----- Original Message ----- From: "J. C. O'Connell"
Subject: RE: USAF target and resolution tests
Film has major advantage over digital in that the film type selection can be matched to the requirements. Digital is more of a general purpose capture which I do not think would do as well as film on very low or very high contrast scenes shot with correct types of film.
Digital RAW has more exposure range than most neg films, making it better for high contrast scenes.
Digital RAW has very fine contrast control, allowing for fine tuning of the exposure slope to the subject, allowing tremendous control in scene types from very low to very high contrast.
Film (I exclude black and white, which is a whole nother animal) has, in reality, very little real contrast range dieviation from type to type. Probably less than 4 stops from the lowest contrast print film to the highest contrast slide film, in terms of usable contrast range.
Where digital falls down (in this particular arena) is when going to print, where tonal range is severely hampered by 8 bit per colour channel printing.
A well made hand crafted negative-optical print will almost always look better than a digital print. Unfortunately for the colour shooter, this is becoming an increasingly difficult to find commodity.
William Robb
