Digital vs film: a poorly thought-out test

streetwaves · Joined: 17 Dec 2008 Posts: 57

Okay, this wasn't a very elaborate test. My friend and I shot these two at different times of day to compare to one another. We were mostly concerned with the "look" of the images, so we didn't mind if they didn't perfectly align. I won't say which one is which, but the DSLR was a Canon 40D with a 50mm lens (can't remember which) at f5.6, and ISO 400. The film camera was a Yashica D with an 80mm Yashikor lens (equivalent to about 50mm in 35mm), at f5.6 on Kodak Porta 400VC. It was scanned with a Canon 8800F @ 4800dpi.

Which looks better?

or

streetwaves · Joined: 17 Dec 2008 Posts: 57

Detail:

streetwaves · Joined: 17 Dec 2008 Posts: 57

The top one is the digital one, as is made unfortunately very apparent by the AWB. The film was scanned without correcting the white balance (could have, chose not to in this case as I prefer it. The AWB makes it look dull in my opinion).

By the way, the film might not be as sharp as it can be because I scanned it this time very quickly using the stock film holders, which don't keep the film flat or close enough to the glass. But overall, I think it is pretty sharp for a relatively cheap flatbed scanner.

Here's the uncropped medium format image:
http://i39.tinypic.com/2iizwc6.jpg

Uncropped digital image after friend made it more like the film:
http://i42.tinypic.com/29c0tck.png