P3D Re: Digital?????

[Brian Reynolds <reynolds@xxxxxxxxx>]

Bob Maxey wrote:
I wrote:
> >>I also find the responce from Shutterbug strange, but then I often
> >>find Shutterbug's responces strange.  Although I may have missed an
> >>announcement (I didn't go to Photo Plus East this year), I know of
> >>only one or two digital cameras that match the resolution of scanned
> >>film, and they are both 4x5 scanning backs in the > $20,000 price
> >>range.
> 
> Our department had a loner of one of these top end cameras. Film still was
> better. I once brought my Bessa Rangefinder and took a photo of the front
> of our manufacturing facility. I repeated it with the digital test camera.
> no contest - film won out. Decades old technology still outperformed 1999
> technology.
> 
> Before you all start wogging over the idea that digital will replace film,
> remember, digital only works if everything in the chain is equally good.
> Try to print a 150 - 300mb file and get a good print, and you will see that
> digital has a long way to go.
> 

If you have enough money price is no object for output.  These
scanning backs really aren't meant to be used with low end output
devices.  They're meant for product shots to go in catalogs and books.

Stephen Johnson <URL:http://www.sjphoto.com/> has been taking a
complete system (4x5 camera, BetterLight or Dicomed back, and a Mac)
out into the National Parks to do landscape photography for five years
now.  When The project is over he will produce "With a New Eye: The
Digital National Parks Project", a book and touring exhibit.
Selections from this exhibit have been seen at various have been shown
at various galleries and some computer shows (MacWorld and Seybold).
There's an interesting article on him in the current Photo Insider (a
trade rag that has started sending me intro copies), and there have
been previous articles in View Camera and other magazines.

-- 
Brian Reynolds                  | "Dee Dee!  Don't touch that button!"
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