DSLR vs. FILM SCAN COMPARISON
IMAGES FARM SANTA YSABLE, SAN DIEGO COUNTY |
| This page contains a four image comparison between a
Canon 1Ds Mark II, Canon 10D, a Provia F ISO100
35mm 4000 dpi film scan and a 4X5 Velvia transparency scan at 1200 dpi. The 10D image was shot in camera RAW and converted with
Adobe's Camera RAW plugin. defaults were used for conversion except no
sharpening was applied. The 10D image was then resampled up to 5500X3600
pixels in Photoshop using bicubic interpolation. This was done to produce a
digital image from the 10D which was the same size as the 4000 dpi 35mm and
1200 dpi 4X5 scan
images. No image adjustments were
applied. The Provia F image was scanned with my Nikon Super Coolscan 4000 ED
with ICE at normal and GEM at level 2. The 4X5 transparency was scanned at
1200 dpi with
my Epson 2450. The 4X5 camera photograph was actually taken some weeks
earlier but at about the same time of day and from the exact same viewpoint.
The 1Ds Mark II image was taken 19 months after the original series of
comparison photographs were taken. The 1Ds Mark II photo was taken in RAW
and converted to 16 bit TIFF with Canon DPP 1.5. When the 1Ds Mark II image
comparison was added to this article my favorite RAW converter, Capture One,
didn't support the 1Ds Mark II yet. The screen capture of the 1Ds Mark II
farm image was done from a full image resolution (4992X3328 pixels) TIFF
screen presentation. All screen captures of the TIFF files were done with an
application called Hypersnap and saved at JPEG quality 90. Some minor color and tonal range adjustments were applied to the film scans. No sharpening of any kind was applied to the
film scans. The
white cutout represents the screen captures from the full resolution images.
A reminder that shot as camera RAW, the DSLR images have had no sharpening in
any stage of image creation. Sharpening was disabled in the RAW conversion
process. My observations and opinions as follows: The 4X5 scan is the quality benchmark in this set. It blows away both the 10D and 35mm Provia F images. This isn't a surprise at all since the 4X5 transparency has nearly 18 square inches of image area on the film compared to the 35mm's 1 square inch and 10D's slightly less than 1 square inch. The 4X5 image holds so much more image information that even with a 1200 dpi scan it is clearly superior to the two smaller formats. However, the 16.7mp Canon 1Ds Mark II image holds up quite well when compared to the 4X5 scan. It is clearly in second place in this comparison. In this particular image the Provia F scan came the closest to winning between all of the 10D / Provia F ISO 100 scan image comparisons. If you look at the corrugated iron fence in both full resolution screen captures you will see that the 10D image did not resolve the corrugations. I suspect that this is because the 24-70 lens is not quite as sharp at 28mm as it is at 45mm. Also, the magnification (physical size of the fence) at 28mm would have been considerably less on the image plane in the 10D too. The smaller image on the image plane would not have put as much information on the sensor as was placed on the film plane in the film camera. This magnification issue necessitated by the focal length multiplier with the 10D is something to consider when thinking of moving from film to a reduced size sensor DSLR. In any case, it turned out to be a moot point since my Canon S800 printer did not resolve and print the corrugations either when I printed a 2400X3000 pixel section of the Provia F scan to 8X10. Had I printed the entire image, it would have been about 12X18". |
| Full image, Canon 10D, 24-70 f2.8 L lens @ 28mm and f8 |
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| Velvia 4X5 transparency 150mm lens @ f22 |
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| Canon 1Ds Mark II 24-70 f2.8 L lens @ 46mm |
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| Canon 10D, 24-70 f2.8 L lens @ 28mm and f8 |
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| Provia F ISO 100, 24-70 f2.8 L lens @ 45mm and f8 |
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Oceanside
harbor, 4 images including 10D, 1Ds, 35mm Provia F ISO 100 and 4X5
Velvia film scans
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