The number of stops of brightness that film can hold has been discussed of late, but what about CCDs? What kind of luminance range have we the right to expect from the better digicams? For a basis of discussion, look at this link, which at the bottom shows a shows a shot of a boy backlit by sun, as taken buy the 3 new cameras that are capturing a lot of attention and speculation of late. It's pretty typical snapshot material, yet none of these cameras can handle it without the highlights on his skin burning out. Surely this is only the range of contrasty slide film, at best.
I realize digicams might be off topic for this list, but these are supposedly the products that will be putting our filmscanners to rest. Will legions of photos with blown out highlights be the legacy of the new technology, or will everyone need to become knowledgeable shooters - utilizing fill flash, or carrying pocket reflectors - to retain detail in the most mundane of pictures? Okay, these are provocative questions... let me not get in a rant... but seriously, how will these devices compare to our beloved films? It's clear they can't handle the luminance that neg films can...not by a long shot...but can they even match the worst of transparencies? Are these blown highlights the result of poor processing algorithms, or are they lost to the RAW files as well??? Todd ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe by mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED], with 'unsubscribe filmscanners' or 'unsubscribe filmscanners_digest' (as appropriate) in the message title or body