Digital vs. Film

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I'm interested in purchasing a Digital Camera (possibly Olympus C-2500L)for my wife. My question is, Can the digital image also be processed by traditional methods and printed on regular print medium, and if so, how does the quality compare to a traditional camera's prints? Do most standard photo labs provide that service?

Thank you. Bob Silva

-- Robert Silva (bobs1224@mediaone.net), November 25, 1999

Answers

I have not tried this yet. But check out www.pix.com or Iprint.com. It also seems to me that the "Share your photo" link here refers to processing.

Ned

-- Ned Lee (ned_lee@hotmail.com), November 26, 1999.


In the simplest sense, no. Really simply: Traditional film chemicals react to the light and undergo physical changes. This can be reproduced by shining light through the film/negative onto more film/negatives, onto paper or a slide screen, etc. Other than the limitations of the chemical structure and grain sizes, there is a continuous picture recorded

In digital, the picture (information) is sensed by a solid state device, not on film. The digital camera senses the "values" (color, intensity, etc.) at individual points on the sensor. The values are recorded as a number. It is recorded point, next point, next point across the sensor. The "digital" information is recorded on electronic or magnetic media as a file of numbers that can be decoded and reproduced by a computer process. There is no negative or slide as in traditional photography. This is then displayed by a computer identifying the points and the color applicable to the point being produced. A digital print is produced typically by an ink jet or other printer being given the point(location) and color information and then applying ink to that spot in the right color. The processes are similar to the way your computer screen displays information.

It's not usually done the other way although there are ways to "print" to slides, etc. There are some methods to do this but they are usually fairly specific as to purpose and not usually a product for the average consumer.

Digital print vs traditional print is evolving but digital prints can be extremely, extremely good. When printed on the right stock with the right printers, etc. they are sometimes and by some people considered essentially undistinquishable from film prints, especially at typical consumer sizes. You can print extremely good digital prints at home far more easily than you could produce traditional color prints. No darkroom is required. Both digital and traditional methods have limitations as to how much a picture can be blown-up, in both cases the limit comes from the amount of information originally recorded.

Different labs provide different services. "Printing" services are both science and art and heavily dependent on both people and machines in both digital and film worlds. "Custom" work will usually take a good custom service/lab.

-- Craig Gillette (cgillette@thegrid.net), November 27, 1999.


Actually, yes they can. Look at www.ezprints.com for example. They print on Kodak photographic paper using the same wet silver process as developing negatives. They have a machine that takes a digital image and "exposes" it directly onto the paper in the same printer that film is developed in. Very good results and long-life expectancy. The prints are indistinguishable from film and in cases of 2.1 megapixel images printed at 4x6", the print quality can exceed that of a P&S 35mm developed at a one-hour photo.

-- Brad Grant (bradandsteph@home.com), November 29, 1999.

All the technical questions aside, I recently had some photo prints done from shots taken with my Nikon CP950. There was absolutely no way you could see that the pictures were taken with a digital camera. The resolution of the pictures was only Fine (as opposed to Hi) and the downside for me is that our local camera store only takes either Kodak cards or floppies, and a floppy only holds ones decent photograph.

-- Robin Rowlands (robrow@northnet.com.au), December 01, 1999.

Check out labs that offer prints from Kodak LED Printers. This is a printer which exposes digital files to RA paper and runs them through a RA chemical process the same as you would do with film prints. The quality is exceptional, deltaquest imaging in Chicago is one lab that has one but there are many more throughout the country as more and more professional photographers now require this service.

-- Brian Welch (Brian.Welch@Allin.com), December 02, 1999.


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