Digital vs Film?

Question

Here are two images. Which one is film and which one is digital?
http://www.straightshots.co.nz/sample.htm

Oh and please explain why you chose what you did. And fyi, I was careful to focus accurately as possible but I can't guarantee they are perfect.

As I said, don't rely too much on focus

Notice the wall behind the chair is a little more in focus in Image B than it is in image A. That's a hint

Great thought put into that answer, Lidy. I'll let you guys in on something. The reason the focus looks different in each image is because the depth of field is different. Now I have said this, i've just given it away to the photographers here which is which.

Hi Perki! Yeah I've been wanting to do this for a few years not but have only just got a film camera. The film I used was Kodak 400. I'll be posting another one with Fuji Velvia F100 when I have it processed.

Douglas, I see no CA in either image. So beats me where you're coming from there.

I now I get it. Dr Sam is on Y!A when he's supposed to be working. I wondered how he managed to be on here for an entire 24 hours a day :p

Carl P gave the only correct answer. But I'm not sure about his reasoning. I think it's more of a lucky guess.

But Image A is film, B is digital. I was surprised no one picked up on the minor bits of scan dust in image A. The closest you got was "hot pixel."

Another give away that I even mention in these comments was the difference in depth of field. I thought you guys would have realized that was because the film camera was closer to the subject to compensate for the 1.5 crop factor of the D200.

The film image (A) is as is. The only adjustments I made to the digital (B) was white balance and I desaturated the reds a little.

Both images were taken at 1/250 f8 on the same Nikkor 35mm f2 D. Digi image was taken in RAW format at ISO 400 on a Nikon D200. The reason I used ISO 400 was to be fair with the Kodak 400.

To see 100% crops, go here http://www.straightshots.co.nz/crop.htm

Answer 1

A is film and B is digital.

the color is better in A and the focus on the dogs eye is better.

Answer 2

I'm going to say that A is digital. I doubt that's a stuck pixel under the letter "e," because you would have cloned it out if it was. It's more like you to stick one IN there to throw us off, isn't it? But that's not my reasoning.

If really pressed for an answer, I would say that "A" has a little appearance of a sharpened digital image, especially in the regular patter of the fabric. Indeed, I can see some fine, fine CA when viewing this as compared to image "B." Resize it to 1200 ppi and view it at 100% and you will see what I am seeing. Perhaps I am misinterpreting something else, but there is an artifact in "A" that is not there in "B."

The thing that throws me off is the color shift in "A," which I am surprised you didn't fix. Although - once again - maybe you threw it in to confuse us.

Either way, your point is well taken. Is can be DARN hard to tell the difference between film and digital. Once I got into the SLR level, especially the D200, I decided that I'll never look back. I respect film for teaching me about exposure so I didn't have such a struggle with digital, but I am quite content for _MY_ shooting to stick to digital. I'd probably screw up film if I tried it again!

I can't wait to hear the results and I do hope that you add to your answer before you close this out explaining some tell-tales that we might have picked up on, if there are any. Full disclosure, please...

Piano Man - I don't work on Wednesday's either and last week, I took off for 6 days, so I admit I was here more than a normal human should have been.

Answer 3

Digital photography lets you look at the pictures right away,meaning you could take another picture if need be whilst still on location, film requires processing before you can see the results. The discipline required for film may make you a better photographer, as you wont be so likely to rush your shots. If you are talking about Professional photography and working with RAW images as opposed to JPEGs a great deal of your time will be used on a computers and printers that are beyond your usual high street desktop. On an amateure level stay with digital, it's cheaper, faster, and easier to file away latent images. In response to a couple of previous answers, film does not suffer from colour bleed and as for how manymega-pixelss you need is dependent on many factors. As a rule of thumb compacts have very small sensors, cramming more than 12mega-pixelss on such sensors is very detrimentall to the image quality.

Answer 4

Not sure at all. The focus on the top one is more on the pink teddy.
On the bottom one it's focused on the chair back. This led me to think at first that it was B because of the apparent greater detail at first glance when I saw the chair backs, but I think it was actually just a focus issue.

Then I looked at the color and B has a yellow hue to it, which makes me think that B is the film and A is the digital image.

And we all know that I have no idea what I'm talking about!
But I tried ! :o)

Answer 5

A) is digital. Reason: chromatic aberation in the background along the edges of some fibers. With the lighting used, you wouldn't get that effect from the lens in a film based camera. That said, a) was evidently either taken at a low resolution or on a cheap camera.

Answer 6

Image A is digital - it has a "stuck on" pixel just below the E and there is a moire pattern in the fabric of the chair.

Yep, the depth of field remark did give it away. But I'm not going to say whether I've changed my answer or not. :)

Answer 7

this is a little pointless

it is like saying car 1 is a red car
car 2 is a blue car ..

who will win the race?

there are many different kinds of digital and film cameras.

film cameras with different size films, different quality lenses, different kinds of film.

50 ISO or 1600 ISO (which will be really grainy)

then you have the digital cameras which
are all different
sensor quality and size play a big part

this comparison cannot be done with these two photos




digital is catching up to film
30+ megapixel medium format hasselblad cameras

but a camera like this is well beyond 30,000 australian dollars.


just get whats right for you and what you enjoy.

or be like me and shoot both

for landscapes
i never use my digital



**added- hahaha oooops
i didnt read your question properly



im sorry !! =)

they are both digital
i say that because they are both accessable via my computer
which does not show .film file format :p

Answer 8

i think that the image A is digital and the image B is film...
...because image A is more clear than the image B.

Answer 9

I think B is the film but both are really good. There is more detail on the chair seat in B

Answer 10

Image a is digital.