone know the MegaPixel rate Digital will have to get to to beat film? Or, since this just means the size of the photo, what exactly will make Digital better?
I'm not a fan of Digital Prints though, but some of me thinks that having it just on the computer is a bit of a waste than having it there in reality, and not just as data on a hard drive.
Digital does have good points though when it comes to effects that can easily be managed from simple menus on good cameras, and also the fact that you don't have to carry around rolls of film, but just a memory stick instead.
The Memory sticks should also hold triple, if not more pictures than a standard 3.5mm film canister, at a reasonable setting.
Does anyone know the MegaPixel rate Digital will have to get to to beat film? Or, since this just means the size of the photo, what exactly will make Digital better?
I'm not a fan of Digital Prints though, but some of me thinks that having it just on the computer is a bit of a waste than having it there in reality, and not just as data on a hard drive.
Digital does have good points though when it comes to effects that can easily be managed from simple menus on good cameras, and also the fact that you don't have to carry around rolls of film, but just a memory stick instead.
The Memory sticks should also hold triple, if not more pictures than a standard 3.5mm film canister, at a reasonable setting.
in my opinion film is much better, atm anyways. i have an EOS 300 by canon, and i love this camera, its my baby hehe. The images come out excellent everytime.
you can also get digital cameras with very high resolution that come out v.good (the cameras are v.expensive too =p) ,and also keep in mind developing images from a digital camera do cost a bit more.
if your not gonna be doing any major photography, a little compact digital camera is def the way to go. the canon ixus 750 for example, it has good megapixel (7.1) so image quality will be pretty good.
i can talk about cameras all day, i should show you all my collection! hehe i guess working at canon has its good points
you can also get digital cameras with very high resolution that come out v.good (the cameras are v.expensive too =p) ,and also keep in mind developing images from a digital camera do cost a bit more.
if your not gonna be doing any major photography, a little compact digital camera is def the way to go. the canon ixus 750 for example, it has good megapixel (7.1) so image quality will be pretty good.
i can talk about cameras all day, i should show you all my collection! hehe i guess working at canon has its good points
Yeah, I have a tiny little Sony Cybershot. I think it's 1.8 megapixels or something like that. That's all I need though, really. I'm not interested in making prints, and I don't need super blowups of anything, so it suits me perfectly. Plus, I bought it off of eBay for about $50. Good deal to me!
Also, in regards to how many megapixels a digital camera would need to recreate film - technically it would need an infinite number of pixels. Think about it: with film, there are no little blocks of color. It's one big continuous picture. That's why film is so much better. With digital, the picture is made up of little blocks, and, if resolution is high enough, you don't notice them, but no matter what resolution a digital camera is, you can always enlarge far enough to see the individual pixels. So, unless they develop some new technology that captures a continuous picture (which would be fairly impossible since pixelated images are the essence of digital photography), digital will really NEVER be as good as film. However, if you just talk about relative quality, digital will get better. I mean, most people don't need a picture to be blown up 1000x or anything like that. So eventually, digital will meet the quality needs of the public, but it's definitely not there yet.
Also, in regards to how many megapixels a digital camera would need to recreate film - technically it would need an infinite number of pixels. Think about it: with film, there are no little blocks of color. It's one big continuous picture. That's why film is so much better. With digital, the picture is made up of little blocks, and, if resolution is high enough, you don't notice them, but no matter what resolution a digital camera is, you can always enlarge far enough to see the individual pixels. So, unless they develop some new technology that captures a continuous picture (which would be fairly impossible since pixelated images are the essence of digital photography), digital will really NEVER be as good as film. However, if you just talk about relative quality, digital will get better. I mean, most people don't need a picture to be blown up 1000x or anything like that. So eventually, digital will meet the quality needs of the public, but it's definitely not there yet.
Kage
Golden Master
- Messages
- 13,873
Yeah, Megapixel is just basically the size of the photo, so if your just storing them to look at and not print, 1.8 megapixels should be fine.
Though remember when buying a digital camera, its not just the megapixel that counts, as you could have an 8 megapixel camera that will print massive prints with no stretching, yes, but you'll have rubbish quality because of the lens, or internal mechanisms used on cheap cameras.
I wrote a long essay on a thread a bit ago with all features you should look for.
Ah here it is:
----------------------------------------------------------
its not just megapixels that matter though:
MEGAPIXELS:
Megapixels don't really affect the quality of the final image, but the size of the image.
For instance, a 2 megapixel camera will take a 6x4 shot.
CCD SENSOR:
The CCD which captures the image is also very important as this is what actually sees the light and is what is behind the lens to focus the image to digital film.
So when looking for a camera, it is also good to look at the Sensitivity rating of the image chip that takes the film. A higher ISO number means a higher sensitivity, and this also means you get high speed of shots, since it doesn't need as much light to capture the final image, and so this is good to look out for for someone taking fast shots.
The right lens is also very important of course to focus the light onto the sensor chip:
Even with a good chip, the wrong lens could produce devistating results... like chromatic aberration and vignetting...
These can present themselves as halos of light along edges of objects, or dark patches in the corner of photos, and some good optical lenses can outweigh some of the minuses of a low resoloution sensor by increasing colour depth and detail of the picture, telling you how important this is to get right
I'd say to go for a glass lens and opt one of the big brand name lenses if you can. Panasonics Leica, Sonys Carl Zeiss, or Fuji's Fujinon, though for that price, I'm not sure if you could get one of these lenses or makes though it would make a difference in image quality.
FOCAL LENGTH:
Also look out for the camera lens Focal length, usually quoted as an equvalent value range for a 35mm film camera. A short focal length allows you to capture a wider scene, while a longer length results in a narrower picture angle.
So, the greater the focal range, the more versatile the camera is going to be.
OPTICAL ZOOM BETTER THAN DIGITAL ZOOM:
Optical Zoom is also very important, and this is usually about 3x but 4+ is best, and this type of zoom actually makes the lens move in and out, and change size to aqctaully zoom in, rather than a Digital zoom which will just use the built in computer to stretch and crop a certain part of the image, resulting in a sometimes stretched and dotty image.
So when looking for a camera with these stated, it is best to get one with a better optical zoom than a larger digital zoom which simply emulates the zooming in, and doesn't increase detail but decreases it, and so aim for a really high optical, and if available, you wouldn't need the digital zoom, though you might as well go for it if its there as well, but not instead of.
LCD SCREEN:
An LCD screen is also good to look out for to view the images so you can decide if you want to keep them or not, and many have 2.5 inch displays which most video cameras also have as fold out displays, and some allow you to do simple editing of the images before printing them or sending them to the computer.
SHUTTER LAG:
Digital Cameras are also famous for Shutter lag, and this is what alot of mobile phone cameras suffer from, and other cheaper models, and it is the time in which it takes for you to press the shutter release button, and for the actual picture being taken which is very important for fast shots in which, the action will only be there for a certain amount of milli seconds or less.
The most common way of determing this is how quickly the electonic auto focus works, exposure meters and auto white balance settings, so check the features.
OTHER SETTINGS FOR PROFESSIONAL RESULTS:
With Digital Camera,s most come with alot of manual settings as well as Automatic settings, and these can produce very professional results if used carefully and really poor ones if not
The S setting for example is good to look for, for fast shots, as this gives you control over the shutter speed, (1/500 for example will get a fast shot nicely in bright conditions with less motion blur)
CONCLUSION:
Alot of features though, are just that, features you won't need, though some can be useful and with that price, I'm not sure what you can get, but you should still be able to get a good camera if you follow some of these guidelines while looking, so don't go looking at just the megapixels for quality, which isn't true, but ends up being the case in most models, though isn't always the case as with cheaper cameras.
It is always best to try them out also, so if you have a camera shop, a good test try of a few might help you choose for web buying if thats what you would do. (Some of the values stated above are actaully stated on the lens on the camera itself, like for example the sensitivity, and focal range)
i hope this helps
------------------------------------------
Those features would define a good digital for any purpose.
Though remember when buying a digital camera, its not just the megapixel that counts, as you could have an 8 megapixel camera that will print massive prints with no stretching, yes, but you'll have rubbish quality because of the lens, or internal mechanisms used on cheap cameras.
I wrote a long essay on a thread a bit ago with all features you should look for.
Ah here it is:
----------------------------------------------------------
its not just megapixels that matter though:
MEGAPIXELS:
Megapixels don't really affect the quality of the final image, but the size of the image.
For instance, a 2 megapixel camera will take a 6x4 shot.
CCD SENSOR:
The CCD which captures the image is also very important as this is what actually sees the light and is what is behind the lens to focus the image to digital film.
So when looking for a camera, it is also good to look at the Sensitivity rating of the image chip that takes the film. A higher ISO number means a higher sensitivity, and this also means you get high speed of shots, since it doesn't need as much light to capture the final image, and so this is good to look out for for someone taking fast shots.
The right lens is also very important of course to focus the light onto the sensor chip:
Even with a good chip, the wrong lens could produce devistating results... like chromatic aberration and vignetting...
These can present themselves as halos of light along edges of objects, or dark patches in the corner of photos, and some good optical lenses can outweigh some of the minuses of a low resoloution sensor by increasing colour depth and detail of the picture, telling you how important this is to get right
I'd say to go for a glass lens and opt one of the big brand name lenses if you can. Panasonics Leica, Sonys Carl Zeiss, or Fuji's Fujinon, though for that price, I'm not sure if you could get one of these lenses or makes though it would make a difference in image quality.
FOCAL LENGTH:
Also look out for the camera lens Focal length, usually quoted as an equvalent value range for a 35mm film camera. A short focal length allows you to capture a wider scene, while a longer length results in a narrower picture angle.
So, the greater the focal range, the more versatile the camera is going to be.
OPTICAL ZOOM BETTER THAN DIGITAL ZOOM:
Optical Zoom is also very important, and this is usually about 3x but 4+ is best, and this type of zoom actually makes the lens move in and out, and change size to aqctaully zoom in, rather than a Digital zoom which will just use the built in computer to stretch and crop a certain part of the image, resulting in a sometimes stretched and dotty image.
So when looking for a camera with these stated, it is best to get one with a better optical zoom than a larger digital zoom which simply emulates the zooming in, and doesn't increase detail but decreases it, and so aim for a really high optical, and if available, you wouldn't need the digital zoom, though you might as well go for it if its there as well, but not instead of.
LCD SCREEN:
An LCD screen is also good to look out for to view the images so you can decide if you want to keep them or not, and many have 2.5 inch displays which most video cameras also have as fold out displays, and some allow you to do simple editing of the images before printing them or sending them to the computer.
SHUTTER LAG:
Digital Cameras are also famous for Shutter lag, and this is what alot of mobile phone cameras suffer from, and other cheaper models, and it is the time in which it takes for you to press the shutter release button, and for the actual picture being taken which is very important for fast shots in which, the action will only be there for a certain amount of milli seconds or less.
The most common way of determing this is how quickly the electonic auto focus works, exposure meters and auto white balance settings, so check the features.
OTHER SETTINGS FOR PROFESSIONAL RESULTS:
With Digital Camera,s most come with alot of manual settings as well as Automatic settings, and these can produce very professional results if used carefully and really poor ones if not
The S setting for example is good to look for, for fast shots, as this gives you control over the shutter speed, (1/500 for example will get a fast shot nicely in bright conditions with less motion blur)
CONCLUSION:
Alot of features though, are just that, features you won't need, though some can be useful and with that price, I'm not sure what you can get, but you should still be able to get a good camera if you follow some of these guidelines while looking, so don't go looking at just the megapixels for quality, which isn't true, but ends up being the case in most models, though isn't always the case as with cheaper cameras.
It is always best to try them out also, so if you have a camera shop, a good test try of a few might help you choose for web buying if thats what you would do. (Some of the values stated above are actaully stated on the lens on the camera itself, like for example the sensitivity, and focal range)
i hope this helps
------------------------------------------
Those features would define a good digital for any purpose.
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