Message-Id: <199804202246.PAA59812@dns.ccit.arizona.edu> Date: Mon, 20 Apr 1998 15:44:34 -0700 From: James Otto <mailto:jotto@ROCKY.CLAREMONT.EDU> Subject: Re: Digital Camera To: mailto:IMAGELIB@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
M. Alex Jourabchi wrote:> [...]
>
> I am looking for a digital camera with highest resolution possible. =
>
> Does anyone have any ideas?
> =20
> Alex Jourabchi
> mailto:Alex@norsam.com
>
Hi Alex,
I have to ask: How much are you willing to pay? You can get some pretty hefty resolution but often at a price beyond the means of mere mortals. For the sake of answering you query I'm not going to let financial considerations censor my reply. You can then tell me if this is beyond what you are considering. There are three options I would suggest: (1) a mid-to-high-end digital camera; (2) a "digitally converted" film camera; or (3) a film camera with a film scanner.
(1): The Minolta RD-175 has an image output of 1.75 million pixels (1,528 x 1,146) making it one of the highest-resolution mid-range digital cameras, well beyond amateur cameras if not quite in the resolution statosphere of the most expensive imaging setups. Of course how you use this camera, i.e. what subjects you will be imaging, will affect the results you get, but for the sake of demonstration: when imaging an 8 1/2 x 11 in. document this camera's resolution will yield an approximate resolution of 104 dpi. The larger the item the smaller the dpi, and vice versa. "Your milage may vary." By the way, this camera retails for about $10,000.
(2): A number of companies manufacture digital scanning backs for 4 x 5 large-format (view) cameras. You would take a view camera that would normally accept 4 x 5 in. sheet film, attach one of these digital backs and, presto, you have a super-hi-res digital camera. At least one I know of has an 85.1 million pixel (8,000 x 10,640) resolution, outputting a 244 megabyte rgb file. Using the same scale as before, imaging an 8 1/2 x 11 in original will give you a relative 1000 dpi. In this case I really should address cost. Are you sitting down? You'd better be: this back *alone* costs $29,000. Add on the cost of the 4 x 5 camera, lighting, and tripod or copy stand, and you could be looking at a $35,000 investment. Now there are less expensive (and lower res) versions of this technology but you did ask for a digital camera with the highest resolution possible.
(3): Another option you might consider: shoot your images on film and then digitize them. It could be a lot cheaper and you could get more than adequate results. Let's say you get a reasonably-priced 4 x 5 view camera--not as big as a 5 x 7 or an 8 x 10 but with higher-quality image production than any roll film camera--along with lighting, etc. So far we're at around $6,000, more or less ($3,500 if you don't need lighting equipment). Now you have three options. (a) Have you images printed and run the prints through a good flatbed scanner; you could end up with images of 2400 dpi or better, possibly much better. (b) You could buy a multi-format slide scanner (Nikon and Polaroid make them, just to give two examples) costing around $10,000 which would give you images of 1000 to 2000 dpi. at around 16 million pixels or higher. Or (c) you could purchase a film adapter that would work with a flatbed scanner--the results may not be quite as good as a film scanner made specifically for the purpose of digitizing negatives and transparencies but the cost will be much less than option (b).
In short, you could spend as much as $16,000 doing it this way. Or, by substituting a 35 mm camera for that 4 x 5, you could spend as little as $2,000 or less--and still have 10.1 million pixel images to work with. That may not be as good resolution as option (2) but it's still a lot better than option (1). Then again, you will have to always purchase film to do your projects. This too could run into real money in the long term depending on the volume of imaging you anticipate doing.
Hope this helps.
--James A. Otto Digital Projects Specialist / ERes Manager The Libraries of The Claremont Colleges 800 Dartmouth Claremont, CA 91711 (909) 607-7530 (Special Collections) mailto:jotto@rocky.claremont.edu
Sharp winter melts with Spring's delicious birth; The ships glide down on rollers to the sea; The herds forsake their stalls, the hind his hearth; No more with hoar frost gleams the whitened lea. --Horace, Ode: Book I, No. 4. (tr. John Charles Baring)