On Fri, 15 Jun 2001 13:50:34 -0500 Lucans, Gunars (gunars@spss.com)
wrote:
> I recently acquired my first digital camera and have also noticed with
> that
> some low-light exposures were done at 1/15 and came out surprisingly
> well.
> Does anyone know more about this?
2 aspects...
First that CCD's can have a much greater dynamic range than film. If the
comparison is with slide, even a crummy CCD will pick up masses of detail
where the slide film has given up and renders only detailless black. But
better CCD's now match and exceed even colour neg's wide range now.
Second, film has a rolled-off response at the shadow end, meaning image
density is less than proportional to image brightness. This gives
extension, but poor shadow contrast. CCD's are inherently pretty linear.
In the hypothetical situation that both extend to the same Zone value, the
CCD will show livelier separation.
Regards
Tony Sleep
- Online portfolio & exhibit; + film scanner
info & comparisons
