Olympus-OM
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: [OM] Digital vs. film

Subject: Re: [OM] Digital vs. film
From: "C.H.Ling" <chling@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 09 Sep 1998 10:10:26 -0700
Ken Norton wrote:
> 
> >>>We will never know the limits of digital technology, in the pass 20
> >years the films only improved very little (has the resolution improved
> >by two or three times?). But how about the computer and storage device?>>
> 
> I'd say that the resolution and color accuracy HAS improved 2-3x over the
> past 20 years.  In chromes, the improvement has been slow due to the
> superior quality that we've had with Fuji 50 and K25/64.  But it sure is
> nice to beable to get similar resolution and quality in a 200 speed film as
> we did in a 50/64 speed film.
> 
> How about print film?  Fuji Super-G 800 is awesome.  The wedding films of
> today are fantastic.  How about T-Max?  That isn't any slouch.
> 
> Fact is, we are living in an awesome time where the films are no longer the
> limiting factors in our creative efforts.  Kodak, Fuji, Agfa and Ilford are
> regularily introducing new films that keep improving and pushing the
> technological envelope.
> 
> One question I have, is storage of digital pictures.  Negatives and slides
> are extremely cheep, small and have long life spans.  When will digital
> beable to beat that?  CD-ROMS?  I don't think so--not with today's
> technology.  True archival storage will remain in the analog domain for some
> time yet.
> 
> Ken N.

Yes, Ken, I agree with you, with present's technologies film is still
much better than digital in terms of quality and price. But I just want
to point out that, the digital image developed very fast, just like the
computer, speed and capacity has increased more than a hundred times in
20 years (with the same price level). Digital camera has just entered
the consumer market for two to three years, so what will happen 5 to 10
years later? I expect the consumer grade digital camera will be around
US200 with over 1500 lines of resolution, the memory card can be
"process" at mini-lab for 1 hr (or even less) prints.

Concerning the storage, here a 650MB CD-ROM cost only 1.5US. It can
store 100 images with PCD format or JPEG compressed images. I think it
can last for over 50 years, what is the price for each image? The best
thing is it will not distort as film with fading. I know someone may say
there probably no device for you to retrive the CD-ROM information as
technologies changes. But you can transfer the images to newer storage
medias when they come and I think at that time the capacity will be ten
times or hundred times the existing one.

C.H.Ling

< This message was delivered via the Olympus Mailing List >
< For questions, mailto:owner-olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx >
< Web Page: http://Zuiko.sls.bc.ca/swright/olympuslist.html >


<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Sponsored by Tako
Impressum | Datenschutz