Digital and analog (traditional film) merge at the point when digital gets
molecular-level pixels. That's all a film emulsion is, a molecular-level
capture of imaging information, by chemical means instead of electronic...
Digital hasn't quite crossed over into the 'nano-technology' level of
molecule-size pixels, but there is a continuing push in that direction. The
physical limits of electronics seem visible, but somehow the technology
keeps bumping them back little by little... If you look back 30 years, most
electronics were component-level, or (what seem now like) rudimentary IC's.
Certainly anyone who used a 286 computer and is now using a Pentium 4 can
appreciate the drive behind technology. A recent announcement tells of
molecular-level transistors, which while still in the laboratory now will be
commercially available soon enough for most on this list to see.
At some point electronic image sensors effectively 'become' analog; when the
imaging resolution capability of the image sensor exceeds the light
resolving capability of the lens it doesn't matter if film or image sensor
is at the focalplane of the camera. The digital dataload will be huge
compared to now, but the bandwidth of processors and storage is increasing
along with the resolution capabilities of image sensors...
We are heading towards a 'Turing Test' of imaging systems. If you can't
honestly tell, in looking at the print or projected image (i.e. a
double-blind test...), if the image started out analog film or digital, then
it doesn't matter which it was... We will get to the point where the human
eye is the weakest link in the imaging system, at which point the makeup of
the rest of the system doesn't matter. Digital is making gains in all areas
of imaging systems against the 'analog' standards already.
--
Jim Brokaw
OM-1's, -2's, -4's, (no -3's yet) and no OM-oney...
on 9/26/02 2:18 PM, Albert at olympus@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> I was talking to my friend, the one that got me into photography in the
> first place, he's an aerospace engineer. We talked about the irony of
> the digital age.
>
> "The ultimate goal of digital, is to replicate analog." Isn't that
> ironic?? CD's goals are to sound like an analog signal, and digital
> picture's goals are to look like an analog picture. So if I have analog
> already, why do I want digital??
>
> Albert
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