Could film make a comeback?

[tornado33]

I came across this today. "Gigabit film"

720 lime pairs per mm. WOW!
They say the old 2415 technical pan was good for 100 MP or more in a 35mm frame. Do they call this Gigabit film for a reason? Imagine getting out my tired old canon T70 SLR and shooting 1 gigabit monochrome images with it.
A review of it at bottom of this page

Tough ask though, as theres no "live view" or taking test images for focus with film.

Mind you a 30 minute shot with it with the 300mm f2.8 lens would be interesting.
Note, links to the datasheet dont work, I wonder if its still made?
Scott

[leon]

Scott film hasn't left, in fact some companies are actually producing new types of film as we speak.

The digital explosion has happened, and every man woman and child wanted one, and got it, staturation point has happened and is falling, and prices in the last two years half dropped by half.

I actually know of a fellow that still uses and develops very large Kodac negative film up to 10 x 8 sheet, Black and white.

I used to use the Kodak 2415 all the time, and had i hypered in mt Drewitt and Tasmania, and remember well when they posted it out in freezer packs.

leon

[dugnsuz (Doug)]

Could you stand to go back to film for astro work though!
DSLR work gives that instant feedback which film never had.
It would be a no-go for me with my crappy skin-of-my-teeth mount, but for you leon with a G11 and therefore nice reproduceable results it might be an option.
2 cents given
Doug

[avandonk]

Scott the Airy disk of a f/2.8 lens is about 3 micron theoretically it is higher due to aberrations. Film has a QE of about 1% or 2% higher if hypered maybe 20%. End of story. Apart from the format real size!

Bert

[Doomsayer]

I regularly use Kodak TriX 8x10" film in my old Deardorff for portraits & landscapes. I buy my film from the US. Some of the lenses I use have enormous coverage and correction. My favourite is the 19" Red Dot Apo Artar. Ironically, large format film and cameras are going through boom times in the US. 8x10" is considered 'small' in these circles. Big film cameras are very satisfying to use - like setting up for an oil painting. I miss Tech Pan. It really showed up whether you had good technique, lenses and processing (both for terrestrial & astro) - when used well it gave excellent results. However, I'm not going to try and compare it to ccd or an 11k as elsewhere here.

[Outbackmanyep]

I use Fuji Superia 800 ISO film in my Minolta 7000, i actually did a 60 min exp of Eta Carina through my 8" SCT and it looks quite good in glossy print!
You can tinker more with Digital images, but i wouldn't say that film will be long gone!
I can still produce good results from film, i only need 4x AA's for the camera and a 9V for my SCT and i can go all night and more on a small amount of batteries and be quite portable and yet simple, but with any form of dedicated imaging set-up with use of laptop you end up with power supply problems and cables running everywhere!
And also if you take autoguiders out of the equation a good image starts with good guiding! So you have to be on the ball to get a nice guided image with film!

Film goes well for simplicity sake, but in regards to flexibility and convenience then digital is the way to go! But digital's #1 nemesis is power.

[OneOfOne (Trevor)]

I think there will always be people who will use film, just as there are people who still use Morse Code....hell, I remember one episode of Star Trek where they used Morse Code!

Seriously, there always seems to be people who yearn for the good ol' days...sailing ships, Model T Fords, bi-planes. I, for one, don't (generally) but I take my hat off to anyone who is willing to spend hours taking an image knowing that a plane or neighbours light can ruin the whole thing in an instant.

[Geoff45 (Geoff)]

Originally Posted by Outbackmanyep

You can tinker more with Digital images, but i wouldn't say that film will be long gone!

If you have a decent film scanner (Nikon, Minolta etc and not one of those crappy $100 flatbed scanners), then film is just as tinkerable as digital.

[leon]

Doug I actually bought a wide T-Mount adapter that will fit the Olympus OM2 Film Camera that I have as well, it in turn screws to the CA 35 Adapter that fits the Tak, so yes, I am going to give it a shot.

The film I will use is Fuji Provia 400 Slide film proven to be one of the better for slides, for colour negative film it would be Fuji Superia X tra 800, and for black and white, Kodak T Max 100.

Leon

[space oddity]

Damn shame that the old tech pan is gone, as are hypering services. I do have a stash of 120 Tech Pan in my fridge. It is reckoned that 80 megapixel equivalent is the best that can be done on 35m film, presumeably with a combination of best lenses at best apertures and Kodachrome 25 or tech pan.Given that photoshop can double image sharpness and you cannot get 25ASA film any more, I reckon 20 MP is probably good enough before a leap needs to be made to 120 film, which is also becoming hard to find in any decent variety. Best I can find is 100 ASA. Looks like it is time to go fully digital, probably the new Pentax K20D .

[Glenhuon (Bill)]

Have'nt used my old film camera in quite some time, but it took some top piccy's in its day. Still here, and I might give it a spin again one day.

Bill