A very interesting article by Norman Koren on percieved resolution of digital cameras vs. film addresses the question of 'How many pixels does it take for a digital sensor to outperform film.' He says "As of September 2002, we seem to have arrived. New bodies from Canon and Kodak outperform 35mm. We also look at the rapid advances of digital sensor tecnology, which have made some digital cameras obsolete in a matter of months. The good news is that these advances will slow down-- digital cameras will stabilize and it will become safe to buy them without fear of rapid obsolescence."
Photographers sometimes get into heated discussions about digital cameras vs. film. This article's equations and TLA's may be offputting to some, but it addresses some of the issues in a analytical way to substantiate its claims.
The author explains the factors affecting image quality beyond mere pixel count (5 megapixels doesn't tell you nearly enough, it turns out). Pixel size, sensor size, lens, and sensor type all are important factors to consider.
He writes about the advantages of the Foveon sensor vs. the Bayer mask sensor (which 99% of all digital cameras use). A diagram demonstrates the advantages of the "Super CCD"'s diagonal orientation.
If you wanted one summary table showing the relative resolution of the new digital SLRs compared to Provia 100F film, check out the middle of this document. According to his calculations, the Kodak DCS Pro 14n exceeds film resolution by 15%. Other cameras listed include Canon EOS D30, EOS D60, EOS-1D, EOS-1Ds, Nikon D100, Contax N Digital, Sigma SD9, and a batch of compact digicams (Minolta Dimage 7i, Nikon Coolpix 5700, Olympus E-20, and Sony DSC-F717).
Norman comments on a famous review of the Canon EOS-D30 by Michael Reichmann from Luminous-landscape.com, who at the time made some bold claims about the superiority of the D30 over film. That claim remains difficult to accept.
The article is one of a series entitled "Understanding image sharpness." He states his interest is professional/prosumer cameras which are not prohibitively expensive and use existing 35mm lenses. I think many photographers share this interest. Many people can see the writing on the wall for film, but the technology is evolving so quickly that it is hard to know when to throw out film and adopt digital. I highly recommend this document.
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