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Did the Canon 1D Mark II and 1DS Mark II put an end to film? From March 2005

OK, so this is old news but every now and then I still hear someone saying that digital is almost there but not quite yet. Well I usually just laugh, but recently decided to see what I am missing and shoot a few rolls to compare to digital, something I have not done is a few years. So what was I expecting to see? I was expecting to see more detail, more dynamic range, more resolving power, I was expecting something more then what I was getting, (being a diehard digital fan, I did not think I would see a great improvement, but I thought I would see an improvement even slight over the 1DS MarkII I remember seeing an improvement when switching to hasselblads, although I always did resent leaving an RZ for a smaller format, and I never was a much of a square shooter, but I digress) OK back to the task at hand, lets compare film and digital, and lets try to be fair to everyone. First lets figure out what to shoot? then lets get ready to shoot it, oh yea I also had to pick out the film, so I wanted a real B&W and a good color, I always shot astia for color and skin, so astia 100iso it is, and tri-x for B&W so I picked up some new film, as mine was expired in 2003, kept it refrigerated until shortly before use and had it processed within 8 hours at two high end labs in Manhattan.

What did I find?

Oh Boy was I surprised, first I kept the shots as similar as possible in framing at the given crop ratio, which actually means the 6x6 was full frame top to bottom and the digital was cropped slightly to get to the desired 9x12 proportion. Or in this case 30x40 as I would be printing these to compare. Now, I did not adjust exposure on any digital shot nor did I adjust the color from the white balance I shot them, either daylight or cloudy. I will not comment on the color of the film as it could also be adjusted to match the digital with some work, or vice versa if you prefer the film color to the digital colors.

Lets see the shots...

Full frame film drum scanned at 350megs, B&W is Kodak Tri-X Color is Fuji Astia 100

{film} the cropped version {film} and the digital version 1DS MarkII what a good comparison, I even impressed myself on how similar they were.

Now for the real tight crop from the above shots, this is where you really see the difference,

and the other you tell me which is which?

and the full size crop from the film scan and a resized version of the digital both of these crops are from files sized at 30x40 warning large file and

Now for some color,

{film} The cropped version {film} The digital

OK, OK, so its not that colorful, but its got some nice whites and a white fabric blowing in the wind behind for a real dynamic range challenge. also check out the grain and lack thereof in the digital file but what's real cool for those of you who like grain is I found this plug-in online that adds grain and look at how realistic it is to real film. The plug-in in Virtual Photographer and can be found at www.optikvervelabs.com I resized the digital file to similar size to the film scan, about 28x30"

Crop of film {Film} Digital shot Digital shot with grain added

{Film} and the cropped version {Film} and the digital OK so its not as similar but you try to get the dress in the same place on two shots.

{Film} and the cropped version {Film} and the digital But wait before you say I cropped in tighter on the film, I did the same on the digital here is that one full frame

{Film} and the cropped version {Film} and the 1D MarkII not 1DS MarkII

Close ups {Film} and {digital}

One more B&W comparison.

{Film} cropped version {Film} the digital 1DS MarkII

So without any real one sided commentary I will leave it up to you to decide what looks better and what is cleaner. As I have heard from a few people the grain won't show up in the print at most sizes, maybe, but the haze it causes does not go away. My analogy was one of a brand new red Ferrari, after polishing and waxing and buffing it then take it out in the sun and its bright and shiny red, then drive it around for a few months and park it in the sun and its a bright red and shiny Ferrari, until a brand new just polished, buffered and waxed pulls up alongside of it and you see the once bright red car is just not that red compared to a new polished one, did that make it any less shiny only moments before? no, but you can now see the difference, and we now see film as not as crisp, and sharp as it was once thought of.

One amusing thing was if I showed the film shot (shot on a 6x6 100iso Fuji Astia exposed correctly,) to anyone looking at digital and said this was a entry level digital SLR camera file, taken at 400 iso they would say it was an unexceptable level of quality due to too much noise (Grain) but considering it was a medium format shot at 100iso it is something that many film people say is still superior to higher level 35mm body digital SLR's. Something to think about.