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That's not really true anymore. While large format film may still have a slight resolution advantage IF you have high resolution lenses to match, most high-end

by ohazi 10y ago

That's not really true anymore. While large format film may still have a slight resolution advantage IF you have high resolution lenses to match, most high-end sensors have better dynamic range than film (~14-15 stops vs ~13 stops).

combatentropy 10y ago
> most high-end sensors have better dynamic range than film (~14-15 stops vs ~13 stops) Film is the one with 14-15 stops. Plus its automatic S-shaped gamma curve, with gentle roll-off of the highlights, makes it easier to produce pleasing images. Movies, TV shows, and commercials that were shot on 35mm film in the 80s and 90s usually look better than the digitally shot ones today.
- WalterBright 10y ago
  > look better than the digitally shot ones today Probably because modern directors cannot resist mucking about with the palette so it is all blue and orange. If it's a period peace, they make it all sepia brown. They've reverted to the two-strip technicolor from the 1920's. Arggh.
  - combatentropy 10y ago
    Oh yeah, the infamous teal-and-orange palette, haha
ekianjo 10y ago
> While large format film may still have a slight resolution For 4x5 format it's not "slight resolution" advantage, it's a major resolution advantage. The most expensive sensors these days go in the range of 50~80 M pixels, 4x5 goes way beyond that if you want to use pixels to reproduce the kind of details it provides. That's why film is still used for stuff like very large posters.
- pbhjpbhj 10y ago
  90 Mpixels at 9m by 5m (if the sensor matches the format) would be sqrt(2) Mpixels per metre. That's a dot-pitch of 1400 dots-per-millimetre or 36000 dpi; standard magazine print is 300dpi. I really can't believe that something higher than that can be useful resolution for billboards unless you're cropping to a very small section of the full image. The stretching of the image with the glue is going to give you lots of distortion, never mind the ridges they usually have in them. http://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/3651/what-dpi-ppi-should-a-4-by-6-meter-outdoor-billboard-be-designed-at http://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/3651/what-d... suggests a max working ppi of 75 for an actual reproduction of ~9dpi for a billboard. A very large poster that you want to see close up I can imagine doing at 600dpi, maybe even 1200dpi; but you're going to need a magnifying glass to see that pixelation with normal eyesight I feel. Even for film reproduction other errors in the process would seem likely to wash out any higher resolution, like dust on the lens in the cinema [do they have some sort of laser cleaning mechanism??], or indeed dust in the air in the cinema? E&OE.
- paulmd 10y ago
  The caveat here is that large format has rather shallow depth-of-field, and if you stop way down then diffraction limits your resolution. There is somewhat of a resolution advantage from moving to larger formats, but it's not as large as you'd think when comparing to an equivalent depth-of-field with a smaller format. The counter-caveat is of course that large format is often shot using camera movements that allow the line of focus to be creatively placed to make the most of the smaller depth of field, so stopping down an equivalent amount is not always necessary.

by ohazi 10y ago

combatentropy 10y ago

> most high-end sensors have better dynamic range than film (~14-15 stops vs ~13 stops) Film is the one with 14-15 stops. Plus its automatic S-shaped gamma curve, with gentle roll-off of the highlights, makes it easier to produce pleasing images. Movies, TV shows, and commercials that were shot on 35mm film in the 80s and 90s usually look better than the digitally shot ones today.

WalterBright 10y ago
> look better than the digitally shot ones today Probably because modern directors cannot resist mucking about with the palette so it is all blue and orange. If it's a period peace, they make it all sepia brown. They've reverted to the two-strip technicolor from the 1920's. Arggh.
- combatentropy 10y ago
  Oh yeah, the infamous teal-and-orange palette, haha

ekianjo 10y ago

> While large format film may still have a slight resolution For 4x5 format it's not "slight resolution" advantage, it's a major resolution advantage. The most expensive sensors these days go in the range of 50~80 M pixels, 4x5 goes way beyond that if you want to use pixels to reproduce the kind of details it provides. That's why film is still used for stuff like very large posters.

pbhjpbhj 10y ago
90 Mpixels at 9m by 5m (if the sensor matches the format) would be sqrt(2) Mpixels per metre. That's a dot-pitch of 1400 dots-per-millimetre or 36000 dpi; standard magazine print is 300dpi. I really can't believe that something higher than that can be useful resolution for billboards unless you're cropping to a very small section of the full image. The stretching of the image with the glue is going to give you lots of distortion, never mind the ridges they usually have in them. http://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/3651/what-dpi-ppi-should-a-4-by-6-meter-outdoor-billboard-be-designed-at http://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/3651/what-d... suggests a max working ppi of 75 for an actual reproduction of ~9dpi for a billboard. A very large poster that you want to see close up I can imagine doing at 600dpi, maybe even 1200dpi; but you're going to need a magnifying glass to see that pixelation with normal eyesight I feel. Even for film reproduction other errors in the process would seem likely to wash out any higher resolution, like dust on the lens in the cinema [do they have some sort of laser cleaning mechanism??], or indeed dust in the air in the cinema? E&OE.
paulmd 10y ago
The caveat here is that large format has rather shallow depth-of-field, and if you stop way down then diffraction limits your resolution. There is somewhat of a resolution advantage from moving to larger formats, but it's not as large as you'd think when comparing to an equivalent depth-of-field with a smaller format. The counter-caveat is of course that large format is often shot using camera movements that allow the line of focus to be creatively placed to make the most of the smaller depth of field, so stopping down an equivalent amount is not always necessary.