"My question for you techno types -- does a digital camera such as an E-20
record the colors in a day lite [sic] scene more accurately than a film
camera without a filter [sic]? In other words, if I shoot the same scene
with a digital camera and an OM with a MC prime lens and no filter, will the
digital camera record the colors more accurately as it is goverened [sic] by
the maping [sic] of the pixels [???] while film is governed by the chemical
reaction to the light?"
This is a fascinating question. The answer, oddly, is that the question is
invalid and meaningless.
Color film and electronic color sensors do not record color. (The Lippman
process is the only photographic system that actually records the color.)
Rather, they create three images that represent the relative amounts of red,
green, and blue light in the scene.
Because the spectral response of the eye's color sensors overlap, it is
impossible to define a range of wavelengths that is "just red," "just
green," or "just blue". What "red" "green" and "blue" represent is therefore
somewhat arbitrary, and is determined by the sensitizer/filter
characteristics selected by the film's or sensor's designer.
In any case, the three images can never represent what the eye "really"
sees. It is therefore meaningless to ask whether film or electronic sensors
is more accurate.
What matters is the final image. Electronic cameras have a slight advantage
over film, because processing that partially compensates for spectral
overlap is easily applied to the images. (Whether or not it actually is, I
don't know.)
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