[filmscanners] Scene brightness and CCDs

["Todd Flashner" <tflash@earthlink.net>]

The number of stops of brightness that film can hold has been discussed of
late, but what about CCDs? What kind of luminance range have we the right to
expect from the better digicams? For a basis of discussion, look at this
link, which at the bottom shows a shows a shot of a boy backlit by sun, as
taken buy the 3 new cameras that are capturing a lot of attention and
speculation of late. It's pretty typical snapshot material, yet none of
these cameras can handle it without the highlights on his skin burning out.
Surely this is only the range of contrasty slide film, at best.

I realize digicams might be off topic for this list, but these are
supposedly the products that will be putting our filmscanners to rest. Will
legions of photos with blown out highlights be the legacy of the new
technology, or will everyone need to become knowledgeable shooters -
utilizing fill flash, or carrying pocket reflectors - to retain detail in
the most mundane of pictures?

Okay, these are provocative questions... let me not get in a rant... but
seriously, how will these devices compare to our beloved films? It's clear
they can't handle the luminance that neg films can...not by a long
shot...but can they even match the worst of transparencies? Are these blown
highlights the result of poor processing algorithms, or are they lost to the
RAW files as well???

Todd

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