Monday, January 30, 2006

Digital vs Film: Some of My Observations


Here's a great topic that's hardly ever shared on the Internet--your observations about the differences between digital and film.

Here are some of mine (note that these are only my observations, others may have different notions of the differences):

1. A picture of a picture (shown above) taken with a digital camera comes out clearer than one taken a film camera.

2. Nighttime neon photos are easier to photograph with film than with a digital camera.

Generally, I have found using 400 ISO 35mm film when shooting neon sign at night without a flash is easy and produces a clear result when the camera is set to the Av setting using an f-stop of about f/8. Do the same with a digital and the neon comes out too bright to be read.

3. Black and white film photographs taken with film are far more realistic than those taken with a digital camera.

Digital cameras set to the black and white mode take pictures that can look like plastic model.

4. Scanned film photographs sometimes show lines from the material in it whereas digital photographs do not.

I found that this happens when the film is overexposed. These type of pictures are a bear to work with in Photoshop.

5. Film is more sensitive to light at lower ISOs.

If you take a picture hand held picture with 400 ISO film in a film camera and then take the same picture with a digital camera set at 400 ISO, the film picture will come out better (clearer and with less blur).

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1 comment:

superstarjo said...

I'm by no means a pro, but I still prefer film better. I find it captures subtleties, like tones of grey, better than digital.