Re: OT: In case your Minolta camera quit

Dear Joerg,

I think your knowledge of digital cameras is about 5 years out of date

We donated our really old ones and sold a few at a garage sale. But
digital cameras aren't quite up to snuff for serious photography. Low
sensitivity film still beats resolution and dynamic range, even versus the
highest megapixel digital cameras. Ever seen an Ansel Adams B/W
photography up close? Now go to Yosemite in winter and try to emulate one
of those with a digital camera. There will be about 70 years of R&D
between Adams' photo gear and yours.

Ansel Adams was an inspired artist, not just a good technician. But let's
do the math.

A 35-mm photo is considered sharp if it resolves 40 l/mm and the very best
lenses hit 80 l/mm. Allowing 2 pixels per line per mm, that's 40 x 2 x 24 x
40 x 2 x 36 = 6 megapixels for "sharp" and 24 megapixels for "very best."

Current DSLRs, comparable in inflation-adjusted price to good film SLRs of
20 years ago, have 8 to 20 megapixels.

As for dynamic range, digital beats the socks off of film. Ask any
astrophotographer. (I am one.) Until digital came along, we couldn't get
pictures of globular clusters that showed stars from center to edge, the way
the eye sees them; the center was always overexposed. Film has *much* less
useful dynamic range than digital sensors. Also, film is nonlinear, so sky
fog can't be subtracted out.

The other downside is that on all but the extremely expensive digital
cameras you cannot swap lenses.

if $500 is "extremely expensive"...

On the ones where you can they seem to have made sure that the lens mount
is incompatible so you have to buy new lenses, can't use legacy stock.

Nikon AF lenses work on Nikon DSLRs. Canon EF lenses work on Canon DSLRs.
Canon DSLRs will also take Nikon lenses (in manual mode) with an adapter,
and Pentax screw mount lenses with another adapter. (I sometimes use a
vintage Zeiss lens on mine.) Maxxum/Sony take the same lenses on DSLRs as
on film SLRs. I don't know the status of Pentax or Olympus.

The most important upside for wildlife photography is the immediate
shutter action of film cameras. Digital doesn't have that. You can't tell
a fox kit to hold still. At least not while there are other kits around.

Eh? It seems to me the DSLR is, if anything, a tad faster than the film
one; certainly not appreciably different. You can turn off autofocusing in
order to avoid the autofocus delay.

Oh, and 3x digital zoom just ain't cutting it.

Agreed!



.

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