At 12:02 28/01/03, Paul wrote:
>Digital's contrast range is the ratio of the clipping level to the noise
>level. That's bigger than 7 stops. My DiMage 7 is more like 9, meaning that
>the amount of noise I see on the 12-bit digital output is about three bits
>or less. From what I've read, the 35mm CCDs are much quieter still.
I have got not argument with this. The medium is capable of recording more
than fits on the available brightness range of paper. But digital cameras
have to process the image somehow to get presentable contrast on paper. If
they print a whole 9 or 12 stops on paper it looks too low contrast, no punch.
Even if they record as much range as negative film, the fact is that they
do not display, or make available all this info, while the film does keep
it all. Just as nobody prints all the info stored on a neg because the
result is appallingly washed out low contrast, no digital camera that I
have heard of outputs the unadulterated full brightness range photo. People
would be returning them in droves. So they do clever things to pick which
range we want to see, and output that instead, just as a photo processor
does with negs.
What I am after is a digital camera that has an option to output the full
range it is capable of recording, even if that is low contrast.
Julian
Canberra, Australia
Satellite maps of fire situation Canberra and Snowy Montains
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