Jed sez: > I think digital cameras are starting to exceed the resolution of cheap 35 mm > film. > I once estimated that a fairly good 35 mm print had about 16 mega-pixels of > data, > based on a high resolution scan I made of it.
This may be an incorrect assumption. According to Ctein, a professional photographer who specializes in the dyeing art of dye transfer, the crossover point is closer to around 12 megapixels. A couple of years ago Ctein showed me a massive microscopic analysis he put together, a report he assembled where he compared the patterns of digital pixilation next to grainy silver halides produced from traditional film. It is Ctein's professional opinion that the break even point is closer to around 12 megapixels. So! We're pretty much there if you want to spend somewhere around seven hundred to a thousand bucks for a "professional" 12 megapixel digital camera. I believe Ctein's analysis was determined by two factors: (1) traditional halide grains are randomly dispersed or suspended within the film stock and (2) the grains themselves are not necessarily all of the same size. The combination of these two random-analog-like factors, in reality, reduces the actual density of visual information retained to somewhere around 12 megapixels. For more info See: The Well (ctein's corner): http://www.well.com/conf/inkwell.vue/topics/298/Ctein-Digital-Restoration-from-S-page01.html Digital Restoration: Start to Finish, by Ctein http://photo-repair.com/DRBookPromo/DR_Excerpt3.htm "Digital Restoration From Start to Finish: How to repair old and damaged photographs (Paperback)" http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&search-type=ss&index=books&field-author=Ctein or http://tinyurl.com/aeqe8c and "Dye Transfer": http://ctein.com/dyetrans.htm And now... Related, but OT: Ctein is an interesting fellow. I first became acquainted with him back in 1977 when we were both young whippersnappers, in our mid twenties. I met him at the World Science Fiction convention (SunCon) held in Miami Beach, Florida. As a favor to some friends I foolishly agreed to participate in a popular evening weekend convention event: the SunCon Masquerade Show. Ctein and I both dressed up in scantily clothed see-thru slave consumes as a parody on a particular SF genre: "Slave Girls of Gore." (you can Google the phrase for more info.) We became the alternative version known as "Slave boys of Gore." We trotted on stage half naked with spiked collars around our necks. At the other end of the leash was a tall distinguished brunette decked out in a tight black leather outfit and a long bullwhip. Ctein and I then proceeded to sing a rather badly rehearsed number based on a famous melody from Gilbert and Sullivan's "HMS Pinafore" where we gleefully expounded on how much we thought "... the whip was great" and how "...getting beaten is a sexy trip." We won "Best Presentation." I have a photo of the event. Someone else has the negative. I have yet to obtain the negative. Regards Steven Vincent Johnson www.OrionWorks.com www.zazzle.com/orionworks
