|
Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
05-05-2019, 07:51 AM
|
| |
Exactly!
And the effect is built into the physics of the two mediums.
To a crude first approximation, a silicon sensor is a linear photon counter up to the well depth. Each added photon has the same chance to create another added electron regardless of how many or how few photons have hit the pixel before as long as the total is under the saturation point. Thus, a digital pixel is linear up to the saturation or clipping point.
To a crude first approximation, a patch of film is a random assembly of nonlinear photon detectors (the grains). Each silver halide grain remains unexposed (clear after development) unless that grain absorbs a bit of light (I've read that it typically takes about 4 photons within some timeframe which is why film shows reciprocity failure) which then makes the silver halide grain develop as black metallic silver. But once a given grain has been exposed, any additional photons absorbed by that grain do nothing to make that grain any darker. The net result is that even at highly over-exposed light levels, there's always a chance that some grains in some patch of the film will have been missed by all those photons and that more light could make that patch of film just a little darker.
NOTE: film is lot more complicated than this if you start mucking about with diluted developers. Yet the fundamental point remains that film has a smoother response to heavy over-exposure because there's always a chance of unexposed grains because all the previous photons have, by chance, hit already exposed grains. Getting every single grain in a emulsion to turn black takes a very large amount of light.
|
|
Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
05-04-2019, 04:52 PM
|
| |
You can get more dynamic range when you develop film yourself and employ highlight compression techniques from the zone system. And you can get more DR from many sensors by converting to monochrome I feel. When you pull up some the buried engineering DR too far you get color shifts and noise. But those color shifts look fine in BW.
Employing highlight compression on film.
 Antiques, Furniture and More! This Way by tuco, on Flickr
 Mukilteo Ferry by tuco, on Flickr
 Dave's Rescue Trucks by tuco, on Flickr
|
|
Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
05-04-2019, 05:25 PM
|
| |
Of course the Pentax LX's unequaled light meter is still the only camera ever made - film or digital, that can aperture priority autoexpose a scene for as long as it takes while monitoring the scene for changes in lighting and adjusting accordingly. With this I can take super long night time exposures with no problems. In addition, the LX's superbright and lifesize viewfinder makes attaining critical manual focus in these dark situations very easy.
Hoover Dam at night on Kodak Ektar 100 about 45minutes using the LX's aperture priority mode.
 |
|
Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
04-20-2019, 07:01 AM
|
| |
I saw parts of it. Will have to catch the rebroadcast. Excellent and recommended.
Chris
|
|
Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
04-20-2019, 05:44 PM
|
| |
Wow.
I really liked that it was more than a hagiography, that they included voices that criticized as well as praised, though respectfully.
All for a complicated fellow, hard to completely describe in a simple blurb or two...
On a lighter note, I wonder how many Leicas he helped sell...
-Eric
|
|
Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
07-27-2017, 09:05 AM
|
| |
Thanks for the link! I just cracked it open and got it all clean. It's not perfect but I'm MUCH happier with the view now.
Before:
After
 |
