Format resolution comparison.

Nikon 2 · Mar 10, 2024

Lately have noticed a big difference in quality between the flash drive premium scans (6774 x 4492) from Blue Moon of Kodak Ektar 100 vs 24 megapixel (5976x 3982) RAW from the SD card on my Mac Pro.
When zooming in on both formats, the premium scans from Blue Moon show much less detail and a blurry mushy picture. Whilst the 24 megapixel photos on the SD card appears very detailed on my computer!
What gives…?

MattKing · Mar 10, 2024

Thread moved.
Are the files on the SD card from a digital camera, or from a scan of film?

Nikon 2 · Mar 10, 2024

MattKing said:
Thread moved.
Are the files on the SD card from a digital camera, or from a scan of film?

The files on the SD card are from the MD 262 straight to the computer…!

koraks · Mar 10, 2024

Digital captures from even a modest digital camera always look a lot 'cleaner' than film scans. Especially if you're looking at 35mm scans. I also noticed this, along with masses of people, when migrating to digital in the early 2000's. I still like digital (sometimes) for this cleanliness/sterility. Film is more organic, and also a lot grittier.

Nikon 2 · Mar 10, 2024

Example of digital…!

Nikon 2 · Mar 10, 2024

Example of film & digital…!

Nikon 2 said:
Example…!

koraks · Mar 10, 2024

Photographs of computer monitors invariably constitute a depressing experience.

Btw, that second photo looks like the plane of sharp focus was in front of the actual scene. Note how the near tree bottom left is nearly in focus and everything else is a blur. It has very little to do with scanning or how your favorite photo app chooses to render a digital file on your screen. Perhaps a little more practice with the rangefinder is in order.

Nikon 2 · Mar 10, 2024

koraks said:
Photographs of computer monitors invariably constitute a depressing experience.

Btw, that second photo looks like the plane of sharp focus was in front of the actual scene. Note how the near tree bottom left is nearly in focus and everything else is a blur. It has very little to do with scanning or how your favorite photo app chooses to render a digital file on your screen. Perhaps a little more practice with the rangefinder is in order.

They were both shot at infinity…!

Nikon 2 · Mar 10, 2024

koraks said:
Photographs of computer monitors invariably constitute a depressing experience.

Btw, that second photo looks like the plane of sharp focus was in front of the actual scene. Note how the near tree bottom left is nearly in focus and everything else is a blur. It has very little to do with scanning or how your favorite photo app chooses to render a digital file on your screen. Perhaps a little more practice with the rangefinder is in order.

The digital shot is perfectly detailed on the computer screen. Look at the first photo sent…!

Alan Edward Klein · Mar 10, 2024

The left picture looks like there was movement. Were you using a tripod?

Nikon 2 · Mar 10, 2024

My issue was about how mushy the film scan looked compared to the digital image…!

Nikon 2 · Mar 10, 2024

Alan Edward Klein said:
The left picture looks like there was movement. Were you using a tripod?

Never use a tripod but checked all the film scans on my computer and all have the same look…!

Nikon 2 · Mar 10, 2024

Those photos are shown at 100% zoom…!

MattKing · Mar 10, 2024

Nikon 2 said:
Never use a tripod but checked all the film scans on my computer and all have the same look…!

This should probably read: "all my film scans have the same look because I never use a tripod".
And your digital camera probably has image stabilization built in.

Nikon 2 · Mar 10, 2024

Original film scan and digital image shown on my computer.
These are not zoomed in…!

Nikon 2 · Mar 10, 2024

MattKing said:
This should probably read: "all my film scans have the same look because I never use a tripod".
And your digital camera probably has image stabilization built in.

Sorry, my digital camera is a Leica MD262…!

koraks · Mar 10, 2024

Nikon 2 said:
They were both shot at infinity…!

Doesn't look like it. Or the lens used on that out of focus shot is out of alignment. But the odds of user error are vastly more likely.

Nikon 2 said:
The digital shot is perfectly detailed on the computer screen. Look at the first photo sent…!

I'm looking at my computer monitor that displays a poor digital picture of someone's computer monitor displaying a digital photograph. The only conclusion I can draw from this is that I have a funny way of spending my Sunday evening and I should really go do something else.

Nikon 2 said:
Original film scan and digital image shown on my computer…!

If you downscale images to the size of a stamp, they will always look sharp. It's one solution to your problem, for sure.

Nikon 2 · Mar 10, 2024

Look again at the last images posted, film on left…!

Nikon 2 · Mar 10, 2024

By the way, I used many lenses with my Nikon F2 and can’t be all out of alignment…!

Nikon 2 · Mar 10, 2024

koraks said:
Doesn't look like it. Or the lens used on that out of focus shot is out of alignment. But the odds of user error are vastly more likely.

I'm looking at my computer monitor that displays a poor digital picture of someone's computer monitor displaying a digital photograph. The only conclusion I can draw from this is that I have a funny way of spending my Sunday evening and I should really go do something else.

If you downscale images to the size of a stamp, they will always look sharp. It's one solution to your problem, for sure.

Both images look fine on the screen. The problem occurred with I zoomed in all the way my computer let me…!

Nikon 2 · Mar 10, 2024

koraks said:
Doesn't look like it. Or the lens used on that out of focus shot is out of alignment. But the odds of user error are vastly more likely.

I'm looking at my computer monitor that displays a poor digital picture of someone's computer monitor displaying a digital photograph. The only conclusion I can draw from this is that I have a funny way of spending my Sunday evening and I should really go do something else.

If you downscale images to the size of a stamp, they will always look sharp. It's one solution to your problem, for sure.

You’re looking at the totality zoomed images that show badly for the film shot…!

koraks · Mar 10, 2024

Nikon 2 said:
By the way, I used many lenses with my Nikon F2 and can’t be all out of alignment…!

Indeed. That's one reason why I believe it's more likely it's a case of user error.

Nikon 2 said:
The problem occurred with I zoomed in all the way my computer let me…!

Yes, I know. That's because (1) at least one of the photos you're trying to evaluate is poorly focused and (2) as I said earlier, scans always look a little mushy unless you apply digital sharpening. And even then, they don't look quite as clean and clinical as a native digital capture if you're pixel peeping.

Sooner or later we all have to face these issues, most notably:
* Pixel peeping presses your face against failures all across the imaging chain, more often than not caused by one's own failure.
* It doesn't bring much happiness.
* Digital photography can be pretty neat.

If you prefer the look of your digital files, I'd suggest to stick with the digital camera.

Nikon 2 · Mar 10, 2024

koraks said:
Doesn't look like it. Or the lens used on that out of focus shot is out of alignment. But the odds of user error are vastly more likely.

I'm looking at my computer monitor that displays a poor digital picture of someone's computer monitor displaying a digital photograph. The only conclusion I can draw from this is that I have a funny way of spending my Sunday evening and I should really go do something else.

If you downscale images to the size of a stamp, they will always look sharp. It's one solution to your problem, for sure.

Once again, you’re commenting on a highly zoomed image that can be misleading you to think of camera shake…!

Nikon 2 · Mar 10, 2024

koraks said:
Indeed. That's one reason why I believe it's more likely it's a case of user error.

Yes, I know. That's because (1) at least one of the photos you're trying to evaluate is poorly focused and (2) as I said earlier, scans always look a little mushy unless you apply digital sharpening. And even then, they don't look quite as clean and clinical as a native digital capture if you're pixel peeping.

Sooner or later we all have to face these issues, most notably:
* Pixel peeping presses your face against failures all across the imaging chain, more often than not caused by one's own failure.
* It doesn't bring much happiness.
* Digital photography can be pretty neat.

If you prefer the look of your digital files, I'd suggest to stick with the digital camera.

The image is focused correctly.
Did you look at the images not zoomed…?

Nikon 2 · Mar 10, 2024

What about this one…?

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