Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/11/26

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Subject: [Leica] The limit of DSLR resolution...
From: "Richard F. Man" <richard-lists@imagecraft.com>
Date: Wed, 26 Nov 2003 20:05:21 -0800

Not digital bashing as I will probably pick one up some times next year. 
Not digital worshipping either as I don't have one and just spent some $$$ 
or an M6 and a Noct'.

Anyway, some interesting experiments this last weekend. We have some 
costuming friends came by and took some shots outdoor in the park, and then 
I set up the Studio flash setup in the house and shot some more pictures. A 
friend was shooting the indoor flash pics with his Canon D60. He tends to 
only shoot at around 2000x1300 (~2.5 MP) instead of the full 6MP since he 
doesn't normally print them out. For this shoot, I used Astia 100F, and as 
usual, I bulk scanned them (all 7 rolls) at around 2200x1400 resolution and 
then down sampled them for web. If someone wants a print, I rescan them at 
the full 4000dpi and print.

Interesting things: first of all, the D60 color is more saturated (which is 
what he set it up for), and more importantly, more accurate. The NikonScan 
software tends to add blue when scanning but even looking at the slides 
themselves, Astia 100F does not have the "punch" and some of the accuracy. 
Second, the difference with the details are pretty amazing. For example:
http://www.dmk26.net/tmp/IMG_0485.JPG
vs.
http://www.dragonsgate.net/pub/richard/tony/IMG018.jpg

I did some minor USM sharpening for the web presentation (and a little 
unsharpening is always needed since I have ICE dust removal on), but it's 
not just sharper, but more details. We checked a few other pictures and the 
difference in the detail is consistent between the 2 cameras (actually 3 as 
I used both the M6 with the VC 75/2.5 and M7 w/ Summicron 50). I didn't use 
the 90/2 AA indoor since the flash sync is only 1/50 and I wasn't sure I 
get good result with the 90/2 because of that, but no doubt the difference 
is there too. He used a Canon 50/1.8 prime, which is about 80 mm equivalent 
on the D60. Since most 50mm lens are excellent, I think the difference in 
details is probably due to the resolution difference with the film vs. 
digital sensor.

Now even though our resolutions are similar to start with, the fact that he 
did not use full 6MP may have an effect. It would be interesting to do some 
comparison using full 6Mp resolution. We plan to do that at some pints in 
the future.

// richard (This email is for mailing lists. To reach me directly, please 
use richard@imagecraft.com) 

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Replies: Reply from Jerry Lehrer <jerryleh@pacbell.net> (Re: [Leica] The limit of DSLR resolution...)
Reply from Mike Durling <durling@cox.net> (Re: [Leica] The limit of DSLR resolution...)
Reply from "Richard F. Man" <richard-lists@imagecraft.com> (RE: [Leica] The limit of DSLR resolution...)
Reply from "Richard F. Man" <richard-lists@imagecraft.com> (Re: [Leica] The limit of DSLR resolution...)