Originally posted by leekil Same difference, film or digital. If you are outputting at the same *dimensions*, from a lower-resolution source, you'll have lower output DPI. I was thinking more of a print than a screen image, but the difference could be apparent there too, as has already been discussed.
But in digital, you can get more resolution from a one inch sensor using base ISO, than you can from a K-3. The size of the sensor makes no difference to the amount you have to enlarge. Shoot with a sensor 1/4 the size of 35mm, you have to enlarge 4 times more to get the same size print.
With digital sensors the only thing that counts is lw/ph. A Panasonic lumix FZ1000 with a one inch sensor at 100 ISO will output 2600 lw/ph from a 20 MP file on a 13.2x 8.8mm sensor. (116.16 sq.mm)
Panasonic FZ1000 Review - Exposure
Any of us who ever tried to make an 8x10 out of a Minox negative know it's not the same.
A k-3 with 24 MP will produce about 2700 lw/ph up to 2900 with Pixel shift from a 23.5x 15.6 inch sensor.366.6 (sq.mm)
Pentax K-3 II Review - Exposure
At approx. 1/3 the size the the sensor provides the same resolution. So resolution is completely separate from sensor size. It doesn't matter that one sensor is 1/3 of the other, if they are the same size they will have the same resolution.There is no more magnification in one than the other.
To some degree this was also true of film, in that there were extremely high resolution microfiche films, but, they were only black and white and were extremely slow. There is a considerable difference.
With film, you would not have these two images...looking so similar, yet these are essentially the contact prints of the images.
IN film, you would have to magnify the negative 3 times more with the panasonic to produce the same size image. In digital, it is the file size of the Digital negative that determines how much you magnify one to match the other. There is no comparable attribute to a film negative that makes this possible. There is much more difference between different sensors than there was between different films, and that is a huge difference.
Last edited by normhead; 03-04-2017 at 07:17 PM.