I'm doing some additional resolution testing lately.
Interesting results. The more I try, the harder it is to beat
the old glass. However, I am highly pleased at how well the
digicam holds up.
Using an old fashioned line-pair resolution chart (you know, the
ones with three vertical and three horizontal bars arranged in
an ever decreasing size and circling in on itself), I've found
that when comparing same-size images, the Zuikos outperform the
digicam by over eight steps.
Ok, sure, I'm comparing to a 5MP Minolta A1, which isn't known
for having a perfectly sharp lens. However, when drilling down
to pixel level, five of those steps are beyond the resolving
capability of the sensor! I ran out of pixels.
So, what does this mean? A 5mp sensor is beat by film by a fair
margin. It also means that several of my ancient Zuikos should
be sharp enough for mating to a digital body. I'm sure there is
a point where they'll puke out, but overall, they do quite well.
Ok, for the sake of full-disclosure, the Zuiko lens tests were
performed using Delta 100 B&W film, processed DD-X (which is a
slightly soft developer) with the test prints blown up to the
equivelent of 24x36". Hopefully, later tonight I'll post some
of these tests on my website. If not tonight, sometime during
the week.
www.image66media.com
The biggest suprise was how well the A1 actually did. The trick,
though, is to shoot RAW. I lost an entire step, and sometimes
more, when shooting JPEG.
Oh, when scanned, most, if not all, of that resolution gain with
the film is gone. As long as I stay optical the increased
resolution is gained. The moment I digitize, the playing field
is leveled. I wonder what a 5400dpi scanner must be like...
This addresses one of those things that has always caused me to
scratch my head about resolution differences between film and
digital. We're almost always comparing digitized to digital. In
this particular test, I tested full-analog to full digital.
How does this parlay into real-life? I'm getting about a 1/2 mm
blur in 24x36" B&W enlargements. Imagine what it could be if I
used an unsharp mask!
Course, that's when you use mirror pre-fire, cable-release, yada
yada yada.
But, through it all, it also means that a quality 8MP sensor
will equal the Zuikos maximum resolution. But the film itself
(Delta 100 or PanF+) is still another order of magnitude beyond
anything the lens is capable of doing. I've maximized ISO 400
films and even ISO 100 slides films, but I've never outdone
Delta 100, PanF+, Kodachrome 25 or Velvia 50.
Ag
AG
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