[Leica] Re: the dynamic range of digital

[imagist3 at mac.com (Lottermoser George)]

My tests with the 20d and 5d are similar, with only slight  
variations, to your very clearly articulated results.

I don't see any of these issues as "problems." This is the science of  
photography whether you're using film or digital - same tests to  
understand the qualities and limitations of the tools and materials.

When I was shooting large format landscapes, back in the day, walking  
in Ansel's foot prints, I had to do these tests for each film/ 
developer combination and each lens (yes the lens produces a  
different dynamic range as well). It took dozens and dozens of sheets  
of film. Hours and hours in the darkroom. Today with digital testing  
you can do it in 10 minutes with zero additional expense.

Anybody remember when each emulsion batch of professional ektachrome  
sheet film came with a different ASA (anywhere from 8 - 25) and a  
different recommended CC filter packs. If you didn't purchase all  
your film as "each box - same emulsion number" you had to do testing  
for each different emulsion number just to get the same color under  
the same studio conditions - and each day we had to run test strips  
through our E-3, E-4 or E-6 lines (depending on what year), and read  
them on a densitometer, to get the chemistry to where it was the day  
before (or determine a CC filter pack to compensate for the chemical  
variation) - ah the joys of turning 60 - having it all digital and  
testable in minutes - now dreaming of my new M8 - if I can live long  
enough ; ^ )

Regards,
George Lottermoser
george@imagist.com



On Sep 20, 2006, at 10:20 AM, MARK DAVISON wrote:

> Has anyone done these experiments with any of the Canon DSLRs?  Do  
> they center the recordable brightness range around the metered  
> value, or do they clip at the same 2 stops over the metered value?