11. July 2003
Canon 1Ds vs. film - Prints
This article is the third and last of my little series of comparing a high-end D-SLR - the Canon EOS 1Ds - with scanned film.
The first two article can be found here:
• Canon 1Ds vs. Film - 35mm
• Canon 1Ds vs. Film - Medium Format

In this article I'll be comparing the printouts of scanned 35mm film, scanned medium format film (6x6) and pictures from the Canon 1Ds.

Warning!
By the very nature of this article - exhibiting image quality and details - this document contains a large number of fairly big pictures and it will therefore take a while to load if you are on a modem connection. Please be patient.

Why and how?
As already mentioned in the previous articles, I'm using my own gear to compare with the Canon 1Ds. This is to see, how my image quality and the amount of details I'm used to see in my pictures compares to the output from the Canon 1Ds. This little test is NOT a scientific one. I use my normal workflow to compare with the Canon 1Ds, ignoring a lot of factors like different lenses, exact color-reproduction etc.
I took up the Canon 1Ds, attached a zoom-lens and shot around with it inside a store, that's basically the test conditions here.

A very reputable store in Copenhagen - Photografica - would let me shoot with a Canon 1Ds and compare it to 35mm and medium format.
So here is the list of cameras I used to conduct the test:
Canon EOS-1Ds with a Canon Zoom EF 28-70mm f2.8 L set to exactly 50mm.
Nikon F90x with a Nikkor 50mm f1.4
Rolleiflex 2.8GX which has a Rollei Planar 80mm f2.8 HFT lens build in.





The test
As detailed above, the test is conducted with three cameras - Canon 1Ds, Nikon F90x and Rolleiflex 2.8GX.

Settings on the Canon 1Ds
ISO : 100
Quality : RAW (plus jpeg).
White Balance : Auto
Color Matrix : 4 (AdobeRGB)
Sharpness : 0
Firmware : 1.0.1

The RAW files are converted to TIF using a 30 day trial version of Capture On DSLR 1.1.
I used Provia 100F for both film cameras. I know that Fuji Velvia is capable of resolving slightly more details, however I'm more used to the Provia and it's easier for my scanner to handle.
Remember that I wanted to see, how the 1Ds compared to the image quality I get from normal "workflow".
The 35mm frames are scanned at 4800dpi using my Minolta Dimage Scan Multi Pro. This produces a print of approximately 13x19 inches at 360dpi.
The 6x6 frames are scanned at 3200dpi.
The 1Ds files are enlarged to match the size of the scanned film using Photoshop bicubic interpolation. Each picture is manipulated as I saw fit (levels adjustments, sharpness etc.) to produce what I found to be the best possible picture.
In other words, a bit of image processing has been made to optimize the output from each format and to simply reflect a normal workflow in which one would optimize a bit here and there. I didn't bother cleaning the scanned film from dust though.
The printouts are made on Epson Premium Glossy Photo Paper, using a standard color-profile on an Epson 1290.

Preparing the pictures for printout
In the first test, I crop out the middle part of pictures from a 35mm scan, from a 6x6 scan and from the Canon 1Ds:

35mm scan.

1Ds.

6x6 scan.

The red rectangles shows the exact crop I'm making.
My intention is to produce a 13x19 inch edge to edge printout at 360dpi, so the three crops are placed side by side (and upsampled if needed to 360dpi), producing a picture that looks like this:


(Note : This is NOT a picture of the actual print. See below for the print.)

To push the envelope even further, I've made a bigger enlargement on a 13x19inch print as well, by using a smaller crop of a different picture:

35mm scan.

1Ds.

6x6 scan.

This results in a 184dpi print on 13x19 inch paper. The full size print of each picture would have been approx. 25x38 inches:


(Note : This is NOT a picture of the actual print. See below for the print.)

The results
When looking at the first print from inside the camera shop, the 1Ds really stands out as the clearest and most "3 dimensional" looking picture.
It's a bit like seeing one of those extremely sharp, large format advertisements in a magazine. It's not really only a matter of high print resolution, it's also the clearness of the picture itself.
It's a bit hard to really show here, what the print looks and feels like. I've decided to simply casually capture the print by using a Canon G1 digital camera and in that way try to reproduce the exact look and feel.


35mm. f16, 1/2 sec.


Canon 1Ds. f16 1/2 sec.


Medium format. f16 1/2 sec.

I hope that it is visible here, that the 1Ds looks very, very clean and sharp, while the other two are a bit more grainy. It's not that the 35mm print is bad, but showed next to the 1Ds it looks rather grainy or "muddy".
However, when looking very carefully at the 6x6 print, it looks as though there are slightly more details in the very sharpest areas. Therefore I enlarged even further for the next print.


35mm. f8 1/60 sec.


Canon 1Ds. f8 1/100 sec.


Medium format. f8 1/125 sec.

In this example the enlargement seems to have become too much for the 1Ds file. It's still very clean of course, but now it looks a bit "artificial" as well.
The Capture One software adds a bit of sharpening which is now enlarged and doesn't look very well. Perhaps a different treatment of the picture would have done it better, however, the 6x6 picture now clearly shows more details, while the 35mm picture falls behind again.

In fact the medium format example above almost looks more detailed than the actual scan:



But, here we must keep in mind, that many factors plays a role for the way we see a picture. A slightly different color rendition might increase the contrast between two colors and I might also have sharpened a bit more for the print.

Conclusion
Well, there isn't really any big surprises here, keeping in mind what I saw from the scans in the two earlier articles. Although I must say, that the clear picture the 1Ds produces (at least up to 13x19 inch) is really astonishing.
35mm is beaten in this test, with this equipment and with this treatment, while medium format (6x6) still holds a few more details which is especially visible when enlarged above 13x19 inches.

So, all in all, I'm very amazed by the Canon EOS 1Ds, but my old Rolleiflex can still keep up in many areas!

Hope you enjoyed my little, unscientific test here.

See the prints yourself
If you live in Copenhagen or maybe come by for a visit to the Danish capitol, you can see the prints presented here for yourself at the Photografica store. Ask for Martin - he will now what you are looking for.

Photografica
Skindergade 41
1159 Copenhagen K
Denmark
www.photografica.com

See map

Links
The two first articles can be found here_
• Canon 1Ds vs. film - 35mm
• Canon 1Ds vs. film - medium format

• Photografica Visit Photografica in Copenhagen
• Luminous-Landscape The first of a number of articles about the Canon 1Ds
• DPReview Read a review of the Canon 1Ds by Phil Askey
• Phase One Visit Phase One - the company behind the Capture One software.
• Norman Koren Digital cameras vs. film - don't miss this very informative site with tests and comparisons.