Gradskater
Well-known
Thanks for your patience Skater.
So just to make sure, you were using 400 speed film, but you set your camera to 1200 for the shot. That was because you were shooting in low light right ? IOW it works the same as with digital. You have some flexibility.
But actually not that much. With my D90 I can go from iso 100 ( and below actually ) to at least iso 1600 without much noise. A D700 can do much better than that.
I had heard film has a higher dynamic range than digital.
For that, I guess you would need a different combination of film/developer ?
Exactly, 400 film, camera set at 1200. And yes, you have some limited flexibility, but you are right, not nearly as much as digital.
I think you might have dynamic range slightly wrong. dynamic range is the range of light and dark values within one frame. Many digitals, especially small point and shoots, can't handle bright and dark in the same frame, for example, an indoor shot with a sunny window in the background. Expose for the inside, and the window can end up being a completely washed out white square. Thats the lack of dynamic range. Film does a great job of handling light and dark within the same frame.