mfogiel
Veteran
I have been observing over the years the excitement of photo enthusiasts about new models of digital cameras, however so far, there is no camera, that I regard as satisfactory enough, to make me abandon shooting B&W film. I would like to explain the reasons, and indicate what could be a tipping point for me to switch.
1) RESOLUTION
I am an occasional landscape shooter, and there is no doubt, that high resolution, rich micro detail and textures are helpful in producing great prints, however in practice, I am not printing that big, normally A3+ is my limit, and when I will change the printer, A2 is going to be the maximum that I'd go for.
Therefore, I believe, that if we speak about monochrome sensors, even 18MP are enough, although when I see my scans from 6x7 come out at 82MB, I wonder how the comparison would look like in practice. On this count however, I would say, digital is amply sufficient. I would also like to see a possibility to buy bigger sensor cameras with low pixel density, e.g. a 6x7 sensor camera with 36 or 48MP, as this would improve imaging and put less stress on lenses.
2) HIGH ISO CAPABILITY
There's no contest, digital wins easily here, although with today's sensors you have to dial in a substantial sensitivity reduction, to avoid blowing out the highlights, so in practical terms the advantage shrinks somewhat for outdoor photography.
3) TONALITY
This is the main problem of monochrome digital - I have tried to ask various "experts" what is it exactly, that makes it so difficult for digital sensors to mimic the film's shoulderlike response to brightness (similar to the response of the human eye ), but the answers were always unsatisfactory. I believe, that the bit depth should be substantially higher, and probably some logarithmic function should be incorporated at the level of camera microchip in the reproduced brightness curve. Most likely, this would generate both a major computing stress on the processor, as well as a major hike in memory usage, therefore I imagine it will take several years before this can be realized. As long as this is not resolved, digital B&W is not an option for me.
4) CAMERAS
I have recently bought a substantial number of lenses which I like. I believe, that we are moving to the point, where all digital cameras wll be mirrorless, and the sensor sizes will grow. I would welcome both a 35mm and a 645 or 6x7 mirrorless cameras with electronic VF and capacity to dial in correction profiles for any type of lens. This should finally do away with the PITA of inaccurate focus issues (both on RF and SLR). What I would also necessarily want to see, is a trend towards simplification and miniaturisation, in other words, I see no reason why a 35mm digital camera should be bigger or more complicated than a Leica M9, or a 6x7 camera than a Plaubel Makina. Currently, we are still missing bigger sensor mirrorless cameras, and from what I gather, the electronic viewfinders are still distant from the optical VF experience, so more progress needs to be made.
1) RESOLUTION
I am an occasional landscape shooter, and there is no doubt, that high resolution, rich micro detail and textures are helpful in producing great prints, however in practice, I am not printing that big, normally A3+ is my limit, and when I will change the printer, A2 is going to be the maximum that I'd go for.
Therefore, I believe, that if we speak about monochrome sensors, even 18MP are enough, although when I see my scans from 6x7 come out at 82MB, I wonder how the comparison would look like in practice. On this count however, I would say, digital is amply sufficient. I would also like to see a possibility to buy bigger sensor cameras with low pixel density, e.g. a 6x7 sensor camera with 36 or 48MP, as this would improve imaging and put less stress on lenses.
2) HIGH ISO CAPABILITY
There's no contest, digital wins easily here, although with today's sensors you have to dial in a substantial sensitivity reduction, to avoid blowing out the highlights, so in practical terms the advantage shrinks somewhat for outdoor photography.
3) TONALITY
This is the main problem of monochrome digital - I have tried to ask various "experts" what is it exactly, that makes it so difficult for digital sensors to mimic the film's shoulderlike response to brightness (similar to the response of the human eye ), but the answers were always unsatisfactory. I believe, that the bit depth should be substantially higher, and probably some logarithmic function should be incorporated at the level of camera microchip in the reproduced brightness curve. Most likely, this would generate both a major computing stress on the processor, as well as a major hike in memory usage, therefore I imagine it will take several years before this can be realized. As long as this is not resolved, digital B&W is not an option for me.
4) CAMERAS
I have recently bought a substantial number of lenses which I like. I believe, that we are moving to the point, where all digital cameras wll be mirrorless, and the sensor sizes will grow. I would welcome both a 35mm and a 645 or 6x7 mirrorless cameras with electronic VF and capacity to dial in correction profiles for any type of lens. This should finally do away with the PITA of inaccurate focus issues (both on RF and SLR). What I would also necessarily want to see, is a trend towards simplification and miniaturisation, in other words, I see no reason why a 35mm digital camera should be bigger or more complicated than a Leica M9, or a 6x7 camera than a Plaubel Makina. Currently, we are still missing bigger sensor mirrorless cameras, and from what I gather, the electronic viewfinders are still distant from the optical VF experience, so more progress needs to be made.
