Ok First of all, I'm not trying to start a flame war or debate. I'm seeking advice and share my experience. I shoot some of film and digital, but I started (or restarted) photography with digital, and then tried going back to film (slides) for my u/w photography. When I shoot film, I shoot with slides usually velvia or provia and I shoot with an EOS 5 on land, or a Nikonos V underwater. The Nikonos lens I have (15mm) is supposed to be top-of-the-line for U/W photography.
But when I compare my film and digital photos, the digital photos tend to be sharper, but the colours are not as saturated. I have a minolta dual scan III and have tried scanning some of my slides, both macro and wide, shot with the Nikonos V, the digital ones (underwater) are shot with a 10D and 100mm macro F2.8 lens. Admittedly the 100mm is a difficult lens to beat, but I thought that I would get sharper better, more saturated photos with via the film/scanning process. It turns out that my digital photos are sharper. I blow some up to A2 and A1 size (printed at Grafitti in Adelphi) and they are superb. I've printed some pictures from the slides, 8R size from Ruby, (they scan the slides and prints the scans) and they are all right, but not as good as those shot with the 10D. This conforms with my own attempts to scan the slides on my minolta scanner.
Can anyone suggest a way to get better results (scanned as well as blown up) from film? Be it taking the photos to a different developer, changing the settings on my scanner, or perhaps changing the technique I am using when I shoot film? I don't have a loupe, but I have a small hand-held viewer that you hold up to the light. The slides look pretty sharp when I look through it, but when scanned, the sharpness seems to be lacking, even after applying USM.
But when I compare my film and digital photos, the digital photos tend to be sharper, but the colours are not as saturated. I have a minolta dual scan III and have tried scanning some of my slides, both macro and wide, shot with the Nikonos V, the digital ones (underwater) are shot with a 10D and 100mm macro F2.8 lens. Admittedly the 100mm is a difficult lens to beat, but I thought that I would get sharper better, more saturated photos with via the film/scanning process. It turns out that my digital photos are sharper. I blow some up to A2 and A1 size (printed at Grafitti in Adelphi) and they are superb. I've printed some pictures from the slides, 8R size from Ruby, (they scan the slides and prints the scans) and they are all right, but not as good as those shot with the 10D. This conforms with my own attempts to scan the slides on my minolta scanner.
Can anyone suggest a way to get better results (scanned as well as blown up) from film? Be it taking the photos to a different developer, changing the settings on my scanner, or perhaps changing the technique I am using when I shoot film? I don't have a loupe, but I have a small hand-held viewer that you hold up to the light. The slides look pretty sharp when I look through it, but when scanned, the sharpness seems to be lacking, even after applying USM.