The Film Photography Handbook

2

Analog or Digital?

People are always quick to make comparisons. In particular, the question, “How many megapixels does that camera have?” comes up a lot.

This question is not so easy to answer. There is no straightforward conversion from film to digital sensor in terms of megapixels. There are simply too many differences between the two worlds. Even if we use the smallest light-sensitive units to make a comparison, i.e. the digital pixel and the light-sensitive grain of film, we won’t get far. Should we perhaps talk about the individual silver halide particle, instead of a grain? Let’s take a closer look at individual aspects of the different ...