On Mon, 18 Nov 2002 02:27:57 GMT, Per Inge Oestmoen wrote:

>In the dark wrote:
>
>> I am interested in going for a SLR type dig camera once the images are
>> on a par with film without what appears to be a large amount
>> after-processing.
>
>The post-processing is something you cannot avoid if you want high
>quality. If the camera was to make a sharp image directly, it would
>mean that you could do no further editing and/or scaling of the image.
>This is because sharpening is a destructive process. Hence, the
>sharpest images can only be obtained by processing the image(s)
>afterwards. It is really odd that some people do not understand this.
>Often, it is said that "well, but cameras like the Sony 707 takes
>sharp pictures directly out from the camera. That is not true: a Sony
>707 fails miserably when compared to a Canon D60 or Nikon D100,
>and it is light-years away from the level of quality obtainable from
>film scanned with a high-quality drum scanner.
>
>Moreover; it is exactly the same with a film scanner. Scanned images
>need vast amounts of post-processing in order to reach their full
>potential.
>
>This image is made by scanning Fuji Superia 200 negative film with a
>Nikon LS-40 film scanner:
>
>http://www.coldsiberia.org/animal/standing_horse_no_USM_in_scanner_8bit_850.jpg
>
>This image is made by a Canon D60 digital camera:
>
>http://www.coldsiberia.org/pics/CRW_2003_RT16_800.jpg
>
>Both images were painstakingly post-processed. They are nothing
>special, I just made them for testing purposes. If your images are
>less sharp than these, you either use zoom lenses or fail to do
>post-processing properly.
>
>Please, do not believe that post-processing is not or should not be
>necessary. Every image has to be individually processed if the quality
>is to be high.

I agree with what you say - but I notice that the image at
www.coldsiberia.org/animal/standing_horse_no_USM_in_scanner_8bit_850.jpg
is a bit soft on the left side compared with the center (and
the right side - which is a bit soft at the far edge and lower
corner). I'm always surprised when people find lenses
sharp that have obvious deficiencies in alignment or
corner/edge performance...;-)