[dndcdr]

When the K10D was new, I purchased one and thought I would never go back to film. I have since purchased 3 film bodies and I make sure my lenses are FA. It seems, that the colour is still better with film and I am more caucious when taking a picture. I am also not spendling all day doing PP on my computer. I am getting the k-5 but will only use it for sports photography.

[SpecialK]

That is wonderful. I spend maybe 10 seconds on PP, could never go back to film :-)

[RioRico]

Somehow since I got my K20D just 3.4 years ago, I've accumulated 35 film bodies and sold another 30. How did this happen? Must be fate...

[K-9]

It's certainly your preference, but you can also be cautious when shooting digital. As far as color film prints vs. digital, I don't see there being much of a difference if you get the right person doing the printing. I always preferred shooting transparencies more than print film.

[hcarvalhoalves]

I too believe in this film colors thing.

You see, the output from a digital camera is a flat reproduction of the RGB triplet hitting the sensor, thus they seem to lack "life". In film, each color exhibits a different response curve, varying with film brand, ASA/ISO and lightning condition, further producing results distinct enough to be recognizable. That's why we can say "I love that Kodachrome skin" or "Nice Velvia sky", because the inherent quirkinesses of each film imprint some character to the output.

I got the specsheets for some films (Velvia, Provia, Kodachrome) and some sample images, and I'm slowly building a library of presets for Aperture for applying the same response curves those films capture. It's not 100% because film and sensor respond different to light (sensors will always output all colors equally for a set ISO, while film is not linear), so the digital image you have when you apply the preset is already different than what film would have captured. Color reversal and slides also behave differently (slides retain dynamic range and don't lose detail on high contrast areas as happens with print). Trying to reproduce some of those nuances is hard, specially with compressed data formats and low dynamic range output media like a computer screen, thus the result is never 100% like seeing a slide on a projector. But tweaking the response curves can get you long a distance.

Some of the results so far:


Original
The flat-and-boring original.


Kodachrome 64
Kodachrome normally responds with warm mid/highlights, soft darks and good contrast


Velvia 50
Saturated blue highlights, greenish darks, contrasty


Provia 100
Red/purple casts, saturated colors, retains more detail on dark areas

I compared those to the reference photos I got and ended very happy with the results. For high ISO film is harder because matching the grain is not trivial, but I'm studying how to do that also.