brainstorms

Monday March 21, 2005

velvia, d2x, d70...

just as i was planning to do my own velvia vs digital tests, i came across rollin verlinde's excellent no nonsense review of d2x. this is an eye opener. [i guess i will not bother with my own tests for now.]

i downloaded his carefully photographed moss crop samples, color matched the velvia scan and the d70 image against the d2x colors and compared the details. at higher magnifications, velvia image is a loss. a real surprise is the d70 image: once it is resized (bicubic smoother) to match the d2x sample, i cannot tell the two images apart.

long time ago, i had calculated that given best 35mm optics at around 100/lpmm resolving power, i would want a 10-12mp camera to switch to digital. i realize now all one really needs is a modern raw-capable 6-8mp camera and a good interpolation algorithm...

[this last bit reminds me of helmut dersch's ingenious interpolator quality tests.]

[addendum: here is a short essay that confirms my current impressions: digital image quality]