Film vs digital sensor

[jvgig]

How does film compare to a digital sensor? Will an iso400 film at 1/250sec appear the same as those settings on a digital camera? If not, how far apart are they? Do the differences vary with different films at different isos?

 

[Garbz]

Identical. That's why it's called ISO or ASA. It's an international standard.

One thing is that digital doesn't suffer from reciprocity failure so there's no need to compensate a few stops for long exposures as you need to on film.

 

[Rhubarb]

Identical. That's why it's called ISO or ASA. It's an international standard.

One thing is that digital doesn't suffer from reciprocity failure so there's no need to compensate a few stops for long exposures as you need to on film.

Well that is the idea. Many Canon DSLR's are actually 1/3 of a stop more sensitive to light than the true ISO rating.

It could well be possible that there are other sensors from other makers which are slightly off as well.

 

[Alex_B]

dynamic range of a sensor is much more limited than that of negative film. So using film gives clear advantages in contrasty scenes. if you compare digital with positive film (slides), the difference is less pronounced, but positive film still wins.

and also digital noise looks quite different from film grain. people tend to prefer the latter in appearance. however, today's sensors produce less and less noise with each generation.